Plastic Bertrand

Belgium's foremost export amid the first wave of punk and new wave, Plastic Bertrand embodied the stage identity of Roger François Jouret, a singer and composer whose global breakthrough arrived via the 1977 single "Ça Plane pour Moi," a gleefully absurd punk send-up that scaled charts throughout Europe and the United Kingdom while edging into the lower tier of the U.S. pop rankings. Jouret's approach relied on brisk, hook-laden melodies stripped of excess ornamentation, paired with his own laconic yet buoyant delivery—though the recorded voice sometimes belonged to another—and lyrics that wryly skewered modern trends. His strongest full-length effort remains the 1978 debut, issued in Europe as An 1 and in North America as Ça Plane pour Moi, while the 2003 anthology King of the Divan: Best of Plastic Bertrand gathers his signature tracks and listener favorites.

Roger François Jouret entered the world in Brussels, Belgium, on February 24, 1954. Rock & roll captivated him from childhood, prompting him to assemble his inaugural group, the Buffalo Scouts Band, at age nine; its members, drawn from his scouting circle, performed Rolling Stones material with Jouret handling drums and lead vocals. He later entered the Pelicans, advancing from private gatherings to club dates and seaside festivals along the Belgian and Dutch coasts. Following a stint at a pirate radio outlet, he pursued formal training and gained admission to the Royal Conservatory of Music in Brussels. By the mid-1970s he had enlisted in the protopunk outfit Hubble Bubble, supplying drums and vocals under the alias Roger Junior and appearing on their 1977 self-titled debut before departing for a solo path after manager Lou Deprijck offered an introduction. Deprijck had already fashioned a buoyant punk pastiche and sought a suitable frontman; when Jouret proved unavailable for the studio session, Deprijck supplied the vocals himself, yet Jouret was recruited as the project's visible figure, becoming, under the Plastic Bertrand moniker, the nominal star of "Ça Plane pour Moi."

Released in 1977, the track unexpectedly dominated charts across Europe and the U.K., marking only the second French-language single to reach the U.S. Pop Top 100—its American showing rendered more notable by the concurrent English-language counterpart, "Jet Boy, Jet Girl," cut by Canadian new wave singer Elton Motello. The inaugural Plastic Bertrand LP followed in 1978 as An 1 on the Continent and Ça Plane pour Moi elsewhere, succeeded by J'te Fais un Plan in 1979 and L'album in 1980. Over subsequent years Deprijck periodically asserted that he, not Jouret, supplied the lead vocals on those first three albums; after sustained denials, Jouret confirmed in a 2010 interview that the studio performances were not his, while affirming he had delivered the material convincingly onstage.

Jouret first sang in the studio on his fourth release, 1981's Plastiquez Vos Baffles, the same year a Greatest Hits collection appeared. Relocating to Milan, Italy, in 1982, he hosted a television program and starred in a widely circulated fumetti photo novel. He joined Anni-Frid Lyngstad of ABBA and Daniel Balavoine to devise ABBAcadabra, a children's musical drawn from ABBA songs, while also acting and composing for the animated feature Astérix et la Surprise de César. The dance-focused Chat Va? … Et Toi? surfaced in 1983, and in 1987 he represented Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest with "Amour Amour." After issuing Pix in 1989, he concentrated on writing and production for fellow artists, releasing one further album that decade, 1994's Suite Diagonal.

European MTV anointed him the performer most primed for a comeback in the late 1990s; the Belgian boy band Get Ready then cut a version of "Stop … Ou Encore" featuring Bertrand's guest vocals, yielding a major Belgian hit that restored his presence on television and in concert halls. Fresh material arrived with 2004's Ultraterrestre. A soft-drink campaign in Japan revived "Ça Plane pour Moi," spurring additional tours there and heightened European activity. Dandy Bandit followed in 2009, and he maintained an active schedule of performances and variety-show hosting until unveiling another studio set, L'expérience Humaine, in 2020.