DANIEL BALAVOINE. Born February 5, 1952 in Alençon, French singer Daniel Balavoine died in a helicopter crash on January 14, 1986.
In 2022, Daniel Balavoine would have celebrated his 70th birthday. In tribute to this popular singer, France 3 is broadcasting, this Friday, February 24, the program 300 Chœurs chantent, where many artists will come to cover his greatest hits, such as SopranoKendji Girac, Florent Pagny, Nolwenn Leroy, Vincent Niclo, Bénabar, Chimène Badi, Pascal Obispo, Hélène Ségara, Barbara Pravi, Julie Zenatti, Anggun, Anne Sila, Marina Kaye, Elsa Esnoult, Clément Albertini, Joyce Jonathan and Amaury Vassili.
The opportunity also to return to the tragic disappearance of the singer, which left many questions unanswered. In January 1986, Daniel Balavoine traveled to Paris-Dakar as an ambassador for the humanitarian action of “Paris du Cœur”. On January 14, the date of the 14th stage of the race between Niamey and Gourma-Rharous in Mali, Daniel Balavoine and Thierry Sabine boarded a helicopter to reach the city of Gao. After a meeting with the Malian governor, the two men kick off a football match, organized on the sidelines of Paris-Dakar. They then take the helicopter back to Gourma-Rharous, the finish of today’s stage. At the end of the day, as the weather deteriorates and night falls, the small helicopter crew arrives in Gossi, Mali, the start of the second Paris-Dakar event on January 14.
But to sunset, around 7:20 p.m., the helicopter left, without being equipped to fly at night. Especially since the climatic conditions are critical. The aircraft is difficult to control, the pilot decides to land before the goal, which was Gourma-Rharous. He ends up losing control and the helicopter ends up in a dune after doing several loops. If this course of the day seems to have been proven, the exact circumstances of the tragedy remain unclear, in particular because of the absence of direct witnesses. After the accident, the body of the singer is repatriated to France to be buried there. His funeral was celebrated on January 20, 1986 in Biarritz, where he is buried. If Daniel Balavoine died very young, at 33, he left behind him an immense body of work and countless hits, which still resonate for the artists of the new generation of the French music scene.
Born February 5, 1952, Daniel Balavoine is the youngest son of a family of six children. Very good student, in letters in particular, the young Daniel wishes to evolve in politics. But the divorce of his parents, his sending to a boarding school and the disappointing end for him of the student revolution of May 1968, convinced him that he was made to write and make songs. A destiny sealed for this young man with a fiery personality. After a complicated start, he then became a backing vocalist for Patrick Juvet and one thing leading to another, he surrounded himself with people who would never leave him. During a television appearance where he performed “Lady Marlene”, he was noticed by Michael Berger who is looking for a singer to play Johnny Rockfort in his musical “Starmania”. The success is immediate and colossal. Daniel Balavoine is finally making a name for himself.
With his newfound notoriety, in 1978 he recorded “Le Chanteur”, which perfectly translates the anxieties and lucidity of this man aware that life is short. 1980 was an important year for him: he had a string of successes and made an impression during a daring intervention on television where he spoke directly to François Mitterrand. He also recorded the album “Another world” which includes hits such as “My son, my battle”, “I am not a hero” or “Life teaches me nothing”. 1982, new album, new sounds. Balavoine stands out as a pioneer of electronic music in France, and will use it with titles like “Sauver l’amour” or “Tous les cris, les SOS”. stands out from its peers. He was entrusted with the operation “Water pumps for Africa” during the Paris-Dakar of 1986. As he reached his bivouac, the helicopter where he was hitting a dune and crashing, killing five people. , including the singer. Broke in full glory, Daniel Balavoine leaves an abyssal void in the world of music. Many of his artist friends pay tribute to him, and it is only natural that the Daniel Balavoine association continues his work with the installation of water pumps in Mali and Senegal.
In 1985, Daniel Balavoine released a title that would become his most famous song: All cries the SOS. Taken from the album “Sauver l’amour”, the title evokes the pain of loneliness. The song will also be the artist’s best-selling one. Even today, the song “Tous les cris les SOS” resonates on many radio stations or on streaming listening platforms and has been covered many times by other artists of the old and new generation. , notably Zaz, Grégory Lemarchal in The bastards or the singer Jeanne Mas in the 90s.
In addition to “Tous les cris les SOS”, it would not be easy to make an exhaustive list of the titles of Daniel Balavoine which have crossed the ages and which have become cults. “L’Aziza”, “My son, my battle” or even “Live or survive” are obviously also hits, still resonating today. In all, during his short career cut short by his death in 1986, the singer released eight albums, containing around twenty titles that are still cult, sold some 20 million records and, even 30 years after his death, is remembered as one of the essential artists of French song.
It was in 1981 that Daniel Balavoine crossed paths with the one who would become the mother of his children, Corinne Barcessat, in a demonstration. On July 15, 1984, their first child, Jérémie, was born from their union. The following year, in homage to his Jewish-Moroccan wife, Daniel Balavoine unveiled what would become one of his greatest successes: “L’Aziza”. Over a million copies of this single will be sold, propelling it to the top of the Top 50 for several weeks.
Three months after the death of the singer, Corinne will give birth to a daughter, Joana, who has never known her father. The latter had confided in 2015, during the first broadcast of the documentary “I present myself, my name is Daniel …”, in Paris Match: “First I rejected it a lot. People were talking about a guy I didn’t know […] I didn’t want to go find a father that I knew could never be there with me. […] and then one day, a friend gave me a book with his texts. It’s the weight of his words that went through me, the way they chose them […] by dint of hearing people tell me that I look like him […] that I get carried away with the same passion, I accepted to look like this guy while not really knowing who he was.
Eight years after the release of his hit album The singer, later, the artist died suddenly at only 34 years old. Decades after the disappearance of Daniel Balavoine, certain questions persist. What really happened on the morning of January 14, 1986? How could this helicopter accident happen and cost the life of the singer and Thierry Sabine, creator of Paris-Dakar?
Tuesday, June 1, 2021, it was Daniel Balavoine who welcomed Internet users to the home page of the Google search engine. But then why did the web giant choose this particular day to pay tribute to the singer? Well simply because it’s the 43rd anniversary of the cult album The singer, released on June 1, 1978. At the time, Daniel Balavoine was struggling to find his audience in France: this record marked the beginning of his great popularity and helped make him the cult singer he has become. 800,000 copies of the album will be sold, making Singer by Balavoine the second best-selling album in his discography behind save lovereleased in 1985.
- January 1, 1978: First success for Daniel Balavoine
- Noticed by the Barclay record company as a backing vocalist for Patrick Juvet, Daniel Balavoine had his first success with “le Chanteur”. Passed so far unnoticed, the artist begins a career that will be short but punctuated by many successes.
- April 10, 1979: First performance of Starmania at the Palais des Congrès
- The famous rock opera Starmania is performed for the first time at the Palais des Congrès in Paris. The performers, including Daniel Balavoine and France Gallpartly ensured the success of this comedy written by Plamandon and composed by Berger.
- March 19, 1980: Balavoine angry in the Antenne 2 newspaper
- Invited on the television news set of Antenne 2 facing Mitterrand in particular, Daniel Balavoine gets angry and sends a warning to politicians and journalists. He affirms that “the youth is in despair”, that the words of the media do not interest anyone and that they miss the real problems. This denunciation of the absence of young people’s right to speak in the media will remain an expression of the singer’s passionate character.
- October 16, 1985: Concert for Ethiopia at La Courneuve
- On the occasion of a concert organized for humanitarian purposes for Ethiopia by Chanteur Sans Frontières, Daniel Balavoine and Jean Jacques Goldman perform in duet the title “I walk alone”. Engaged in various humanitarian works, Balavoine will receive in December of the same year the price of SOS racism.
- January 14, 1986: Drama on the Dakar
- During the 8th edition of Paris-Dakar, a helicopter piloted by François-Xavier Bagnaud carrying two French journalists, rally organizer Thierry Sabine and singer Daniel Balavoine, hit a dune and exploded 8 kilometers from Gourma-Rharous, in the mali. All occupants of the aircraft are killed. Surprised by the night (around 6:30 p.m.) the pilot would have liked to land but the helicopter, caught in a sandstorm, crashed. The management of the event is taken over by Thierry Sabine’s father, Gilbert. Daniel Balavoine had participated in the race twice. Aboard the Dakar helicopter, Balavoine supervised the installation of water pumps in African villages.