Jacques Brel may not exactly be alive and well and living in Paris, but he is still one of our favorite French-language singers of all time.
Brel was a Belgian songwriter and performer whose uniquely insightful, highly literate, simultaneously refined and passionate compositions made him an international star in the ’50s and ’60s. Brel sang mainly in French throughout his career, and he was most popular in France and in French-speaking parts of the world, but musicians from many countries translated and reinterpreted his songs. Brel grew weary of performing music and retired from the concert circuit in 1967 to focus on making films. He did appear in the film version of the 1969 Off-Broadway review Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, which features English-language versions of nearly 30 of his songs. Brel pulled back from his film work in the early ’70s when he fell ill with lung cancer. Brel spent the last few years of his life sailing around the world on a yacht and living with his wife in the Marquesas Islands.
