Gérard Lenorman, a French pop singer, maintained an active recording career that extended from the closing years of the 1960s into the final decades of the twentieth century. His strongest commercial period fell between the middle of the 1970s, when he recorded for CBS Records, and the early 1980s, when he was signed to Carrère. Born February 9, 1945, in Bénouville, Calvados, he issued his first singles in 1968, a handful of 45 rpm discs on the AZ label. From 1969 to 1970 he worked with the Festival imprint, releasing multiple singles and his initial full-length album, Gérard Lenorman (1969). In 1971 he joined CBS Records, where his popularity reached its height in the mid-decade years. His CBS contract, which continued through 1977, yielded numerous singles plus the albums Les Matins d'Hiver (1972), Quelque Chose et Moi (1974), Caroline (1975), Olympia 75 (1975), Drôles de Chansons (1976), Noëls du Monde (1976), and Au-delà des Rêves (1977). He next spent six years with Carrère, beginning in 1977 and ending in 1983, a stretch that produced further singles along with Nostalgies (1978), Boulevard de l'Océan (1979), Olympia 79 (1979), La Clairière de l'Enfance (1980), ...D'Amour (1981), Paris sur Scène -- Palais des Congrès (1982), and Le Soleil des Tropiques (1983). By the mid-1980s his audience had declined, and new releases grew infrequent as he moved among labels in pursuit of renewed success, starting with Fière & Nippone (1985) on Ariola. Even so, France selected him to perform “Chanteur de Charme” at the 1988 Eurovision Song Contest, and he continued issuing occasional albums, among them the later effort La Raison de L'Autre (2000). Activity increased again toward the close of the 2000s, highlighted by the 2007 compilation Best of Gerard Lenorman and the 2011 studio set Duos de Mes Chansons. The latter project ended an eleven-year gap between studio recordings and included guest appearances by Florent Pagny, Tina Arena, and Patrick Fiori.
