Renaud

French folk-rock icon Renaud captured the essence of urban Paris life, exposing the City of Light’s shadowy side through streetwise, politically charged slang that the hip-hop generation would later adopt. Though his themes suggested otherwise, Renaud Séchan came from a middle-class upbringing. Born on May 11, 1952, in Paris’ 14th arrondissement, he was one of six children of a teacher who also wrote detective novels. A weak student with a strong anti-authoritarian bent, Renaud developed an early passion for politics and joined the historic student uprisings of May 1968. While occupying Sorbonne University for a month, he started composing his first original songs; after leaving school he took various manual jobs yet continued to chase an acting career. He spent time with a theater company that featured future stars Coluche and Miou Miou, then worked in a Paris bookstore, occasionally performing on the street for coins. Producer Paul Lederman heard Renaud and an accordionist playing on a corner and booked them for the new CafConc café-theater on the Champs Elysées. When the accordionist entered military service, Renaud performed alone, delivering an already large set of original political anthems such as “Hexagone” and “Camarade Bourgeois.” The CafConc turned him into a leftist cause célèbre, leading to his 1975 debut LP, Amoureux de Paname, which reflected the disillusionment and angst of twentysomethings.

Tracks such as “Société Tu M’auras Pas” established Renaud as the voice of Paname, the Parisian term for the suburbs, yet he still hoped to act; he spent most of 1977 co-starring in Martin Lamotte’s play Le Secret de Zonga. His second album, Laisse Béton, reached stores in 1978; its title track reached number one on the French pop charts, launching him to national fame and spreading Verlan, the coded slang used in the lyrics. On the 1979 follow-up Ma Gonzesse, Renaud turned toward more personal and intimate subjects, another major success that included a sold-out week at Paris’ Théâtre de l’Hôtel de Ville. Powered by the hits “Dans Mon HLM” and “Les Aventures de Gérard Lambert,” 1980’s Marche à l’Ombre also sold strongly; Renaud headlined the Bobino Theatre for the entire month of March, performances that produced the live albums Renaud à Bobino and Le P’tit Bal du Samedi Soir. Critics nevertheless questioned how a multi-millionaire nearing thirty could sing about urban despair, youthful rebellion, and economic hardship. Renaud answered by looking inward on 1981’s Le Retour de Gérard Lambert, whose sharply drawn stories ranged across human behavior and emotion and featured the widely praised anti-drug song “La Blanche.”

He continued this evolution on 1983’s Dès Que le Vent Soufflera, his most tender and introspective work to that point. Largely abandoning his signature folk-rock sound for mainstream French pop, the album became his biggest seller. In 1985 Renaud established the Ethiopian famine relief group Chanteurs Pour l’Ethiopie and, with Franck Langolff, wrote the all-star benefit single of the same name that sold more than a million copies. Later that year he released the solo LP Mistral Gagnant, recorded in the United States with producer Jean-Philippe Goude. The June 1986 motorcycle accident that killed his longtime friend, the anti-establishment comedian Coluche, inspired the 1988 album Putain de Camion. Though sales were modest, the record earned strong reviews and brought Renaud the Ville de Paris prize, the Ministère de la Culture Prize, and the SACEM Award. Political concerns resurfaced on 1991’s Marchand de Cailloux, shaped by the Gulf War and the conflict in Northern Ireland. That year Renaud also appeared in Claude Berri’s film adaptation of Emile Zola’s Germinal; while shooting in northern France he began work on Cante el’ Nord, a 1993 album highlighting the region’s traditional music. By contrast, 1995’s A la Bell de Mai drew inspiration from Marseille and paid tribute to rebel figures Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata, and Pancho Villa.

Renaud honored his spiritual predecessor George Brassens on 1996’s Renaud Chante Brassens, covering twenty-three of the French icon’s songs and calling him “a poet-rebel against all institutions.” Although the album was well received, Renaud’s personal life soon collapsed: he separated from his wife of nearly two decades, suffered a nervous breakdown, and struggled with alcohol. He played shows in Germany and Ireland in 1997 but otherwise stayed off the road until late 1999, when he toured small French venues with pianist Alain Lantry and guitarist Jean-Pierre Buccolo. Planned for three months, the tour ran into the following summer and was followed in early 2001 by a two-week trip through Quebec. That same year he received a lifetime achievement award at the Victoires de la Musique. Hexagone 2001, a set of remixes by contemporary hip-hop artists, also appeared. In mid-2002 Renaud returned with Boucan d’Enfer, his first new material in seven years. The candid account of his battles with depression and drinking sold nearly 500,000 copies in its first week. A 170-date sold-out tour followed; an April 2003 concert at the Lille Zenith was captured on the live album Tournée d’Enfer. In early 2005 Renaud produced singer Romane Serda’s debut LP; the pair married that August. At year’s end he published the children’s book Le Petit Oiseau Qui Chantait Faux. With 2006’s Rouge Sang he revived the protest spirit of his earlier work, attacking both right-wing extremists and bourgeois bohemians. Three years later he issued Molly Malone: Balade Irlandaise, a project he had planned nearly twenty years earlier. The collection of traditional Irish songs, translated into French and recorded in Dublin, received mixed reviews because of Renaud’s occasional Irish accent yet reached number one in France and Belgium and number two in Switzerland. It remained his final studio album for seven years.

Renaud and Serda divorced in 2011 amid his return to alcoholism and inactivity. The compilation Rarities appeared in 2013, and the French government named him Commandeur des Arts et Lettres. In 2014 fifteen artists, among them Carla Bruni, Benjamin Biolay, Cœur de Pirate, and Nicola Sirkis, recorded the two-volume tribute La Bande à Renaud; the first volume arrived in June, the second in October. A year later Didier Varrod’s documentary Renaud, On T’a Dans la Peau, begun in 2002, premiered on France 3 to wide acclaim. After announcing renewed sobriety, Renaud finished new songs. He posted the single “Toujours Debout” on his website in January 2016 and followed it with “J’ai Embrassé un Flic”; both topped the charts. The full-length album Renaud appeared in April, accompanied by the singles “J’ai Embrassé un Flic” and “Les Mots,” all three reaching number one in France. By June the recording had been certified Diamond for sales exceeding half a million units.