The life of singer Francis Lalanne is very surprising. He was born on August 8, 1958 on the plane bringing his mother back from Jordan. Her father is a Basque United Nations diplomat in the Middle East. From an early age, he followed his parents around the world: Mont-de-Marsan in France then in Uruguay for 12 years before settling in Marseille.
After obtaining his baccalaureate, Francis Lalanne moved to Paris to begin studies in modern literature at the University of the Sorbonne. At that time, he tried to get into music by offering his models to record companies that repressed him. The star then tries to live from his passion by singing in public transport: “I was going to asylums and prisons. And I was begging in the metro and in restaurants,” he told Le Parisien in 2014. A few years later, he even wrote a song, Celle qui m’a lude, which traces his beginnings in music: “ I was begging, metro Châtelet. I’ve been singing for four hours. I was fed up, I was exhausted”, he wrote.
Despite a complicated start to his career, he recorded his first album Rentre chez toi thanks to a music producer named Frank Thomas in 1979. In the process, his album was broadcast on the radio, which allowed him to receive the Grand Prix des Record stores.
Thanks to his new fame, he went on tour throughout France, but also in Switzerland, Canada, Germany and also in Latin America. From the 80s, Francis Lalanne released many successful titles including Nothing but a day, Stay with me or We will meet again.
Guest on June 13, 2015 on Laurent Ruquier’s show On n’est pas couch on France 2, singer Francis Lalanne made some very surprising revelations about his way of life.
The star, who claimed to have had differences with his former record company, chose the nomadic life: “Two years ago, I went on an adventure with my backpack and my guitar on my back, I sold everything I had,” he said before adding: “I’m alone, I still don’t have a label. I don’t have a home, but I can’t say I’m homeless as they say about poor people living on the streets. However, I am homeless, but without financial difficulties. I no longer have a bank account. I live by the traveller’s fortune. I chose to break with the system, I don’t earn anything and I live with the person who will host me, feed me and listen to me, “said the interpreter of She is alone.
In addition to his career as a singer, Francis Lalanne has taken on a new challenge, that of getting involved in politics. A fervent defender of the cause of the Yellow Vests, the star has chosen to go further by presenting himself on the Yellow Alliance list for the European elections which took place on May 26.
On May 22, 2019, Francis Lalanne made a remarkable appearance on France 2 in L’Émission politique. Facing the other candidates at the top of the list, the star identified with the Yellow Vests and complained about the use of LBD projectiles during the demonstrations: “On March 16, it passed a few centimeters from my face. (…) I was very lucky that day. Others weren’t so lucky. I’m just asking this question. We have mutilated, blinded, hands torn off, ”he said during the debate. “The Yellow Alliance cannot decide without having its members vote. But the Yellow Alliance has proposals,” he said.
The list led by Francis Lalanne obtained only 0.6% of the votes in the European elections.
Alongside his career as an artist and politician, Francis Lalanne bought the company Starlux, specializing in the manufacture of miniatures when the latter was bankrupt in 1997. “When I was little, I was almost autistic. I was talking to objects. Eventually it was Starlux figurines that got me talking to people. (…) It was my childhood that was in liquidation”, he explained to our colleagues from Figaro. Unfortunately, the star was caught up in debt and the company went out of business in 2003.
After having been director of the publishing house Les Belles Lettres and Atlas editions, Francis Lalanne was between 2004 and 2013, president of the AS Fresnoy-le-Grand club of the Aisne district. In 2013, the singer finally landed from the club after disputes with David Michel, the former manager of the football club.
The star was reportedly in a relationship with a certain Stella Sulak. The latter would have given birth to four children: Ea, Helia, Selena and Neo Khan. “I took my family away from my notoriety, that’s my sacrifice,” he says. With their mother, when they became pre-teens, and at school it started to be a problem, we triggered the Orsec plan and we went to the end of the world. Today they thank me for doing this,” he said in previous interviews. In 2008, the couple would have separated definitively.
