From abandoned medical school to the Big Bazar's colorful troupe

Michel Fugain was born in Grenoble in 1942, the son of a doctor and resistance fighter, Pierre Fugain. Passionate about New Wave cinema, he abandoned his medical studies to become a filmmaker in Paris, and from 1963 he worked as an assistant director. In drama classes he met Michel Sardou, and he composed his first songs for him.

In 1965 Fugain signed a publishing contract with Barclay and wrote melodies for Hugues Aufray, Marie Laforêt and Dalida. His first success of his own came in 1967 with “Je n'aurai pas le temps”, to lyrics by Pierre Delanoë. The song later reached English-speaking ears when John Rowles recorded it as “If I Only Had Time”.

In 1971 he created Le Big Bazar, a troupe of singers and dancers in loose, colorful clothes, driven by the hippie and community spirit that followed 1968. For five years the hits kept coming: “Une belle histoire”, “Fais comme l'oiseau”, “La Fête”, “Les Acadiens” and “Le Printemps”, plus sold-out nights at the Olympia. A musical comedy for the cinema, Un jour, la fête, followed in 1974. In 1977 he wrote the activist song “Le Chiffon rouge” for a big show in Le Havre, and in 1979 he founded a workshop for artists at the Victorine Studios.

The later decades were harder, professionally and personally. Albums such as Viva la vida in 1986 and Forteresse in 1992 kept him on stage, and he worked with the Belgian singer Maurane. In 2001 his daughter Laurette was diagnosed with leukemia, and she died in 2002; Fugain stepped back until 2005. He later launched the Pluribus project in 2013. Ten million records over fifty years, and in 2025 the rank of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters, show how far “Une belle histoire” has carried him.