Gérald De Palmas

Gérald De Palmas
Birth name	Gérald Gardrinier
Born	October 14, 1967 (1967-10-14) (age 44) Saint-Denis, Réunion, France
Genres	Pop Soft Rock
Occupations	Singer-songwriter
Labels	Universal Music
Associated acts	Jean-Jacques Goldman, Francis Cabrel, Christophe Maé, Raphaël Haroche, Stephan Eicher, Axelle Red
Website	depalmas...universalmusic.fr

Gérald De Palmas (born Gérald Gardrinier, on October 14, 1967 in Saint-Denis, Réunion) is a French singer.

Biography

Early life

His father was a land surveyor from Britanny, France and his mother was a French teacher from Réunion. At the age of 10, De Palmas' family left Réunion, to live in Aix-en-Provence, France. At the age of 13, he discovered ska music, and became a fan of the UK band The Specials. Then he met Étienne Daho and formed a group called Les Max Valentin together with Edith Fambuena and Jean-Louis Pierot. They released the single 'Les Maux Dits' in 1987, but De Palmas was uncomfortable with this group, and went solo. After seven years of writing and singing solo, Da Palmas won a talent contest on the French M6 TV network.

Career

In 1994, he released his first album La dernière Année (The Last Year), which contains the hit song Sur la Route (On the Road). He won a Victoires de la Musique award in 1996.

De Palmas released his second album Les Lois de la Nature (Laws of Nature) in 1997. The album was less successful than his debut album, probably due to the dramatic change in his style. He was in the slumps for 2 and a half years, until 2000. That's when Jean-Jacques Goldman restored his confidence and wrote a song for him titled J'en rêve encore (I still dream about it).

De Palmas composed and wrote 10 of the 12 songs in his third album Marcher dans le sable (Walking in the sand). 2002 was the year he was reborn as a star, as he won the Victoires de la Musique and the NRJ Music Awards, while playing more than 180 concerts. His songs even crossed the Atlantic, when Céline Dion sang his hit song Tomber (falling) in English, titled Ten Days. At the end of that year, Live 2002 was released on DVD and on CD, to commemorate his great tour of 2002.

Two years later, De Palmas returned with his fourth album Un homme sans racines (A man without roots), a more intimate album with less music, but still in the same melancholic style. After having problems with Universal, Gérald de Palmas is going to come back in November 2009 with his new album of which the first single is expected to be aired in May.

Personal life

Gérald de Palmas is married and has two children, a boy, Victor (born in 1996) and a girl, Rose (born in 2003).

Awards

• NRJ Music Awards :
  • Best francophone male artist (2003)
  • Best francophone album (Marcher dans le sable) (2002)

• Victoires de la musique :
  • Best male artist of the year (2002)
  • Male revelation of the year (1996)

Discography

Albums

• 1994 : La dernière année
• 1997 : Les lois de la nature
• 2000 : Marcher dans le sable
• 2002 : Live 2002
• 2004 : Un homme sans racines
• 2009 : Sortir

References

• This article was translated from the corresponding article in the French Wikipedia, retrieved on July 29, 2006, and with a few minor changes.

External links

• (French) Official website
• Biography of Gérald De Palmas, from Radio France Internationale
• Gérald de Palmas' music videos from his album "Sortir" : "Mon Coeur ne bat plus" & "Dans une Larme"

Preceded by Henri Salvador

Victoires de la Musique Male group or artist of the year 2002

Succeeded by Renaud

Persondata
Name	Depalmas, Gerald
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	October 14, 1967
Place of birth
Date of death
Place of death