Who is Jacques Brel that Google honors?

Jacques Romain Georges Brel (April 8, 1929 – October 9, 1978) was a Belgian artist and poet composed in French. Today's Google Doodle celebrates his birthday.

Jacques Brel was born in Schaarbeek, Belgium. From his high school days, he was very interested in acting. In 1951 Jacques Brel got married and had a daughter. From 1952, he began to compose songs for prom.

In 1953, the first record was released. In 1953 Jacques Brel went to Paris at the invitation of Jacques Canneti, who appreciated Brel's talent through the songs he composed. In 1955, both his wife and daughter moved in with Brel in Paris.

Google Doodle changed to honor Jacques Brel.

In 1956 Jacques Brel began collaborating with the artists Gérard Jouannest and Francois Rauber, performing in concerts. Since 1958, he has regularly performed in the most prestigious theaters of Paris. In 1966, Jacques Brel decided to leave the stage. On May 16, 1967, he held a farewell concert.

Immortal songs like: Amsterdam, La chanson des vieux amants, Quand on a que l'amour, Ne me quitte pas (If you go away) because there are hundreds, even thousands of versions in many languages. (the case of If you go away), so the melody seems to be easy to sing, but it is not easy at all. How to find a new presentation or at least express it in a different way, when so many previous artists have done it.

At this point, it can be considered that the performance of artists who come from or are inspired by jazz music has been successful. Singer Zaz has a knack for singing fast, she breathes life into her repertoire (Bruxelles) when she chooses to harmonize with jazz skiffle (a genre dating back to the 1950s, combining jazz with music. folk) with the feature of always using everyday objects to turn into arbitrary "instruments", creating sounds different from traditional musical instruments.

And Thomas Dutronc son of Françoise Hardy & Jacques Dutronc loyal to the nomadic music has deliberately slowed down the rhythm of the song (Vesoul) to interweave a lot of breaking notes. His version considers that to be somewhat better than Maurane's song.

In French music lovers, almost everyone knows "Amsterdam" , a famous song by Brel, with a melody inspired by "Greensleeves", a traditional English folk song famous since 1580 and popular. for centuries. In partnership with Diggers Factory, France's INA Audio and Video Archive. An unpopular version of this was released on 45-round Maxi vinyl on April 13. , also known as Record Store Day in French as Disquaire Day, is mainly for collectors of vinyl records.

Jacques Brel died in Bobigny, a suburb of Paris after a long illness, and was buried on the island of Marquesas.

The most famous version of "Amsterdam" was first performed by Jacques Brel on October 16, 1964 at the Olympia theatre. The performance that day was recorded for live broadcast on Europe 1 radio, which is the most frequently broadcast recording, and is considered the only "mainstream" version of the Amsterdam musical, The Belgian male singer never recorded this song in the studio.

Less than a year later, in the summer of 1965, Jacques Brel was at his peak, having taken part in a live show at the Maison de la Radio National. During that performance, Brel sang four songs: "Le Plat Pays", "Ne me quitte pas", "Au Suivant" and "Amsterdam" with a different accompaniment, without the use of an accordion. but only piano (Gérard Jouannest) and contrebasse (Pierre Sim). This recording later, due to not being released on tape, was gradually forgotten.

Recently, the INA agency, at the request of the company Diggers Factory, published rare documents kept in its archives. The vinyls here are limited edition (700 copies) and are numbered, which has little historical value, but is important to collectors.

This vinyl by Jacques Brel complements a collection of lesser-known songs by Dalida, Barbara and Léo Ferré. Listening to Jacques Brel's immortal songs, one will immediately realize that four decades after his death, there are many artists influenced by him, but still no talent can take the throne of him. Brel, the king of realism.

From 1967 Jacques Brel turned to acting and directing. With cinema, Jacques Brel also reached its peak with many famous films in which he starred. Many of the films he directed were also highly regarded.

In addition to music (mostly known as an excellent lyricist) and film, Jacques Brel is also a famous Belgian and French poet. He died in Bobigny, a suburb of Paris after a prolonged illness, and was buried on the island of Marquesas.