Hubert Yves Adrian Giraud (3 March 1920 – 16 January 2016) was a French composer and lyricist.

Career

Giraud began his career playing the harmonica with

Django Reinhardt Jean Reinhardt (23 January 1910 – 16 May 1953), known by his Romani nickname Django ( or ), was a Romani-French jazz guitarist and composer. He was one of the first major jazz talents to emerge in Europe and has been hailed as one of its most ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

group, the

Quintette du Hot Club de France The Quintette du Hot Club de France ("The Quintet of the Hot Club of France"), often abbreviated "QdHCdF" or "QHCF", was a jazz group founded in France in 1934 by guitarist Django Reinhardt and violinist Stéphane Grappelli and active in one form ...

. In 1941, he was recruited by

Ray Ventura Raymond Ventura (16 April 1908, Paris, France – 29 March 1979, Palma de Mallorca, Spain) was a French jazz pianist and bandleader. He helped popularize jazz in France in the 1930s. His nephew was singer Sacha Distel. Career Ventura was born to ...

to play the guitar during Ventura's

big-band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

tour of South America. Six years later, he joined

Jacques Hélian Jacques Mikaël Der Mikaëlian better known as Jacques Hélian (born in Paris, 7 June 1912 - died 29 June 1986), was a famous French orchestra conductor for French music-hall. Biography Born of an Armenian father (descendant of Armenian bourge ...

's orchestra in scoring a series of

post-war In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

films, including Georges Combert's 1951 feature, ''Musique en tête''. His song "

Dors, mon amour "Dors, mon amour" (; "Sleep, My Love") is a love song written in French by Hubert Giraud, composed by Pierre Delanoë and performed in 1958 by André Claveau as France's entry and the winner of the pan-European Eurovision Song Contest, gaining o ...

", performed by

André Claveau André Claveau (, 17 December 1911 – 4 July 2003) was a popular singer in France from the 1940s to the 1960s. He won the Eurovision Song Contest in 1958 singing "Dors, mon amour" (Sleep, My Love), with music composed by Pierre Delanoë and l ...

, won the

Eurovision Song Contest 1958 The Eurovision Song Contest 1958 was the third edition of the annual Eurovision Song Contest. Organised by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and host broadcaster (NTS), the contest, originally known as the (English: Grand Prix of the Euro ...

. Giraud (with lyricist Pierre Cour) wrote the song "Gitans" ( "Les Gitans"). It was further translated into English by B. Guilgud (a.k.a. Guilgudo) and A. Gill and recorded by Corry Brokken.English translators
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Sergio Franchi Sergio Franchi (born Sergio Franci Galli; April 6, 1926 – May 1, 1990) was an Italian-American tenor and actor who enjoyed success in the United States and internationally after gaining notice in Britain in the early 1960s. In 1962, RCA Vict ...

recorded an English and Italian version (Italian lyrics by

Leo Chiosso Leo Chiosso (b. Turin, 8 August 1920 – d. Chieri, Italy, 26 November 2006) was an Italian lyricist mostly known for his work with Fred Buscaglione. They formed a songwriting duo who produced about forty songs and created Buscaglione's pub ...

) on his 1965 RCA album ''Live at the Cocoanut Grove.'' Giraud also wrote the music for the songs "

Sous le ciel de Paris ''Under the Sky of Paris'' (French: ''Sous le ciel de Paris'') is a 1951 French drama film directed by Julien Duvivier. It was shot at the Billancourt Studios in Paris and on location around the city. The film's sets were designed by the ar ...

" in 1951 and "

Mamy Blue "Mamy Blue" is a 1970 song by French songwriter Hubert Giraud. Originally written with French lyrics, the song was rendered in English in 1971 to become an international hit for the Pop-Tops, Joël Daydé ( fr) and Roger Whittaker. A hit in It ...

" in 1970.

Selected filmography

* ''

The Fighting Drummer ''The Fighting Drummer'' (french: Tambour battant) is a 1953 French comedy film directed by Georges Combret.Rège p.245 The film's sets were designed by the art director Marcel Magniez. Cast In alphabetical order * Alfred Adam as Favrol * Roland ...

'' (1953) * ''

The Triumph of Michael Strogoff ''The Triumph of Michael Strogoff'' (French: ''Le triomphe de Michel Strogoff'') is a 1961 French-Italian historical adventure film directed by Viktor Tourjansky and starring Curd Jürgens, Capucine and Claude Titre. It is inspired by the 1 ...

'' (1961)

References

External links

* * 1920 births 2016 deaths Musicians from Marseille 20th-century French composers Big bands Eurovision Song Contest winners French film score composers French male film score composers French guitarists French male guitarists French jazz musicians French songwriters Male songwriters Jazz harmonica players 20th-century guitarists 20th-century French male musicians French male jazz musicians {{songwriter-stub

Career

Selected filmography

See also

References

External links