Marcel Amont

Real name Marcel Jean-Pierre Balthazar Miramon, the successful singer Marcel Amont, whose career spanned seventy years, was born in Bordeaux on April 1, 1929. He moved to Paris in 1950, performing in cabarets and opening for Philippe Clay. A singer and fantasist, a stage performer noted for his acrobatics, he had his first success in 1956 with the song "Escamillo", and was chosen by Edith Piaf for a five-week curtain-raiser at the Olympia. Revealed to the general public and honored by the Académie Charles-Cros, he appeared in La Mariée est trop belle (1956), and went on to score numerous hits with the songs "Julie " (1957), "Tout doux, tout doucement" (1958) and, above all, "Bleu, blanc, blond" (1959), an adaptation of the American song "True, True Happiness" by Johnny Tillotson. The early 1960s were just as glorious, with the hits "Les Bleuets d'azur " (1960) and "Dans le cœur de ma blonde " (1961). In 1962, the humorous, good-humored singer was a triumph at Bobino, where he remained on the bill for over three months, performing over a hundred shows. Following in the footsteps of other famous songwriters, Charles Aznavour wrote him "Un Mexicain", which topped the charts for several weeks, and then "Moi, le clown". Back at the Olympia for five weeks in 1965, Marcel Amont hosted the first color program on French television, Amont Tour (October 1, 1967), and presented another major show at the Olympia in 1970. He also performed abroad, notably in Japan, and enjoyed his last three major hits of the decade: "L'Amour ça fait passer le temps" (1971), "Bleu, blanc, rouge... et des frites" (1974) and "Le Chapeau de Mireille " (1975), written for him by Georges Brassens. After hosting the TV show Toutankhamont in 1974 and starring in the musical Pourquoi Tu Chanterais Pas? at the Bouffes-Parisiens, the artist's popularity waned at the start of the following decade, when he came 4th in the selection for the Eurovision Song Contest. He recorded an album in Béarnais in 1989 and published his autobiography, Une Chanson, qu'y a-t-il à l'intérieur d'une chanson? in 1995. In 2006, he released the jazz-oriented album Décalage Horaire, featuring Agnès Jaoui and Gérard Darmon. Invited by Alderbert on the album Enfantillages (2008), his last recording Par-Dessus l'Épaule, was released in 2018 between the Âge tendre tour , the idol tour and his 90th birthday party at the Alhambra in Paris on April 2, 2019. On March 8, 2023, Marcel Amont died at the age of 93.

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