French singer-songwriters

Gilles Marchal (2 September 1944 – 11 April 2013), born Gilles Pastre, was a French songwriter and singer who reached the height of his career during the 1970s.

Jocelyne Béroard (born 12 September 1954) is a Martinican singer and songwriter. She is one of the lead singers of the Zouk and Compas band Kassav'. As a solo artist, she helped create zouk Beton, a music genre originated by the seminal Martinican Creole band Kassav' from Paris, the main members of which are from Guadeloupe and Martinique.

Gérard Manset (also known as Manset; born 21 August 1945 in Saint-Cloud, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French singer-songwriter, painter, photographer and writer. He is best known for his musical work. Since 1972, the covers of his albums state his name as simply "Manset".
Manset spent his childhood in the suburbs of Paris (Saint-Cloud) and then in the sixteenth arrondissement of Paris. He failed his baccalauréat due to a failing grade in French.
In 1964, Manset was the recipient of the Concours général, and enrolled in the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. The Salon d'Automne welcomed Manset in its engraving section in 1966. Manset's work was also shown at the Paris Salon. At the same time, Manset approached various French advertising agencies with his drawings, without success.
Manset began to play guitar, but was also interested in the drums. He borrowed his sister's piano book, and began learning to play the piano as well.
The mystery that was created around Manset was born from the rarity of his media appearances, his refusal to give concerts, and, above all, the uncompromising character of his work.

Jil Caplan (born Valentine Guilen; 23 October 1968 in Paris, France) is a French singer and songwriter.

Hubert-Félix Thiéfaine (French pronunciation: [ybɛʁ feliks tjefɛn]) is a French pop-rock singer and songwriter. He was born on 21 July 1948 in the town of Dole in the Jura département.
Mostly shunned by television and radio, he has built over the years – through word of mouth and frequent touring – a considerable following which allowed him to fill the 17,000-seater Palais omnisports de Paris-Bercy for an anniversary concert in 1998. In recent years he has been increasingly name-dropped as an influence by the latest generation of performers in France, and was the subject of a tribute album of covers in 2002. He has been performing since the late 1960s and releasing records since 1978.
Musically, Thiéfaine draws mostly from classic rock, with rare nods to the latest musical trends, and generally leaves the arranging to a collaborator. His songs are most notable for instantly recognisable lyrics, with their trademark streams of consciousness, surreal and often extreme or dark imagery, often tinged with comedy, cynicism, literary references, neologisms and liberal use of scientific, long or foreign words. The lyrical mayhem sometimes spreads into comically long song titles, such as Enfermé dans les cabinets (avec la fille mineure des 80 chasseurs), or Exercice de simple provocation avec 33 fois le mot "coupable". His education in a Catholic boarding school has also left deep traces which surface in his lyrics in the form of biblical quotations and cheerfully blasphemous lyrics.
His avowed influences include Léo Ferré, Lou Reed, Bob Dylan, Jim Morrison and many French, Anglophone and German novelists and poets, with a preference for romantic literature.

Frédéric "Fred" Chichin (French pronunciation: [fʁedeʁik fʁɛd ʃiʃɛ̃]; 1 May 1954 – 28 November 2007) was a French musician, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
He was part of the pop-rock duo Les Rita Mitsouko, along with Catherine Ringer, whom he met in 1979. Prior to his work in Les Rita Mitsouko, Chichin had been active in the rock bands Fassbinder (with Jean Neplin), Taxi Girl (with Daniel Darc), and Gazoline (with Alain Kan).
Chichin died on the morning of 28 November 2007 from heart failure, following complications of the cancer the doctors had diagnosed two months earlier. He was buried 6 December 2007 in a private ceremony at the Parisian cemetery of Montmartre.

Christophe Miossec is a French singer and songwriter born in Brest, Brittany, France on 24 December 1964.

Mano Solo (24 April 1963 – 10 January 2010), born Emmanuel Cabut, was a French singer. He was born in Châlons-sur-Marne on 24 April 1963 to the illustrator Cabu and Isabelle Monin, co-founder of the ecology-related magazine, La Gueule ouverte.

Pierre Louki, born Pierre Varenne on 25 July 1920 in Brienon-sur-Armançon in Yonne, died 21 December 2006, was a French actor and singer/songwriter.
Louki was the son of Georges Varenne, a teacher in the Yonne who was killed in Auschwitz. He learnt the theatre in Auxerre before going to Paris in the early 1950s, where he met Roger Blin and Jean-Louis Barrault. He subsequently played in Blin's production of En attendant Godot. He also began song-writing at this time.
Among the interpreters of Louki's more than 200 chansons (besides himself) were Lucette Raillat, Catherine Sauvage, Francesca Solleville, Isabelle Aubret, Les Frères Jacques, Juliette Gréco, Jean Ferrat, Philippe Clay, Colette Renard, Annie Cordy and Georges Brassens. He toured with the latter and wrote a book of recollections entitled Avec Brassens (éditions Christian Pirot, 1999, ISBN 2-86808-129-0).
He received the Académie Charles Cros prize in 1972, and in 1999, the SACEM André-Didier Mauprey prize.
Pierre Louki also appeared as stage author and actor and broadcast on France-Culture, while on television he took part in programmes of Jean-Christophe Averty.
He wrote several books for children and his memoirs are Quelques confidences (éditions Christian Pirot, septembre 2006).

Yves Duteil (born 24 July 1949, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Hauts-de-Seine) is a French singer-songwriter. He is the third child to be born in the family. Duteil is a noted proponent of the French language, the rights of children and the respect of environment. Duteil was the mayor of Précy-sur-Marne in Seine et Marne from 1989 to 2014.