Jacques Brel
8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978
Jacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who performed in French and became one of the central figures of post-war chanson. Songs such as Ne me quitte pas, Amsterdam and Le plat pays were widely translated and recorded by other artists. He withdrew from concert performance in 1967 and spent his final years acting, directing and sailing, settling in the Marquesas Islands.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Jacques Brel.
- A. Philip Randolph (1889–1979) Overlapped 49 years →
- Ahmad Shamlou (1925–2000) Overlapped 49 years →
- Akio Morita (1921–1999) Overlapped 49 years →
- Alan Paton (1903–1988) Overlapped 49 years →
- Aldo Moro (1916–1978) Overlapped 49 years →
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Overlapped 49 years →
Life events
Born into a Flemish family in the Brussels municipality of Schaerbeek.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMarried Therese Michielsen, known as Miche; the couple had three daughters.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLeft the family cardboard business in Belgium after his first recordings attracted interest in France.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgThe song became his best-known composition and was widely covered, including in English as If You Go Away.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgAnnounced his retirement from the concert stage and played a last series of shows, ending in 1967.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgTranslated, directed and played the lead role in the French-language staging of Man of La Mancha.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgSailed his yacht across the Atlantic and Pacific and made his home on Hiva Oa in French Polynesia.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReturned to Paris to record a last album, which sold heavily on release.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgDied of a pulmonary embolism following lung cancer and was buried on Hiva Oa.
Source: en.wikipedia.org