Enrico Macias

Enrico Macias (born Gaston Ghrenassia ) ( born December 11, 1938 in Constantine, Algeria ) is a French singer.

Biography

Gaston Ghrenassia was born in what was then the French department of Algeria in a Jewish family that used the Arab- Andalusian music as Maaluf musicians. As a child he played with fellow gypsies guitar petit Enrico called him (small Enrico ). He was first school teacher, but continued to play guitar in the orchestra of Raymond Leyris called Cheikh Raymond ( " Raymond Sheikh " ), his future father in law. When this was shot during the Algerian War on 22 June 1961 by members of the FLN, this led Gaston and his wife Suzy, emigrate to France on 29 July 1961. The couple initially settled in Argenteuil and moved to Paris later.

Here, the artist performed as a singer at a concert with Gilbert Becaud and also had a television appearance. When asked the secretary for a record company after his last name, he replied " Nassia ", but this was recorded as " Macias ". Due to this misunderstanding, he came to his stage name Enrico Macias.

He became internationally known and honored by Kurt Waldheim as a UN messenger of peace in 1980. In 1985 he was taken by the French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius in the Legion of Honour and appointed in April 2007 as an officer. Some of the songs sung by him as Adieu mon pays, have adopted symbolic of the emigration of the Pieds - noirs.

Politically, he is years emerged as a supporter of Israel. Since his emigration from Algeria in 1961, he has not visited his native land again. His desire to French President Nicolas Sarkozy to accompany them on an official trip Algeria in December 2007, was rejected by the Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem.