Childhood Balavoine was born on 5 February 1952 in Alençon, France. He was the youngest in a family of six children. He had two sisters and three brothers. His father, Emile, was an urban engineer and worked for the Reconstruction Ministry. His mother was an antiques wholesaler. In 1959, his father relocated to
French Algeria, while Daniel moved to the southern city of
Pau and attended a boarding school, an experience he clearly did not enjoy. When he was eleven, he heard "
She Loves You" by
The Beatles which sparked his taste in music. In 1968, while attending high school, he was one of the many youth who supported
the nationwide strikes. In 1992,
Peter Kingsbery, the lead singer of the American band
Cock Robin, adapted the song in English for Tycoon; the song, named "
Only the Very Best," built on the same melody and similar arrangements, but with very different lyrics (by
Tim Rice), was also a big hit in France. Balavoine's solo career was soon very successful, as well, with the release of his third album
Le chanteur. The title song, which spoke vividly of the unstoppable rise and fall of an aspiring singer, was a huge commercial success, with one million units sold. The album itself sold 800,000 copies. At the same time, Balavoine continued touring with Starmania, becoming one of its most notable faces. Between April and May 1979, the musical was performed at the
Palais des congrès in Paris, before 100,000 spectators, further increasing Balavoine's popularity. In 1979, he released his fourth album,
Face amour / Face amère (Love side/Bitter side). Though it enjoyed moderate success, its sold fewer copies than the previous album. "Me laisse pas m'en aller" and "Ces petit riens" were the biggest hits from the record. Even still, this last opus allowed him to put on a very successful solo tour throughout France for the first time, with the high point being a three-day stint at the
Olympia.
Un Autre Monde In 1980, Balavoine returned with his fifth studio album
Un autre monde. This record was particularly successful, with three songs hitting huge commercial success: "Mon fils, ma bataille", with 543,000 units sold (about a father's struggle to claim the custody of his son in the aftermath of a breakup, a similar theme to the 1979 movie
Kramer vs. Kramer); "
Je ne suis pas un héros", originally written for
Johnny Hallyday (who later inserted it in his own set list in tribute); and "La vie ne m'apprend rien". Balavoine went on tour again and came back to the Olympia for four sold-out shows, which gave birth to his first live album
Daniel Balavoine en concert in November 1981.
Vendeur de Larmes During the winter of 1981, Balavoine went to Ibiza, Spain to write his sixth album. Balavoine decided to radically change his musical style, making it more rock-oriented and using electronic effects. In April 1982,
Vendeur de larmes (a pun between "tears" and "weapons") was released, containing hits, such as "Vivre ou Survivre", "Dieu que l'amour est triste" and "Soulève-moi". The album hit a huge success becoming a
Diamond album after a few months. The following tour was also very popular, challenging the best performances of the time. During four days, Balavoine performed in
Palais des Sports. All his shows were sold out.
International work ''Loin des yeux de l'Occident'' In 1983, Balavoine participated in his first
Paris-Dakar Rally. A victim of a breakdown during the first run, he followed the rest of the race as a spectator and discovered Africa. What he saw shocked him: "When, arriving in a small village, we saw a kid looking for flies in order to eat them, there was nothing more to say." After that, he went to Scotland to write his seventh album. Very inspired by his African experience, he released ''Loin des yeux de L'Occident
(Far from the Eyes of the West''). According to music specialists, this last record is also his most politically committed. He talks about
Third World women in "Pour la femme veuve qui s'éveille" ("For the widow who is waking up"), torture in "Frappe avec la tête" ("Strike with the head"), drugs in "Poisson dans la cage" ("Fish in the cage") and South American dictatorships in "Revolucion". The melody, very close to one by
Peter Gabriel, mixes electronic music (electrical guitar, keyboards etc.) with
world music ambient with African drums. During the same year, he also starred in the musical
Abbacadabra, alongside
ABBA's
Frida Lyngstad. They performed the song "Belle" together. Following a
terrorist bombing in Beirut, Balavoine, whose brother, Yves, was stationed, created a polemic by insulting the French veterans and the government that were pushing the war. Two weeks later, he gave a public apology for the disorder he created. In 1984, Balavoine returned on the road for a yearlong tour across France. For this new tour, Balavoine introduced new technologies like
Vari-Lite lights and
HF tech. Balavoine looked for the perfect sound and the perfect ambiance rather than the set, which was furnished sparsely. All his songs were rewritten with very pronounced rock arrangements. In July, at age 31, Balavoine became a father for the first time. Touched and blessed by the event, he wrote a brand new song "Dieu que c'est beau!" ("God it's so beautiful!") and included it in his tour set list. He also wrote a full album for his friend Catherine Ferry, using his
Fairlight synthesizer for the first time.
''Sauver l'amour'' In 1985, many prominent music stars were involved in charities and humanitarian events. French singers, including Balavoine, organised their own event, Singers Without Borders, which was not a big success mostly because of the expensive price of the tickets. Nevertheless, the concert album sold well. During the Summer, Balavoine went back to Scotland for his eighth and last record:
Sauver l'amour
. He innovated again using his Fairlight and it was his first album released on CD. The Fairlight allowed Balavoine to insert a lot of electronic effects and sound never heard before. Most songs of the album became hits: "
L'Aziza", in honor of Corinne, his Jewish-Moroccan wife and mother of his son; "
Sauver l'amour", the title song, a hymn to love; "Tous les cris les SOS", a song about despair, loneliness, and failure to communicate; "Petit homme mort au combat" about
child soldiers. Balavoine posthumously received the
Victoire de la Musique Album of the Year Award in 1986 for ''Sauver l'amour''.
Death In 1986, Daniel Balavoine was chosen to lead a fund-raising effort aimed at building water wells in Africa. He was invited by
Thierry Sabine, founder and director of the
Paris-Dakar Rally, to take advantage of the logistics of the Rally. Balavoine was buried in
Biarritz. ==Activism==