The French song icon is back! After sixty years of career, Michel Polnareff has once again suffered to design his new album A time for themexpected in the bins on April 25. “It’s always painful an album, if it’s not painful, it’s not a good sign, we make shit,” he confides this Monday in an interview with AFP. “I feel like I have a first disc. It’s like a rebirth. I think it’s one of my best albums, maybe the best. It came when it was to come, ”he explains. The 80 -year -old artist will also give several concerts in France in 2025 with in particular a date on June 14 at Accor Arena in Paris as part of what he calls “My last tour”. A last lap that will start across the Channel this Thursday at the Apollo Theater in London. Back in 10 images on the course of an unclassifiable artist.
Michel Polnareff, born in 1944, bathed in music from his childhood. His father, guidance of Edith Piaf and the companions of the song, introduced him to the classic, while his mother, dancer, makes him discover jazz. As a child on piano, he decided at 20 to devote himself to music and made his debut as a street singer in Montmartre.
In 1966, Michel Polnareff made a decisive meeting thanks to a friend: Lucien Morisse, leader of Europe 1, who made him sign on the AZ label. His first tube, released on May 26, 1966, the doll that made no, met with dazzling success.
After a trying world tour, Michel Polnareff undergoes homophobic verbal and physical assaults in France because of his appearance deemed androgynous and eccentric. He sinks into depression. In response to criticism on his image, he released in 1970 I am a mana provocative song affirming its virility and defying the social norms of the time.
In 1972, Michel Polnareff caused a scandal by announcing his show “Polnarévolution” at Olympia with posters revealing his naked buttocks. Condemned for “modesty attack”, he is forced to pay 10 francs per poster. This photo, still iconic 53 years later, inaugurates the era of the buzz.
It was in the 1970s that Michel Polnareff was presented more and more under his iconic appearance, blond hair curly with a pair of white glasses with dark glasses to protect his fragile view. The singer suffers from extreme myopia. It was also probably a way for him to protect himself from the outside world.
In 1973, Michel Polnareff discovered that he owes more than a million francs to the taxman. His partner Bernard Seneau, deceased, deceived him by diverting large amounts of money. Ruined and threatened with imprisonment, Michel Polnareff embeds on October 12 on the liner France, direction the United States.
While at the restaurant in New York, Michel Polnareff, took trouble from the country, scribbles on a note a declaration of love. Letter to France becomes a tube in France, flowing to 840,000 copies. He returned to France in 1978 to attend his trial, at the end of which his innocence was recognized.
The 1980s were marked by the release of the album Bubbles which sells for more than a million copies. In 1989, the artist locked himself in Paris for three years in room 128 of the Palace Royal Monceau without ever getting out while recording the album Kama Sutra and its mythical Goodbye Marylou.
In 2006, he announced in the midst of 8 pm a new tour entitled “Ze Return” after 34 years of absence. In twenty-four hours, no less than 40,000 tickets were reserved. On July 14, 2007, Michel Polnareff performed in front of more than 600,000 people in the Champs de Mars. The same year, he was rewarded with a victory of honor to the Victoires de la Musique for his entire career.
After a pulmonary embolism in 2016 which almost cost him his life, Michel Polnareff returns to the scene to make an immersive show baptized “Polnaêves” in 2022 in Paris, then for a series of concerts of “The historic tour” in 2023. On November 18, 2024, the singer announced on Instagram “my last tour” in all France in 2025.
