Stephan Eicher

Few singers move between languages as freely as Stephan Eicher, who sings in French, German, English, Italian, Swiss German and Romansh, sometimes within a single song. Born in 1960 near Bern, to an Alsatian mother and a Yeniche father who was also a musician, he was schooled at the Ecole d'Humanité and trained at an academy of art in Zürich. His affection for French chanson and American songwriting, from Brassens to Dylan, runs deep in his work.

Eisbär, released with his brother Martin as part of Grauzone, was his first single, on the 1980 album Grauzone. His Swiss breakthrough came with I Tell This Night and Two People in a Room in 1985, which reached number ten in Switzerland, followed by Silence in 1987, which peaked at number three. The 1991 album Engelberg was his biggest commercial success, spending five weeks at number one in Switzerland, with Déjeuner en paix reaching number two in France. His lyrics have been written by the author Philippe Djian since 1989, and in 2001 he released the compilation Hotel*s, named for the Engelberg hotel where Engelberg and Louanges took shape.