Hervé Vilard

Hervé Vilard, born René Vilard in Paris on 24 July 1946, began his life far from any stage. After an orphanage, he moved through a series of foster homes in the Berry region and eventually found a mentor in a priest in the Cher. That hard start sits behind a career spanning four decades as singer, songwriter and stage performer. His reach is as much South American as French: between 1969 and 1978 he settled in Latin America, singing in Spanish, and he remains famous there.

His debut single, Capri c'est fini, released on Mercury in June 1965, sold 3.3 million copies and made him a household name almost overnight. In 1966 he became the opening act for Claude François and toured Europe and beyond with him before their partnership ended. After his return to France in 1978, Nous sold two million records there, and Reviens sold a million in the summer of 1980. He made his first appearance at L'Olympia on 31 December 1979, and in 1992 he received the Ordre national du Mérite at the Théâtre des Variétés. His 2006 autobiography, L'âme seule, recounts his road from institutional care to stardom.