Popular and committed singer, songwriter and musician.
Biography:
His father was deported from France and died in Auschwitz, so he chose to express himself first through theater, then through song and lyrics. The lyrics of Nuit et Brouillard (1963), winner of the Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, describe the deportation at a time when the subject was avoided:
They were twenty and a hundred, they were thousands,
naked and skinny, trembling, in these leaden wagons,
tearing at the night with their pounding fingernails.
They were thousands, they were twenty and a hundred.
Ferrat sang against the horrors of WW2 (Nuit et Brouillard), colonial wars (Un air de liberté) and totalitarian violence (Bilan). He was especially loved for his songs about the values of friendship and love (Que serais-je sans toi, La femme est l'avenir de l'homme, ...).
