Gilbert Laffaille is a French singer-songwriter, who was born in Paris and grew up in Neuilly-sur-Seine (the place that features in his song Neuilly Blues). After a chaotic education he became a french teacher in 1973. He began his career as a singer-songwriter in 1976, singing other people's songs, occasionally in English. He began performing his own compositions at the cabaret Chez Georges in Paris's Latin Quarter. He became well known though his song Le président et l'éléphant which criticized the then French president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, for his African adventures. This song was then followed by his first album Le Président et l'éléphant which came out in 1977. His made his second album at Bourges in the Spring of 1978. It went on to win the Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros. He combined on-stage theatrics with the recordings and created "le skonch" (half-sketch, half-chanson). He also wrote songs with other famous artists: Tom du Mali with Romain Didier & Michel Fugain In 1989 his career took on an international dimension with shows in Japan, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia (as it was then called), Quebec, France & Madagascar.. In 2003 on the release of his album Dimanche après-midi, Gilbert Laffaille predicted that he would move away from music and into other fields: art, children's books or literature. In February 2004, he became head of the Centre de la Chanson d'expression francophone in Paris. Gifted with a deep sensitivity, Gilbert Laffaille often writes songs in which one can sense his pleasure in creating rhymes and in the interplay of words (La faute à personne). He takes equal pleasure in writing ironic or cutting lyrics, denouncing situations that repel him (Neuilly Blues, Le président et l'éléphant, Dents d'ivoire et peau d'ébène). And finally he also sometimes expresses an intimate and very personal poetry. On stage he has come to mix his songs with sketches where humour jostles with absurdity or parody. He is the author of an irresistable "skonch" called Charlotte. Discographie Le Président et l'éléphant (1977) Nettoyage de printemps (1978) Kaléidoscope (1980) Live in Chatou (1981) Folie douce (1983) L'année du rat (1985) Travelling (1988) Ici (1994) Tout m'étonne (1996) Introuvables (1998) La Tête Ailleurs (1999) Dimanche après-midi (2003)
