Gilles Servat

Gilles Servat, a French performer working across acting, poetry, and songwriting, rose to prominence as one of the strongest public defenders of the Breton language after absorbing the music of Alan Stivell and Glenmor. He entered the world in Tarbes in 1945 and first trained in sculpture during his college years. A visit to the Isle of Groix convinced him to abandon his civil-service post and devote himself to defending Breton cultural traditions. After issuing his debut La Blanche Hermine in 1972, Servat sustained a rapid pace of work that continued into the early 1980s, producing roughly one album each year. Standouts from that period include the widely praised La Liberte Brille dans la Nuit, composed as a tribute to the late Breton poet Rene-Guy Cadou, and the concert set Gilles Servat en Public. In the 1990s he returned to the spotlight by joining Dan Ar Bras’ Celtic ensemble L’Heritage des Celtes, issuing the protest record Touche Pas à la Blanche Hermine after the French National Front began featuring his Brittany anthem at rallies, and acknowledging Irish music on the 1996 album Sur les Quais de Dublin. Throughout the 2000s he added further volumes to his series of novels drawn from Celtic mythology, accepted l’Ordre de l’Hermine for his service to Breton society, and, four decades after his breakthrough, delivered his nineteenth studio album Ailes et Îles in 2011.