Belgian singer Claude Barzotti, whose real name is Francesco Barzotti, author of slow songs and hit songs of the 1980s such as Aime Moi, Madame or Je ne t’ecrirai plus, died at his home from cancer, has announced his manager on Saturday to AFP.
The singer-songwriter with a slightly hoarse voice “died at the age of 69 in his bed, surrounded by his two daughters”, in Cour-Saint-Étienne, a town between Brussels and Charleroi, in Belgium, said Laurent Comtat. “Barzotti preferred to be called a singer of emotion rather than a romantic. He was a lively flayed, a real sensitive, who drank to fight against his stage fright, ”he said. To our colleagues from the specialized newspaper Moustique, he also confided: “Alcohol destroyed my career all the same and destroyed me altogether. It’s sad because I ruined everything. Because alcohol makes you stupid…”
“I am rital and I remain so”, also sang Barzotti in one of his hits Le Rital, where the one who was born near Charleroi on July 23, 1953 evoked his origins. His father was an Italian miner. He had taken another path, journalism first. He worked for nine years as artistic director at Vogue. Then the song.
His successes brought him in the mid-80s to the biggest stages. He was then a star and the young Céline Dion had even made her first part in 1985. He sold 1.7 million copies of his hit, Madame.
In the 2000s, he participated in the nostalgic Age tender and head of wood tour (seasons 3, 4 and 5), with Sheila, Patrick Juvet, Frank Alamo or Stone and Charden.
In 2019, he released his latest album, Un Homme. Before announcing a year later the complete cessation of his career due to serious health problems. He suffered from terrible pancreatitis which prevented him from standing up and forced him, at the time, to go to the hospital every day.
