The success story of Autour de Lucie revolves around the group's lead singer Valérie Leulliot. Valérie, who was born in 1967, appeared almost pre-destined to launch a showbiz career, given that she was the only child of two famous French media stars. Her father, Jean-Michel Leulliot, is a well-known sports journalist on French television and her mother is a popular presenter on the radio station Europe 1. Valérie was a shy child, who enjoyed spending vast amounts of time on her own. She was competent at her school studies - although hardly enthusiastic about them - and went on to pass her 'baccalauréat' with no trouble at all. Valérie then went on to earn a living through a series of odd jobs, none of which interested her much more than her school studies. Valérie's great passion in life was music, and the young teenager would spend every moment of her free time locked away in her room, writing songs and composing music. And by 1992 Valérie had enough material to record her first demo tapes.

Valérie went on to perform her first solo concert at the Rex Club in Paris in March 1992. Alone on stage with her acoustic guitar, the young singer made a great impression on the audience assembled in the basement of the Rex. Later that year, Valérie would meet up with a talented young guitarist by the name of Olivier Durand. The pair hit it off immediately and went into a studio in September to record a demo tape together. Valérie and Olivier then went on to give their first joint concert at l'Espace Européen in October 1992. The pair's acoustic performance proved a great hit with the audience.

In March 1993 the duo expanded to become a trio, recruiting bass-player Fabrice Dumont (a.k.a. Zébu). The trio, who soon adopted the name Autour de Lucie, went on to sign a recording deal with the French independent label "Le Village Vert" in April 1993. And from that point on their career began to take off at lightning speed.

Valérie, Olivier and Fabrice soon went into the recording studio to begin work on their first album. Recorded in October 1993, most of the tracks on their début album "l'Echappée belle" were produced by Paco Rodriguez (a former member of the French rock group Gamine). The remainder were produced by the English musician Michael Head (ex-Pale Fountains) and by Autour de Lucie themselves. In December of that year, the French trio headed off to the U.K. to record a final album track in studios in Liverpool.

Before releasing Autour de Lucie's album, Le Village Vert decided to put out a trial sample of the group's work on a 3-track CD. Released in January 1994, the mini-CD - entitled "les Ciels de traîne" - included a special bonus track which was not featured on the group's album.

Meanwhile, Autour de Lucie concentrated their attention on their live career, performing their first concert together in the Belgian town of Liège in June 94. The group then shot a video to accompany their mini-CD, and "l'Accord parfait" was chosen as the first single release. The track generated a great deal of interest on the French airwaves over the summer, attracting the group a preliminary following of fans before the release of their début album, "l'Echappée belle", in November.

Three months later, Autour de Lucie underwent a major change in their line-up when Olivier Durand left the group, and was replaced by the Toulouse-born guitarist Jean-Pierre Ensuque. (Interestingly enough, although Autour de Lucie were officially marketed as a trio, the group actually had a fourth member - drummer Bruno Saunier, who had accompanied the group from the earliest days of their career).

Autour de Lucie soon went on make a name for themselves on the international music scene. Their début album "l'Echappée belle" was released in Japan in March 1995 (on the Epic label). And around the same period Autour de Lucie embarked upon their first major tour, playing 30 dates across France and Belgium. The tour culminated on 6 June 1995 with a highly successful concert in Paris at Le Divan du Monde.

Almost as soon as the applause had died down from their Divan du Monde gig, Valérie Leulliot and her group hit the road again, doing the rounds of the summer music festivals where they built up a strong following of fans. Autour de Lucie's hectic schedule looked set to continue right through the autumn of that year - but, unfortunately, the group's autumn tour had to be cancelled at the last moment owing to problems with a dishonest tour organiser. This was not enough to halt Autour de Lucie's burgeoning career, however, and by January 1996 the group were back on the road again.

Autour de Lucie were just about to settle down and start writing material for a second album when they sent a cassette of their first album to the Canadian label Nettwerk. Nettwerk were so impressed by the songs on "l'Echappée belle" that they signed a licensing deal with the French group - so from June 1996 Autour de Lucie's records were distributed throughout North America and England.

"L'Echappée belle" soon began to sell like hotcakes. Indeed, Autour de Lucie's début album sold over 15,000 copies in the U.S. in less than a year - an amazing feat rarely ever achieved by a French band! The international music press soon began showering the group with rave reviews, and before long Autour de Lucie were the most talked-about French group on the international music scene.

In the summer of 1996 Autour de Lucie locked themselves away in a studio in Brussels and began working on their new album with producer Gilles Martin. By the end of August 1996, recording work on the album "Immobile" was completed and the group flew off to England to perform a short series of gigs. "Immobile" finally arrived in French record stores in March 97, and its quirky melodic pop soon proved a major hit with music fans. Following the release of the album, Autour de Lucie turned their attention to their live career once again, performing in Paris at Le Café de la Danse (29 April) and appearing at the famous Printemps de Bourges festival later that month.

In the summer of 1997 Autour de Lucie embarked upon a major tour of the U.S. The tour got off to a difficult start, as Valérie was suffering from a few problems with her vocal chords. However, when Autour de Lucie arrived in Boston they began to get into their stride. The group's concerts proved a huge success with American music fans and the press went wild for the French band, showering them with another batch of rave reviews. Indeed, Autour de Lucie's jaunty electro pop rock proved such a hit in the U.S. that the French group were invited to perform at the Lilith Fair Festival (a famous itinerant music festival devoted to female artists).

Autour de Lucie soon went on to become major stars in the United States and began to spend an increasing amount of their time there. Valérie and co. did return to France in the autumn of 1997 to perform a brief national tour, but as soon as it finished the group headed back to the States to promote "Immobile" (which was just about to be released in North America). Autour de Lucie went on to perform a short promotional tour in the States (14 - 27 February 1998), bringing the house down when they played the Luna Lounge in New York on 24 February.

A few days after the end of Autour de Lucie's U.S. tour, drummer Bruno Saunier (who had been suffering from health problems for a while) left the group. The trio immediately auditioned for a replacement, and a new drummer by the name of Sébastien was recruited just in time for Autour de Lucie's European tour in May 1998. This tour, which included dates across France, England, Ireland and Switzerland, proved to be another major success.

In June of this year Autour de Lucie returned to the U.S. to play three major dates in New York. The group performed at the Knitting Factory (on 17 June) and their set proved to be one of the highlights of the "Fête de La Musique" festival held outside the World Trade Center (on 21 June). Two days later Autour de Lucie brought the house down when they made their second appearance at the Lilith Fair Festival. In November 1998 the group also flew out to perform in Argentina.

Autour de Lucie spent most of the following year locked away in the studio working on their new album, "Faux mouvement", which was finally recorded in the autumn and released in spring 2000. This album marked a new evolution in the group's pop style, integrating electro influences, loops and samples for the first time. Impressed by Autour de Lucie's slick new sound, Ian Caple (renowned for producing Bashung's album "Fantaisie militaire") stepped in to co-produce the album. "Faux mouvement", which proved a big hit with critics and fans alike, would help Autour de Lucie establish a real niche for themselves on the French pop scene.

2004 – The group did not return to the recording studio until 2003 to begin work. Their eponymous new album, released on 16 March 2004, was produced by Stéphane 'Alf' Briat (famous for his work with hip electro duo Air). The album featured eleven tracks in the sensitive pop style Autour de Lucie have made their own.

March 2004