Philippe Durand de la Villejegu du Fresnay, alias Philippe Lavil, was born on September 26 1947 in Fort-de-France, Martinique. His parents are white Antilles citizens, or "béké" who have resided in the Island of Martinique since 1750. His father runs a banana plantation in their home village of François.

Philippe moved to metropolitan France in 1960 to complete his schooling. Until then, he had heard only Caribbean music from the Antilles islands. Now it was rock music, Johnny Hallyday and the Beatles. In his boarding school at Dieulefit in southern France, he was taught to sing by his English teacher, who was none other than Graeme Allwright. So he bought himself a guitar and dreamed of becoming a singer. His parents were not too keen on this idea, and so Philippe completed three years in a business school, which did not satisfy him.

During his studies, Lavil recorded his first single in 1969, called "A la califourchon". His dashing tall, dark and handsome looks immediately placed him in the romantic song category, which the record companies took to be a plus. Another single came out the following year, "Avec les filles, je ne sais pas", to music by Billy Bridge. This was followed by an album in similar vein, bolstering the heartthrob image of a singer the public imagined had a string of girlfriends. After a number of singles and an album, and a lot of fun, Philippe Lavil's career slumped slightly around 1974. He decided to distance himself from music a little, although he nevertheless performed with Philippe Chatel at Fort de France in Martinique, and with Julien Clerc at the Olympia, Paris, in 1975.

A less prosperous period followed: after an almost-hit, "Hey Mister Lee" in 1976, Philippe Lavil brought out an album in 1978 entitled "Février", with lyrics by Didier Barbelivien and Alain Souchon. Unfortunately, this was not the hoped-for hit. In the early eighties, Philippe Lavil left WEA, his recording company until then, and resorted to producing his own singles. With failure looming before him, he began to envisage returning to Martinique and changing careers. He staked everything on a last single written with Didier Barbelivien, "Il tape sur des bambous", which came out in 1982 and quickly became the hit of the summer. It sold some 1.5 million copies.

Other recordings followed: "Rio" and "San Miguel". In early 1983, a six-track album was marketed, with some of his earlier songs and latest hits. This year saw Philippe Lavil's artistic renaissance, and to top it he married Elisabeth, a former model.

Continuing in the "Sea, sand and sun" vein, he brought out a new hit, again with lyrics by Didier Barbelivien, called "Elle préfère l'amour en mer". He seemed to have hit on the right formula, for his 1986 album, "Nonchalances", was also well received: it was a true reflection of the artist's style. "Elle tricote des pulls pour personne", and "La Femme qui dit jamais je t'aime", were the two singles taken from this album. The culture and music of the Antilles are well represented in the artist's work. In 1987, he brought out a duet with Jocelyne Beroard, the singer in Kassav, called "Kolé Séré", which was a huge hit and was the first record in the French hit parade to be sung half in Creole.

Once in his forties, Philippe Lavil, whose father died in 1989, began to show the desire to express his own ideas and feelings. He wrote a number of the songs in the new album which came out in 1990, called "De Bretagne ou d'ailleurs'. This new role as a songwriter allowed him to honour his father and speak of his love for his own son, born in 1988. This did not prevent him from bringing out another single, "Si Marianne était black", which was a great success.

While he has accentuated his laid-back attitude, Lavil's singing style has moved steadily towards the dandy/crooner image, with slightly nostalgic overtones, as shown in his 1992 album "Y'a plus d'hiver". His audiences, used to serviceable pop songs, have not always found his new songs to their liking, and have fallen off somewhat. There are, however, a few good songs, among which that by Sam Brewski, alias Jean-Jacques Goldman "Comme un tout p'tit bébé", and "Touché en vol", a duet with the Antilles singer Edith Lefel.

In 1994, Philippe Lavil decided to re-vamp his old songs with a few new ones written by Boris Bergman and Pierre Grillet, put to music by a new team. The combination produced a new album, "Lavil déménage", in which the new arrangements added a more intimate tone to hits like "Elle préfère l'amour en mer" or "Il tape sur des bambous". Lavil's smooth new style was aired in a concert at the Opus Café, Paris, in May 1994.

Three years were to pass before his public heard Philippe Lavil on the radios again. After a serious accident on the ski slopes in January 1997, it was only at the end of that year that "Ailleurs, c'est toujours l'idéal" came out. The years between the singer's fortieth and fiftieth birthdays have no doubt changed him, and he himself recognises the autobiographical side to this work, which was written in association with Elisabeth Anaïs (who also writes for Catherine Lara, Maurane etc.). Two singles were drawn from the album: the first, eponymous, in 1998, and the other, "Admirablement de passage", in 1999.

While Philippe Lavil's career has had its ups and downs, it has nevertheless been studded with a number of hits which have made him famous. It is never easy to change a winning formula, and a singer is not necessarily on the same wavelength as his audience, even at the times when he seems most in harmony with himself.

After staying away from the musical front for a three-year period of time, Lavil stepped back into the spotlight with a thirteen-track album entitled "Retour à la case créole" (Back to a Creole Start). Most of the songs on the album were penned by Elisabeth Anaïs and composed by Dominique Fillon, Michel Héron and Philippe Lavil himself. The final result was a quite harmonious one, amounting to a very pleasant nostalgic record.

Over the next three years, Philippe Lavil kept a relatively low profile on the music scene. The singer re-emerged on television, in fact, in June 2006, appearing in an acting role in the summer serial "Laura" on the privately-owned TV channel M6.

This temporary foray into acting did not stop Lavil from preparing material for a new album on which he worked in close collaboration with songwriter and composer David McNeil and the lyricist Elisabeth Anaïs. His new album, released in October 2007, was called "Calypso" - a tribute to the music from Trinidad and Tobago that he had listened to living in Martinique.

Lavil recruited musicians directly from Trinidad and Tobago to record his new album, infusing each and every track on the album with a lilting calypso beat. Special guest contributors David Hallyday and Gérard Manset each composed a track for Lavil, too, (namely "Big Money" and "La Cigale et la Fourmi"). Most of the tracks on Lavil's new album tapped into a light, upbeat vein. However, on "Plus de postes, plus d'hôpitaux" (No more post offices, no more hospitals), the singer touched on more topical subject matter, wryly evoking the future of France if the country's West Indian population all decided to return home. Lavil thus paid tribute, in his own way, to the origins of calypso (which had once helped slaves sing their troubles away).

Philippe Lavil returned to the live circuit after a long five-year absence at the beginning of 2008, performing three concert dates in Paris at L'Européen (17, 18 & 19 January).

January 2008