All the singers are called Michel (France 3): why are so many French singers called Michel?

Originally, an observation: between 1934 and 1955, Michel was the second most given male first name in France, after Jean. 1947, a record year, saw the birth of 32,583 Michel, including Jonasz (recently gone incognito on TF1 television news), Sardou (who had just given his fans a nice surprise) and Berger (who had a brutal breakup with Véronique Sanson). Fugain, Polnareff and Delpech preceded them. But what do these favorite French singers tell us? This is what the documentary tries to explain All the singers are called Michelto discover on France 3 Saturday April 22, 2023 at 9:10 p.m. and that Tele-Leisure was able to see before broadcast. Special overview Michel!

Early generation

If Jonasz waits until 1974 to have a success with Tell me, he started six years earlier. Fugain, he composed for Sardou before exploding in 1971, at the age of 29, with the Big Bazar. Polnareff was 21 when he won with The doll that says noSardou just 20 when he wrote the magnificent Petitand Delpech barely 19 when his first classic came out: At Laurette’s. It is however Berger the most precocious: at 16, he sings, on TV, Chamomile. A title more yé-yé than personal but which allows him to appear, in 1966, on the famous photo of Hi buddies, taken by Jean-Marie Périer.

The race for the charts

Jonasz got a hit in 1985 with the album united to united (and the song The Jazz Box), sold 703,900 copies. King of singles in the 1970s, Delpech broke records with For a flirt et The Divorced, each of which sold more than 850,000 45s in France alone. If Polnareff and Fugain are equal with 10 million records sold since their debut, Berger, associated with France Gall, totals 20 million. However, the Michel record holder would be Sardou, with 100 million records sold announced (but only 19.475 million certified).

The facets of an era

Equal to the best Anglo-Saxon melodists, Polnareff broke the codes of masculinity with his androgynous look and caused a scandal by posing, bare buttocks, on the poster for his 1972 show. Provocative in another register, and effective lyricist, Sardou sings in reaction to the spirit of May-68, Ricans To I am for, which earned him the name of a fascist. More tender, Delpech radiographs his time by describing, the first, the burn-out with That Monday and by contributing, with The Divorced, to the adoption of the law on divorce by mutual consent. If Jonasz is the prince of nostalgia and Fugain a solar king, the most complete remains Berger, who wrote and composed with brilliant evidence, especially rock opera starmania, which announces the advent of our society.