Bénabar

One of the leading songwriters, composers and performers on the new French scene of the 2000s, Bruno Nicolino, aka Bénabar, was born in Thiais (Val-de-Marne) on June 16, 1969. He played the trumpet as a child and moved to the United States after his baccalauréat, before working in the film industry. The son of a stage manager, he held the same job and made three short films: Nada Lézard (1991), Sursum Corda (1992) and José Jeannette (1994), which won an award at the Cognac Film Festival. A screenwriter for television, he composes and writes songs and forms a clown duo called Patchol et Barnabé, when he is encouraged to choose the musical path by an admirer who has become his manager. He took the name Bénabar (an anagram of Barnabé) for Bénabar & Les Associés' first group album, La P'tite Monnaie, released in 1997. Bénabar went on to make a solo album, Bénabar (2001), nominated twice at the Victoires de la Musique awards, followed by Les Risques du Métier (2003), with the title track "Je suis de celles", which proved a big hit and won him the trophy for Song and Variety Album of the Year. The tour that followed resulted in the album Live au Grand Rex (2004), featuring duets with Henri Salvador and Michel Delpech. Certified a diamond disc, the following album Reprise des Négociations (2005) features the classic "Le Dîner", while the title track "L'Effet papillon " precedes the release of his fifth opus, Infréquentable (2008). Bénabar is featured in the film Incognito (2009), for which he wrote the original score, and in the play Quelqu'un comme vous (2011), where he alternates between stage, film and TV appearances, recordings and tours. The 2011 release of the collection Les Bénéfices du Doute was accompanied by the single "Politiquement correct", and a new tour led to the album en public and the DVD Bien L'Bonsoir M'sieurs-Dames (2012). In 2015, Bénabar takes part in the first part of the Corsu Mezu Mezu project. In his characteristic vein, where humor and irony rub shoulders with tenderness, he continues to chisel out lyrics for his subsequent albums Inspiré de Faits Réels including "Paris by Night" (2014) and Le Début de la Suite (2018). In 2021, the albums Indocile Heureux and On Lâche Pas l'Affaire, including the duet "Chez les Corses" with Renaud, were released ten months apart. He collaborates with Tété and Cali before unveiling extracts from his album Le Soleil des Absents (2026), including "Reste-t-il du bonheur" with Pascal Obispo.