Julien Clerc

Though sometimes dismissed in his native land as little more than a "chanteur de charme" -- in other words, "a ladies' singer" -- Julien Clerc in fact enjoyed one of the most successful and longest-lived careers in contemporary French pop, shaping the nouvelle chanson aesthetic across a span of decades that began in the shadow of the student rebellions of 1968 and continuing well into the following century. His 1968 single "La Cavalerie" made him an overnight superstar, topping the French pop charts and emerging as one of the anthems of the concurrent rebellions, thanks in large part to its oft-quoted lyric "I'll abolish boredom." ~ Jason Ankeny