Enrico Macias

Enrico Macias
Enrico Macias in 2016
Background information
Birth name	Gaston Ghrenassia
Born	(1938-12-11) 11 December 1938 (age 78) Constantine
Origin	French Algeria
Genres	Chanson
Occupation(s)	Composer, singer, songwriter
Instruments	Guitar
Website	Enrico Macias Official Website

Gaston Ghrenassia (born 11 December 1938 in Constantine, then in French Algeria), known by his stage name Enrico Macias French pronunciation: ​[ɛn.ʁi.ko.ma'sjas], is a French Pied-noir singer, songwriter and musician. He is popular throughout the world and has travelled extensively for fifty years, from the early 1960s to the present.

He was born to an Algerian Jewish family in Constantine, Algeria, and played the guitar from childhood. His father, Sylvain Ghrenassia (1914–2004), was a violinist in an orchestra that played primarily maalouf, Andalo-Arabic music. Gaston started playing with the Cheikh Raymond Leyris Orchestra at age 15.

He pursued a career as a school teacher, but continued practicing the guitar. In 1961, the Algerian War of Independence was raging, and the situation became untenable for the Jewish and European residents of Constantine. Of immense effect on Gaston Ghrenassia was the assassination in 1961 of his father-in-law and musician Cheikh Raymond Leyris by the National Liberation Front (FLN), which appears to have been due to his opposition to the independence of Algeria from France. Gaston left Algeria with his wife, Suzy, on 29 July 1961, eleven months before the end of the Algerian War of Independence, and went into exile in mainland France. He has not been permitted to return to Algeria ever since.

First living in Argenteuil, he eventually moved to Paris, where he decided to pursue a career in music. At first he tried translating into French the maalouf numbers which he already knew. Later on, he developed a new French repertoire that he performed in cafés and cabarets. He remained, though, a popular interpreter of Arab-Andalusian music and Judeo-Arab songs in France.