Flagship group of the 1980s, La Compagnie créole made an impression with its solar and dancing hits. Its guitarist and main singer José Sébéloué died on Sunday at the age of 74.
“It’s good for morale”, “It makes the birds laugh” or even “The masked ball”, who hasn’t danced to one of these songs at a ball or at a wedding? The Creole Company marked the spirits of the 1980s and subsequent generations thanks to its music tinged with zouk, biguine and soca.
The beginnings
Born in 1948 in Guyana, José Sébéloué joined La Compagnie Créole in 1975, at the age of 27. Initially, the group had five members: Martiniquans Clémence Bringtown and Julien Tarquin, Guadeloupeans Guy Bévert and Arthur Apatout and of course José Sébéloué.
>> To listen: the musical chronicle “Vibrations”
Vibrations – Talented guitarist and sweet voice of the Compagnie Créole, José Sébéloué is deceased / La Matinale / 5 min. / yesterday at 06:54
Before stirring up a whole generation, La Compagnie Créole began its career by reinterpreting traditional West Indian music. The turning point comes through a musical encounter with Daniel Vangarde and Jean Kluger. This duo of disco-Latin producers has already achieved several successes, notably for Sheila, Claude François and Dalida. Daniel Vangarde will be the lyricist of La Compagnie créole and Jean Kluger the composer.
big success
“Vive le Douanier Rousseau” and “C’est bon pour le morale” were released in 1983 and the two titles met with immense success with respectively 400,000 and 500,000 copies sold.
>> To see, the clip of “It makes the birds laugh”:
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Despite this success, La Compagnie créole is often shunned by radio stations, which tax it as a “prom group”. A reproach that delights producer and composer Daniel Vangarde, because it is exactly what he is looking for. Thanks to the help of a famous and wealthy fan named Francis Bouygues, founder of the empire of the same name and new boss of TF1 in 1987, he manages to slip their music into Guy Lux and Patrick Sébastien’s shows.
Since the beginning of their success, La Compagnie créole has not stopped performing on stage. A last tour was planned in Quebec, but it was canceled at the beginning of the week, since the other members of the group flew to Paris to pay tribute to their friend José Sébéloué, who died last Sunday at the age of 74.
Yves Zahno/sc
2023-09-07 10:14:54
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