René Joly

Born in Calais on October 7, 1946, singer-songwriter René Joly is best known for his hit Chimène. As a teenager, he discovered rock music by listening to the English pirate radio station Radio Caroline, and bought a drum kit to play in the groups Les Dauphins and Les Costers, then Les Masters (1965-1968), when he moved to Paris after graduating from the École des Beaux-Arts in Calais. He taught himself guitar and piano to compose and play his own songs. Signed to the Pathé-Marconi label in 1969, he scored a hit with his second single, the love song "Chimène", written, orchestrated and produced by Gérard Manset. Included on his first untitled album, released in 1970, the hit was followed by other landmark tracks inspired by progressive rock and baroque pop, such as "Princesse", "Démons et merveilles", "Un Vénitien anonyme " and "La Cour du roi musicien", a musically literal French adaptation of "In the Court of the Crimson King" by the British band King Crimson. In 1973, "La Châtelaine" also received radio airplay, before the album L'Enfant Qui de Temps en Temps Ne Voulait Plus Être un Enfant (1976), written by Étienne Roda-Gil and orchestrated by Gabriel Yared. Selected for an audition for Michel Berger's musical Starmania, René Joly plays the role of evangelist Roger-Roger at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, and performs his own composition, "Starmania (L'Air de l'extraterrestre)", which is replaced by "SOS d'un Terrien en détresse" on subsequent editions. In 1981, the album Entre Chien et Loup saw René Joly surround himself with studio musicians and his wife Corinne Sinclair, writing under the name Sarah Soskine and singing backing vocals. In 1983, his pop-rock successor Saravah was partly written by Didier Barbelivien. With few concerts and press interviews, the singer was somewhat forgotten for several years, until the album Mon Royaume de Cailloux (1998). He returned in 2010 with the song "D'où vient-il?", then in 2015 with the album Comme un Charme.

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