Ferrat, Jean

The songwriter and singer Jean Ferrat was born in Vaucresson (Haut-de-Seine) near Paris, the youngest of four children. The family moved in 1935 to Versailles where he dropped out of school so he could work to help support the family. His father, a Russian-born Jewish jeweler had been forced to wear a yellow star ; in 1942 he was deported to Auschwitz, where he died. The musically inclined boy was a poetry love,r and while working at cabarets in Paris he began composing songs to accompany Louis Aragon’s verses; he started with “Les yeux d’Elsa” (Elsa’s Eyes) in 1956. His first album,”Deux enfants au soleil,” was released in 1961. The same year, he married singer Christine Sevres, who had performed some of his compositions. He wrote some songs for Zizi Jeanmaire and shared a billing with her for six months at the Alhambra Music Hall in Paris. In 1963, Barclay Records released his “Nuit et brouillard,” which renders homage to the victims of the Holocaust; however, it was banned on radio and television by the French government since France and Germany were in the middle of a diplomatic postwar reconciliation. Nevertheless, the song was heard and Ferrat received the Grand Prix du Disque of the Académie Charles Cros; years later, in 1990, the Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de Musique (SACEM) awarded him its gold medal, and the BBC listed it as one of 20 songs that changed the world. Ferrat became popular but ceased performing on stage in 1973. His album “Ferrat chante Aragon” sold more than two million copies in 1971, and in 1980 his “Ferrat 80” album was certified a platinum record. His collection of his compositions in twelve volumes earned him the “Diamant de l’année.”