Mario Armel

Mario Armel was born in June 1947 in Port-Louis, Mauritius. His father was a musician in the police brass band, his mother a pianist and his grandfather a music teacher, so Mario became familiar with music at an early age, performing on stage from the age of 15. He joined the amateur groups Universal Band and then Traveller's Band, before going solo. He sings mainly variété and is nicknamed the "Mauritian Mike Brant". In fact, he covers "Laisse-moi t'aimer" by his elder brother. Although he worked as a typographer in printing works to support himself, his first vocation caught up with him. In the late 1960s, he joined the Night Birds and played in hotels. He continued this activity in South Africa during the 1970s with the group Hot Sounds of Mauritius. In 1973, the single "Femme Canaille" was released. In 1975, the group had the opportunity to record The Hot Sound of Mauritius is Sega Music, which became a must-have record on the vega scene. It featured the songs "Sascha" and "Soul Sega" alongside covers of Kris Kristofferson and Claude François. But the album that brought them to fame was Lalabye , released the following year, thanks to the title track and "Anita My Love" . The latter in particular shows Mario Armel's desire to incorporate elements of Latin music into sega. In 1979, Mario Armel sold almost 90,000 copies of his song "Carri Poson", in a re-recorded version since the first had been censored. In 1983, he also released the album The Hot Sound , which continued his success in Mauritius. Although his recording activity slowed down - in 2003 he released Le Monde à l'Envers with Patricia Armel and Claude David under the name Islandio Group, which included the song "Reculer pour mieux sauter" - the singer remained active, performing well into his 75s.