French singer-songwriters

Louis Laurent Bertignac (French pronunciation: [lwi lɔʁɑ̃ bɛʁtiɲak]; born 23 February 1954) is a French guitarist, vocalist and songwriter. An ex Shakin' Street member and a founding member in 1976 of the rock band Téléphone, he formed Bertignac et les Visiteurs after Téléphone split in 1986. Tony Visconti produced his first solo album, Elle et Louis (1993) and Chris Kimsey the second, '96.
In 2004, he produced, arranged and played guitar on the debut album by Carla Bruni, Quelqu'un m'a dit. Bruni in turn contributed lyrics to 10 of the 12 songs on Bertignac's 2005 album Longtemps.
He performed at Live 8 at the Palace of Versailles on 2 July 2005. He appears as an actor in Highlander III: The Sorcerer in 1994.

Jean-Louis Bergheaud (28 January 1952 – 25 May 2023), better known by the stage name Jean-Louis Murat, was a French musician. He spent much of his childhood with his grandparents in Murat-le-Quaire from which he got his pseudonym.

Benjamin Biolay (French pronunciation: [bɛ̃ʒamɛ̃ bjɔlɛ]; born 20 January 1973) is a French singer, musician, songwriter, record producer and actor. He is the brother of singer Coralie Clément—whose first three albums he wrote and produced—and the ex-husband of Chiara Mastroianni, the daughter of Catherine Deneuve and Marcello Mastroianni.
His low-key vocal style is somewhat similar to French pop star Étienne Daho. With the singer Keren Ann, whose first two albums he co-wrote and produced, he contributed several songs to Chambre avec Vue, the successful comeback album of singer Henri Salvador, and has since worked as a writer, arranger or producer for other icons of French music, including Juliette Gréco, Julien Clerc, Françoise Hardy, Vanessa Paradis and Nolwenn Leroy.
He wrote or performed most of the songs on the 2004 soundtrack to Clara et Moi by Arnaud Viard, and released the album Home with his wife the same year. After two more rock oriented albums in 2005 and 2007 he was dropped by his record company and began working on his first independent release, La Superbe, released on Naïve records in 2009. This was followed by the soundtrack album Pourquoi tu pleures in 2011 and Vengeance in 2012.

Matthieu Chedid (born 21 December 1971) is a French multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter.
Chedid began his career as a session musician playing both acoustic and electric guitar. In the late 1990s, he rose to fame as a singer-songwriter and musician under the alias M (often stylized as -M-), blending Nouvelle Chanson, electronic and rock music. In studio, he experiments with various instruments and electronic music, while on tour as -M- he mostly plays the guitar, and is known for his eccentric outfits and dramatic live performances, sometimes including special effects.
Chedid has also performed in the 2005 stage musical Le soldat rose and is part of French-Malian band Lamomali. Since 2018, he has been the most awarded artist at the Victoires de la Musique Awards with 13 awards, tied with Alain Bashung.

Nicolas Peyrac (born 6 October 1949 in Rennes as Jean-Jacques Tazartez) is a French musician, writer and photographer.

Giani Esposito (23 August 1930 – 1 January 1974) was a French film actor and singer-songwriter.
Esposito was born from the union of a French mother with an Italian father in Etterbeek (Belgium), and he died from viral hepatitis in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. He appeared in 50 films between 1951 and 1973.
As singer-songwriter, between 1958 and 1973, he recorded numerous albums marked with spirituality and poetry. His biggest success is The Clowns (Les Clowns, 1957), several covers by Raymond Devos, Jeanne-Marie Sens, Hervé Vilard and Bernard Lavilliers.
He was married with the French actress Pascale Petit and they had a girl, Doushka Esposito (born in 1963), today singer, and younger, under the name of Douchka, she was ambassadress of Walt Disney's productions on the French television.

Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan (French pronunciation: [ʁəno pjɛʁ manɥɛl seʃɑ̃]; born 11 May 1952 in Paris), known as Renaud, is a French singer-songwriter.
With twenty-six albums to his credit, selling nearly twenty million copies, he is one of France's most popular singers. Several of his songs are popular classics in France, including the sea tale "Dès que le vent soufflera", the irreverent "Laisse béton", the ballad "Morgane de toi" and the nostalgic "Mistral gagnant". His songs, with their slang lyrics and idiosyncratic Parisian phrasing, deal with both light and serious themes, alternating humor, emotion, and social criticism.
Although he enjoyed great success in France in the 70s, 80s and 90s, his career took a roller-coaster ride thereafter, with the singer regularly falling victim to depression and alcoholism, ailments he recounts in various songs. His work remains little known outside the French-speaking world.
He also appeared in several films, including Claude Berri's adaptation of Germinal in 1993.
Although his political stance has provoked controversy, he has nicknamed himself "le chanteur énervant" (the irritating singer), due to his many commitments to causes such as human rights, ecology, and anti-militarism, which are frequently reflected in his songs.

Éric Charden (French pronunciation: [eʁik ʃaʁdɛ̃]; born Jacques-André Puissant [ʒak‿ɑ̃dʁe pɥisɑ̃]; 15 October 1942 – 29 April 2012) was a French singer and songwriter, best known for his collaborations with singer Stone, with whom they formed the band Stone et Charden.Éric Charden was born in Haiphong, French Indochina during World War II. He is from a French father (who was a port engineer in France and overseas) and a Tibetan mother. He moved to Marseille, France, in 1950 with his mother (his father returned to France in 1954) and graduated with a Baccalauréat from HEC Paris in 1960.
He alongside Annie Gautrat were both decorated with the honorable Legion of Honour on 1 January 2012 just months before his death from cancer at age 69.

Francis Lalanne (born Francis-José Lalanne on 8 August 1958 in Bayonne) is a French-Uruguayan singer, songwriter and poet. He is the brother of composer Jean-Félix Lalanne and film director René Manzor.

Pierre Bachelet (25 May 1944 – 15 February 2005) was a French singer-songwriter and film score composer. He was also known as Andrew Bacson.
He died of lung cancer in 2005.