Quentin Elias

Quentin Elias
Quentin Elias (New York, March 2008)
Background information
Born	(1974-05-10)10 May 1974 (other sources report a birth year of 1980) Mende, Lozère, France
Died	25 February 2014(2014-02-25) (aged 39) Staten Island, New York City, New York, USA
Genres	Pop, R&B, dance
Years active	1996–2014
Labels	Quentin Elias Music Inc.
Associated acts	Alliage
Website	www.quentinelias.com

Quentin Elias (10 May 1974 – 25 February 2014) was a French singer, actor and model. Of Algerian heritage, he was the original lead singer of the French boy band Alliage with Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares and Brian Torres from 1996 to 2000. After his departure from the group, he relocated to the United States where he developed a solo singing career singing in English and French, releasing a number of albums, EPs and singles through his company Quentin Elias Music and distribution by Electro Boy Inc Records. He also worked as a model, acted in a number of feature films, television series and on stage and was featured in a number of advertisements. He took part in documentaries notably The Adonis Factor appearing on the documentary's promotional cover. He was active in body training, tattooing, in photography and in active blogging of his progress, all the while releasing more materials online. He was briefly involved in solo adult appearances on the Randy Blue gay male site under the pseudonym Q. He made a comeback in France starting in 2011, appearing in a number of tours, made new releases for the French and European markets, including remakes of earlier Alliage hits and had a number of appearances on popular French reality television shows and on talk and entertainment shows talking candidly about his past. On 25 February 2014, Elias died at his home in New York City.

Quentin Akacha Elias was born in the small commune of Mende, Lozère, France (although some sources dispute this and cite Marseilles as his place of birth) to Algerian immigrants. He was born to Algerian (father) and Malika Zeggour (mother) and had one sister Nina. After attending some of his sister's dance classes, Elias became interested in performing and was enrolled in classes where he studied tap, ballet and modern jazz. He also participated and competed in kick-boxing. After his father died in a car accident when Quentin was just 18, Elias left home and relocated to Paris, where he worked odd jobs while auditioning for singing and or dancing gigs.

In 1996, Elias auditioned and was selected as a member of Alliage and became its lead singer. Alliage was composed of Quentin, Steven Gunnell, Roman Lata Ares and Brian Torres and they recorded two albums, Alliage, l'album in 1997 and Musics in 1998.