Patrick Fiori

​Like Yves Montand, Patrick Fiori was born (1969) in Marseilles and, like Charles Aznavour, his father was of Armenian descent. Later, he adopted his Corsican mother’s maiden surname (Fiori) as his stage name in lieu of his birth name Chouchayan.

​He had an early start in music, playing in a musical in 1981 (“La Légende des Santonnier”), recording his first song (Stéphanie) in 1985 and releasing his debut album (“Puisque c'est l'heure”) in 1994. Along the way, he plowed the traditional path for emerging artists--opening concerts for other artists, participating in variety shows and song contests including Eurovision in 1993, when he celebrated his maternal heritage by singing “Mama Corsica” in Ireland, finishing fourth.

​Fiori’s career breakout occurred between 1998-2000 from his role as Phoebus in the sung-through musical Notre Dame de Paris written by French-Canadian lyricist and music executive Luc Plamondon with music composed by Riccardo Cocciante. That show was based on Victor Hugo’s novel by the same name (The Hunchback of Notre Dame in English) published in 1831. The story recounts a multi-sided love relationship involving a beautiful Romani dancer Esmeralda and a hunchback bell-ringer Quasimodo, a priest Claude Frollo who supervises Quasimodo, her eventual husband Pierre Gringoire and the handsome Captain Phoebus (Fiori). In it, Fiori joined Garou (Pierre Garand) and Marc Lavoine in singing the song “Belle” that in 1999 won “Best Song of the Year” at the Victoires de la Musique (French Grammys). In 1998, it became the third best-selling single song in French history. It was a great platform to launch a solo career, which Fiori did in 2000.

​In the context of the French “chanson” ecosystem, only a few artists rise to the top as “auteur-compositeur-interprète” (ACI) (“singer-songwriter”) with a full package of competences across-the-board in vocal performance, music composition, and lyric writing. Such individuals include iconic names like Charles Aznavour, Georges Brassens, Serge Gainsbourg, Jacques Brel, Francis Cabrel and a few others. Front-line vocal performers require the attributes of populist politicians who thrive and feed on a relationship with their audience. Artists who are less enthralled by the adulation may view the stage with dread (“le trac”) (“stage fright”). Some artists like Jean-Jacques Goldman and Françoise Hardy are successful performers decide instead to focus on songwriting and music composition.

​As a result, most “chanson” tubes (hits) are the product of collaboration between songwriters, composers, performers, arrangers (and more). For Fiori, these have included close professional and personal relationships with Jean-Jacques Goldman, Calogero, Ariane Quatrefages, many others and most recently, Ycare (Assane Attyé), a French singer-songwriter born in 1983 in Senegal. Fiori himself, like Florent Pagny, is primarily a “voice” or singer/performer with rich vocal qualities. Many of his songs are duets with other singers and he is clearly a product of his early experience in musical theater and enjoys the interplay and blending of voices. He generally does not play an instrument while performing, although he reportedly is skilled with the “duduk,” an Armenian double reed woodwind instrument made of apricot wood, which is probably impossible to play while singing.

​After 2000, Fiori proceeded to release a succession of albums and singles while touring France and other countries and appearing at Paris concert venues. By 2024, Fiori had released 12 studio albums, 8 of which ranked within the top 10 in France. Especially in recent years, he relies heavily on collaborators for material. Since 1999, he has been an active participant in the annual musical benefit concert “Les Enfoirés”/The Bastards” produced by the French charitable group Les restaurants (restos) du choeur. He has also served consistently since 2015 as a coach on the televised talent show for young singers aged 6-15 “The Voice Kids.”

​Patrick Fiori Songs
This post features 3 songs:
​
Belle (1999), with Garou & Daniel Lavoie (from Notre Dame de Paris musical)
4 mots sur un piano (2007), with Jean-Jacques Goldman & Christine Ricol
Le chant est libre (2024) (under construction)