Frédéric François

Famed crooner, songwriter, and chanson master Frédéric François was born Francesco Barracato on June 3, 1950 in Lercara Friddi, Sicily. The family moved to Belgium while he was a child, and that is where he pursued his passion for singing and music. He had various bands as a teenager and landed his first recording contract before he turned 20. He wrote his 1969 debut single, “Sylvie”, at which point he chose his stagename, a tribute to Chopin. He struggled to gain footing as a recording interest, which finally happened with 1971’s "Je n'ai jamais aimé comme je t'aime”. He went to Number 1 in several European countries the next year with “Je voudrais dormir près de toi”. He scored huge hits throughout the 1970s like “Laisse-moi vivre ma vie” and “Chicago”. Disco cratered his popular appeal at the turn of the decade, but he mounted a successful comeback in the mid-1980s with a triumphant debut at the fabled Olympia that helped power "Je t'aime à l'italienne" into another huge commercial success. He continued to release hit songs and albums, tour, and return regularly to the Olympia. The 90s saw the release of hits like 1993’s “Tzigane” and 1997’s “L’amour fou”, and he ended the decade performing in his hometown in Sicily for the first time in 1999. He remained a favorite into the 21st century with smashes like 2001’s “Un slow pour s’aimer and 2013’s Amor Latino. Fifty years into a storied career in which he became the third greatest selling artist in Belgium’s history, he released a new album, La Liberté d’Aimer, in 2021.

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