Stephan Eicher

Stephan Eicher was born on August 17, 1960 in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, not far from the capital Berne. He soon caught the music bug, largely due to his father's talent as a jazz violinist. So it was only natural that he should head for Zurich to study composition techniques at the F+F Schule für Kunst und Design, then take part in his first bands, first in the electro-punk sphere with Noise Boys, then in the punk-infused cold wave of the group Grauzone, in which he collaborated with his brother Martin. He launched his solo career in 1980 with the mini album Spielt Noise Boyz (reissued in 2009), but soon realized that he needed to exploit the French-speaking side of his art, which he did with the following album, Les Chansons Bleues, in 1983 (No. 21 in Switzerland). But Stephan Eicher is a versatile singer, and later sang in German, Swiss German (Bernese), Italian, English and Romansch-Emmentalois, although most of his greatest hits were in French. I Tell This Night, his third opus, was released in 1985 (No. 10 in Switzerland) and contains Stephan Eicher's first charted single, "Two People in a Room" (No. 27 in France). However, it was in 1987, with the following album, Silence (No. 3 in Switzerland), that the Helvetian really exploded, thanks to the French-language hit "Combien de temps?" (No. 14 in France, No. 19 in Switzerland). After My Place, No. 4 in Switzerland in 1989, Stephan Eicher scored his first two No. 1 hits in the Swiss charts with the albums Engelberg and Carcassonne. This was followed by a succession of landmark albums, from 1000 Vies (No. 1 in Switzerland and No. 18 in France in 1996) to Homeless Songs (new No. 1 in Switzerland in 2019 and No. 10 in France), via Louanges (No. 4 locally in 1999) and the trio of No. 1 hits between 2007 and 2017 on the albums Eldorado, L'Envolée and Song Book. Following the release of the live album Engelberg Live 91 (No. 35 in Switzerland), Stephan Eicher, who has become a major figure in the French chanson world over the course of his four-decade career, released the album Ode in 2022 (No. 8 in France, No. 2 in Switzerland). Three years later, he reunited with his favorite authors, writers Philippe Djian and Martin Suter, for the album Poussière d'Or, which reached No. 1 in Switzerland and No. 16 in France.