Daniel Guichard

Author and performer of hits such as "La Tendresse" and "Mon vieux", Daniel Guichard was born in Paris on November 21, 1948. The son of a Breton worker and a mother of Polish, Russian and Ukrainian descent, he lost his father at the age of fifteen and left high school to work. Attracted to chanson d'auteur, he began composing and performing in Parisian cabarets, where his glibness did not go unnoticed. Signed by Barclay, he recorded several EPs and, in 1969, a debut album. In 1972 came the sudden and massive success of the songs "La Tendresse", written by Patricia Carli, and "Faut pas pleurer comme ça", composed by Christophe, which took him to the top of the charts and the Olympia. Two years later, Daniel Guichard added Jean Ferrat's "Mon vieux" to his repertoire, adapting the lyrics. His version, approved and then disapproved by its author Michèle Senlis, was also widely acclaimed, and cemented the singer's career as he paid tribute to his role models Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet and Maurice Chevalier on several albums. Back on the Olympia bill in 1975 and 1976, Daniel Guichard created his own label, Kuklos, and recorded an annual album in a realistic, popular vein, in which sentiments of love rub shoulders with poetic or committed lyrics, such as "Chanson pour Anna ", a tribute to Anne Frank, and "Le Gitan" (1983). When radio frequencies opened up, he set up his own associative station, Radio Bocal, with volunteer staff. Attached to his independence, outside the variety circuit, he meets his public regularly at the Olympia in Paris, in 1991 for the release of the album Retour, then two years later to promote the compilation D'Amour et d'Émotion, between tours where he criss-crosses France in a camper van. After twenty years without new material, the album Notre Histoire was released in 2012, accompanied by performances at the Olympia, a venue he returned to in 2018. The Si C'Était à Refaire tour takes place in 2023.