Music hall star known for his many hits like Blue, white, blonde, singer Marcel Amont died on Wednesday March 8 at the age of 93, according to a press release from his family sent to Agence France-Presse. The leaping artist and whimsical showman, with a 75-year career, died at his home in Saint-Cloud, near Paris, said the same source.
Born Marcel Balthazar Miramon on 1is April 1929 in Bordeaux, he was the only son of Modeste Miramon and Romélie Lamazou. His parents from Béarn, “domestic immigrants” had left the Aspe valley to become a railway employee and nurse’s aide.
Athlete, teaser, very popular with his classmates, student Miramon initially set his sights on becoming a gymnastics teacher or an actor following his baccalaureate. He chooses the theatre. Enrolled at the Bordeaux Conservatory of Dramatic Arts, he plays small roles on stage while performing with a singing tour in the halls of the region.
His notoriety explodes
He shortens his surname, becomes Amont for “to make it more chic”, and went to Paris in 1951 where he decided to try his luck. He scoured the small halls there, met Jacques Brel at the Patachou cabaret, met Aznavour (“Between the two of us, the current passes immediately”) and Brassens (“He called me counfle, asshole, what. “). With these three artists, he binds an unfailing friendship.
He ended up being spotted in 1953 by Jean Nohain, who recruited him into his troupe and regularly featured him in his television program “36 candles”. But in 1954, the singer fell seriously ill and left to be treated in a sanatorium. He is replaced by a beginner, Fernand Raynaud.
In 1956, having become the revelation of the year, he recorded a disc in public, in the company of Juliette Gréco and Serge Gainsbourg.
Back, the year 1956 made him a star. He went to the Alhambra, then was hired at the Olympia as a curtain raiser for Edith Piaf. During these five weeks, his notoriety exploded. He then goes on every day in three different places in the capital. He continues to Bobino, the large music hall on the left bank. Having become the revelation of the year, he recorded a disc in public, in the company of Juliette Gréco and Serge Gainsbourg, crowned by the Grand Prix of the Charles-Cros Academy.
Success also opened the doors of the cinema to him, starting in 1957, alongside Brigitte Bardot, in the role of a reporter-photographer in The bride was too beautiful, by Pierre Gaspard-Huit. In 1961, Very gently very gently is his first big hit. In 1962, blue white blondeThen The Mexicansong written by Charles Aznavour, are huge successes.
Claude Nougaro composed several titles for him, and Marcel Amont recorded a 45-rpm in the Béarn language in 1962, to please his parents. “I am a French-speaking singer, but Béarnais is the language that speaks to my heart. » Passionate regarding aviation, he then passed his pilot’s license to fly from town to town during his tours of France.
“Old fashioned in my own country”
A pioneer in France, he innovated in 1965 on the stage of the Olympia by having dancers evolve around him for the first time. From 1970, he added stuntmen and giant screens to his show. 1is October 1967, under the leadership of director Jean-Christophe Averty, he hosted one of the very first color television programs, “Amont Tour”. He continued this television adventure with the show “Tutankhamont” in 1974.
At the bottom of the wave following the failure in 1975 of his musical Why don’t you singhis lifelong friend, Georges Brassens, offered him the song Mireille’s Hat. It is a success. At the end of the 1970s, he surrounded himself with young composers like Alain Souchon, Maxime Le Forestier, Julien Clerc, but success was no longer there. “I found myself old-fashioned in my own country. But I continued to sing in the back rooms of bistros, the villages. And abroad where I was always asked. »
He then toured Japan, the Soviet Union and Europe, singing in seven languages, including Béarn, to which he devoted a few records. Marcel Amont also launched into writing, with the publication of a first book A song, what’s inside a song? (Threshold, 1994).
This crossing of the musical desert ended in 2006 with the release of a jazz record, Jet lag, sprinkled with duets with notably Didier Lockwood and Agnès Jaoui. A Critical Success. He returned to L’Olympia, nearly fifty years following his first visit, then, between 2008 and 2010, participated with former glories of French song in the “Tender Age” tour.
Continuing to write, he also released in 2018, at almost 90 years old, a new album, Over the shoulderwhere he takes up his successes in duet with some of his authors, including Charles Aznavour, Alain Souchon, Francis Cabrel… This eternally hyperactive person continues his tours, he who likes to say: “If I don’t move, I die. »
- Marcel Amont in a few dates
1is avril 1929 Born in Bordeaux.
1956 Opening act for Edith Piaf at the Olympia.
1962 Song “The Mexican”.
1975 Song “The Hat of Mireille”.
2018 Release of the disc “Over the shoulder”.
8 mars 2023 Died at 93.