Alain Barrière

Biography

Alain Barrière was a French singer and musician. As a student he bought a guitar and started to write songs. After graduating in engineering in 1960, he moved to Paris to take up employment, and started to perform in the evenings at small clubs around the capital. He won a song contest in 1961. He was soon signed to a recording contract and started to release singles regularly, enabling him to give up his job and make at least a modest living from music.  In 1963, Barrière’s song “Elle était si jolie” was chosen as the French representative in the eighth Eurovision Song Contest. The song turned out to be by far the biggest seller of Barrière’s career to that point. He released his first album, Ma vie, in 1964 and the title-track became a huge hit. In the early 1970s he left his record company to set up his own label. He kept his fanbase, which ensured his records and concerts continued to provide a good living. He published an autobiography in 2006 and continued to release both retrospective and newly recorded albums. On december 18 2019, Barrière died of a cardiac arrest.