French song & variety
Hubert Giraud
Hubert Giraud (1920-2016) wrote some of the best-known French songs in the world: “Sous le ciel de Paris”, made famous by Édith Piaf, “La Tendresse”, “Il est mort le soleil” and “Mamy Blue”, a huge hit carried by Nicoletta. Born in Marseille, he spent his last years in Montreux, where he died on 16 January 2016 and where his funeral was held. His career had begun with an unlikely detour: left asthmatic by his father’s death, he had taken up the harmonica on a doctor’s advice, and it was with that instrument that he won his first engagements, in the late 1930s, with Django Reinhardt’s Quintette du Hot Club de France.
Hubert Giraud: more than thirty years in Montreux
From Ray Ventura’s orchestra to settling on the Riviera
Before composing, Hubert Giraud was an orchestra musician, notably with Ray Ventura. He then settled in Montreux, where he would live for more than thirty years, until his death on 16 January 2016, aged 94. His funeral was held in Montreux on 22 January, and he rests in the Cimetière de Clarens (RTS, 17 January 2016).
“Mamy Blue”, a hit covered around the world
First carried by Nicoletta, “Mamy Blue” went on to a second life through dozens of versions, from Céline Dion to Julio Iglesias to Ray Charles. Hubert Giraud also wrote “Il est mort le soleil” for Tom Jones and “Parlez-moi de lui” for Nicole Croisille: a songwriting career that ran through the whole of French-language music-hall and beyond.
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