Jacques Brel was the leading “chansonnier” - singer and songwriter – of the 1960’s and 1970’s European scene. This great modern troubadour in the French language was able to share extraordinary passion thanks to his powerful songs and charismatic presence.

The anti-war poet
The socially conscious son of a cardboard factory co-owner in Brussels, Belgium, Brel failed at school and at factory work while composing intense songs of raw language and feeling. After an embittering military service, he moved to Paris where he met a series of professional mentors and collaborators. In 1957, his first hit « Quand on n’a que l’amour » (« If We Only Have Love ») started a life-long triumph.
Despite using only a microphone, a pursuit light and a plain suit on stage, Brel was probably the best live performer of all times, electrifying audiences with his consummate interpretation and hypnotic melodies. He had great charisma, as well as a voice that carried the lower-key resonance of Edith Piaf. His obsession with the stage made him tour relentlessly across France, Belgium and the world. To catch some of Brel’s unforgettable live performances, see www.youtube.com.
His uncompromising anti-war, and especially anti-Vietnam, stance made him controversial enough in the US to inhibit his career there, although he performed at Carnegie Hall in New-York in 1963. At the time, American critics dubbed him “the magnetic hurricane”. He was also often called “the French Bob Dylan”, or even “a James Dean singing French”.