Gérald Gardrinier (; born 14 October 1967 in Saint-Denis,

Réunion Réunion (; french: La Réunion, ; previously ''Île Bourbon''; rcf, label= Reunionese Creole, La Rényon) is an island in the Indian Ocean that is an overseas department and region of France. It is located approximately east of the island o ...

), better known by his stage name Gérald de Palmas, is a French singer-songwriter.

Biography

Early life

Gérald de Palmas was born in France. His father was a

land surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ...

from

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

and his mother was a French teacher from

. At the age of 10, De Palmas' family left

, to live in

Aix-en-Provence Aix-en-Provence (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Ais de Provença in classical norm, or in Mistralian norm, ; la, Aquae Sextiae), or simply Aix ( medieval Occitan: ''Aics''), is a city and commune in southern France, about north of Marseille ...

, France. At the age of 13, he discovered ska music, and became a fan of the UK band

The Specials The Specials, also known as The Special AKA, are an English 2 tone and ska revival band formed in 1977 in Coventry. After some early changes, the first stable lineup of the group consisted of Terry Hall and Neville Staple on vocals, Lynv ...

. Then he met Étienne Daho and formed a group called ''Les Max Valentin'' together with Edith Fambuena and Jean-Louis Pierot. They released the single 'Les Maux Dits' in 1987, but De Palmas was uncomfortable with this group, and went solo. After seven years of writing and singing solo, Da Palmas won a talent contest on the French M6 TV network.

Career

In 1994, Gérald de Palmas, or just De Palmas as an artistic name, released his first album ''La dernière Année'' (The Last Year), which contains the hit song ''Sur la Route'' (On the Road). He won a

Victoires de la Musique Victoires de la Musique (; en, Victories of Music) is an annual French award ceremony where the Victoire accolade is delivered by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The classical and jazz ...

award in 1996. De Palmas released his second album ''Les Lois de la Nature'' (Laws of Nature) in 1997. The album was less successful than his debut album, probably due to the dramatic change in his style. He was in the slumps for two and a half years, until 2000. That's when

Jean-Jacques Goldman Jean-Jacques Goldman (; born 11 October 1951) is a French singer-songwriter and music record producer. He is hugely popular in the French-speaking world. Since the death of Johnny Hallyday in 2017 he has been the highest grossing living French ...

restored his confidence and wrote a song for him titled ''

J'en rêve encore "J'en rêve encore" (English : "I Still Dream about It") is a 2000 pop / rock song recorded by French singer-songwriter Gérald de Palmas. It was the first single from his third album '' Marcher dans le sable'' on which it appears as second trac ...

'' (I still dream about it). De Palmas composed and wrote 10 of the 12 songs in his third album '' Marcher dans le sable'' (Walking in the sand). He was reborn as a star in 2002, as he won the

and the

NRJ Music Awards An NRJ Music Award (commonly abbreviated as an NMA) is an award presented by the French radio station NRJ to honor the best in the French and worldwide music industry. The awards ceremony, created in 2000 by NRJ in partnership with the televisi ...

, while playing more than 180 concerts. His songs even crossed the Atlantic, when

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

sang his hit song ''Tomber'' (falling) in English, titled ''Ten Days''. At the end of that year, ''Live 2002'' was released on DVD and on CD, to commemorate his great tour of 2002. Two years later, De Palmas returned with his fourth album ''

Un homme sans racines ''Un homme sans racines'' is a 2004 album recorded by French singer Gérald De Palmas. It was his fourth studio album and his fifth album overall, and his most successful in terms of peak positions. It reached number one in France in its first we ...

'' (A man without roots), a more intimate album with less music, but still in the same melancholic style. After having problems with Universal, Gérald de Palmas came back in November 2009 with his new album "Sortir" (Leaving) with the hit single "Au bord de l'eau". His latest album is "La beauté du geste" released in the summer of 2016.

Awards

: **Best francophone male artist (2003) **Best francophone album (''Marcher dans le sable'') (2002) *

Victoires de la musique Victoires de la Musique (; en, Victories of Music) is an annual French award ceremony where the Victoire accolade is delivered by the French Ministry of Culture to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry. The classical and jazz ...

: **Best male artist of the year (2002) **Male revelation of the year (1996)

Discography

Albums

;Live albums

Singles

;Featured in

References

External links

Official website

broken link previous Official websiteBiography of Gérald De Palmas
from

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...

* Gérald de Palmas' music videos from his album "Sortir"
"Mon Coeur ne bat plus"

"Dans une Larme"
{{DEFAULTSORT:Palmas, Gerald de 1967 births Living people French pop singers French male singers Musicians from Réunion French folk-pop singers Réunionnais singers