Daniel Balavoine was born on February 5th 1952 in Alençon in Normandy. He grew up in Bordeaux, Biarritz and Dax and had just turned sixteen during at the outbreak of the May 1968 events. He took an active part in the student revolt in the town of Pau where his family then lived. With his friends, he co-wrote a pamphlet on school reform and even thought about becoming a député (a member of parliament). However he became disillusioned when the student movement ran out of steam and soon abandoned this project.  

The following year, he sang with several bands, including Memphis, Shade's and Reveil, with whom he sang in Paris in 1970. The group, however, met with limited success and when it broke up Balavoine joined another band, Présence, and gained valuable experience singing at countless village dances in the provinces.  

The two singles Présence recorded on the Vogue label went unnoticed and the band finally broke up. In 72, Balavoine embarked on a solo career. His first single was a flop but the following year he successfully auditioned with his brother Guy for a part as a chorus singer in a new musical comedy," La Révolution Française" , to be staged at the Palais des Sports in Paris. Despite its star cast, which included the Charlots, the Martin Circus and and the singer Antoine, the show - whose songs were written by Claude-Michel Schönberg - wasn't a box office success.  

In 1974 Balavoine became Patrick Juvet's backing singer (singing the highest notes for him). Juvet, who was extremely popular on the French music scene at the time, was in the middle of preparing a new album, "Chrysalide". Juvet would give his new backing singer a vital break by allowing Balavoine to insert a song of his own, "Couleur d'automne", on the album. 

When Léo Missir, artistic director of Barclay records heard the track, he offered Balavoine a recording contract. In 75, he released "De vous à elle en passant par moi". As the title suggests, the album's main theme was a universal one - women - but it met with only limited success. Léo Missir's enthousiasm, however, remained undampened and he continued to support his protégé.  

In 77, following a trip to Eastern Europe, Daniel Balavoine brought out his second album, "Le Aventures de Simon et Gunther...Stein". The record's main theme was the Berlin Wall and its consequences, which had made a deep impression on the singer, but it also contained the very promising title, "Lady Marlène". However, yet again, the release went almost unnoticed. 

His career only really took off when Michel Berger offered him the role of Johnny Rockfort for the studio recording of "Starmania", the rock opera he had composed and for which Luc Plamondon had written the libretto. The role of a youth rebelling against authority suited him down to the ground. The following year Starmania was staged at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, where Balavoine played alongside other French-speaking artists of his generation such as France Gall, Diane Dufresne and Fabienne Thibault. The show was a phenomenal hit, with Balavoine leaving an indelible mark on it.  

In between time, he had shut himself up in a recording studio and concocted what was to be his first hit, "Le Chanteur". For a while, the whole of France was singing the song's infectious opening line, "J'me présente, je m'appelle Henri...". Another track on the album, "Lucie", also further contributed to his growing popularity.  

Back in the studios again, he recorded the album "Face amour, face amère" . The session musicians, whom he had met during Patrick Juvet's recordings, were closely involved in this project and Daniel Balavoine had no qualms about spotlighting their talents wherever appropriate.  

With four albums under his belt, Balavoine was now big enough to play at Olympia for three days at the end of January 1980, where he performed with exceptional punch and energy - his way of paying back his faithful record-buying fans.  

One event, however, was to transform him into a unique figure in French music. On March 20th 1980, he appeared on the Second Channel news alongside François Mitterrand, then Socialist candidate for the Presidency. Exacerbated by the sterile content of the debate, the singer proclaimed that "the young have given up hope, they have lost all faith in French politicians". Overnight he became the spokesman of the young generations who had had their fill of the indifference the ruling class showed towards them. Paradoxically, however, Balavoine's vehement anti-political statement transformed him into a politically militant singer and mouthpiece.  

"Un autre monde", was the title of his fifth album, which came out in 1980, and the single,"Mon fils ma bataille", went to number one in the charts. Another of the album's hit tracks was "I am not a hero!", a song Johnny Hallyday later did a cover version of.

Daniel Balavoine sang again at Olympia in Paris in March 1981, following this up with a nation-wide tour and the release of a live album came out in September.  

In 1982, he was awarded the Prix Diamant de la Chanson Française for his album "Vendeurs de larmes", recorded on the Balearic island of Ibiza."Vivre ou survivre" was the track chosen for the album's radio promotion. In June, he played at the Palais des Sports (as Johnny Hallyday had done before him), one of the largest venues in Paris at that time. His show was rock-based. More of a traditional "varieté-style" singer, Daniel Balavoine considered there was only a fictive barrier between the two genres.  

A passionate car enthousiast, Daniel Balavoine took part in the 1983 Paris-Dakar rally at the beginning of January, co-piloting a Japanese car driven by Thierry Deschamps. Unfortunately, they had to abandon due to mechanical difficulties but thanks to this he was able to discover West Africa. He returned to France impressed by what he had seen and with material for his next album, "Loin des yeux de l'occident" . The single was "Pour la femme veuve qui s'éveille". Sensitive and humanitarian, the album was not a commercial success.  

During a television programme, Sept sur Sept, on the First Channel, Balavoine launched into a virulent diatribe against certain war veterans. Despite later saying his words had been misinterpreted, he nevertheless had to suffer the negative consequences of this outburst, in particular several hostile demonstrations outside concert venues. However, this did not prevent him from performing again at the Palais des Sports from September 21st to 30th 1984, where he recorded a double live album.  

The following year, Balavoine again entered the Paris-Dakar rally, this time finishing in a respectable postion.  

In July, he took part in the Band Aid concert at Wembley in London, organised to raise funds for the struggle against the famine in Ethiopia. A similar event was organised in France at the Courneuve park to the North of Paris on October 16th 1985, featuring numerous French artists, including Balavoine.  

Following this, and as a result of his sensitivity to humanitarian problems, Balavoine and Michel Berger founded the charity organisation "Action Ecoles", to fight against hunger in Africa. Now over thirty, Balavoine had matured and wanted devote his energy to more constructive projects that reflected his humanitarian convictions.  

In 85, he brought out a new album, "Sauver l'amour". The hit single, "L'Aziza", a tribute to his partner, a Moroccan jew, was an indirect denunciation of all forms of intolerance and racism and he was personally awarded the "SOS Racisme" prize by the organisation's president, Harlem Désir.  

A long term ambition had been to get his "Water pumps for Africa" effort going, taking advantage of the extensive media coverage of the Paris-Dakar rally. In January 86, he went to Africa to supervise the delivery of the pumps, destined for villages. On January 14th, during a reconnaissance trip with the Paris-Dakar rally's director, Thierry Sabine, their helicopter was caught in a sudden sand storm and crashed into a dune. The five people aboard, including Daniel Balavoine, died.  

Today, a charity organisation carries the singer's name and continues the work begun by him. Balavoine died before he could achieve the countless other goals, both musical and humanitarian, he had set himself. His strong personality irritated some, but for his fans, his unique, high-pitched voice remains unforgettable.

In 2006, Barclay marked the twentieth anniversary of the singer's tragic death, releasing his complete recorded works as a boxed set entitled "Balavoine sans frontières." On this occasion, media reviews of Balavoine tended to focus on the humanitarian work the singer had done in his lifetime, overlooking the contribution he had made to French music.

January 2006