Skip to content
Vinony
English
EnglishBahasa IndonesiaDeutschEspañolFrançaisItalianoNederlandsPolskiPortuguêsSvenskaTiếng ViệtTürkçeРусскийالعربيةفارسی한국어中文日本語
Jacques Brel

File:Jacques_Brel_(1962).jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ1666· pop 82· linked from 753 articles

Jacques Brel

Sign in to save

Belgian singer (1929–1978)

OverviewAI-generated

Jacques Brel was a male singer-songwriter from Belgium, active in the chanson, chanson française, and chanson à texte genres. His professional work period spanned from 1953 until 1978. He is associated with the Fondation Brel à Bruxelles, which maintains an official website dedicated to his legacy.

Brel’s recorded works have accumulated significant listenership, with 11,264,241 plays recorded by Last.fm and 511,286 listeners. Bibliographic records list multiple works under his name, including *Plus Grandes Chansons de Jacques Brel* and titles identifying him as a poet. His writings have been referenced by 753 other encyclopedia articles.

His literary output includes quotes such as, "If we only have love Then tomorrow will dawn And the days of our years Will rise on that morn." Brel was born in 1929 and died in 1978.

Synthesized by Vinony from 29 facts across 9 sources: Wikidata, Last.fm, Crossref, Europeana Sparql, Firecrawl, Wikiquote, MusicBrainz, Open Library, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born
1929
Died
1978
Works
24

Top works

  • Jacques Brel
  • Plus Grandes Chansons de Jacques Brel
  • Jacques Brel
  • ʻErev shire Zaḳ Brel
  • Jacques Brel, poète

via Open Library + Wikidata

Music · MusicBrainz

Type
Person
Gender
Male
Origin
Belgium
Active from
1929-04-08
Active to
1978-10-09
belgianchansonchanson françaisechanson à texteeuropeanfrench

Discography

Official siteDiscogsStream

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
511,286
Total plays
11,264,241

Tags

chansonfrenchchanson francaisebelgiansinger-songwriter

Jacques Brel (8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in Belgium and France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson. Although he recorded most of his songs in French, he became a major influence on English-speaking songwriters and performers such as David Bowie, Alex Harvey, Leonard Cohen, Marc Almond

via Last.fm · Jacques Brel

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. Global Cancer Statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries

    · 2021 · cited 79,282x

  2. Global cancer statistics 2018: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries

    · 2018 · cited 53,837x

  3. Global cancer statistics

    · 2011 · cited 23,192x

  4. Cancer incidence and mortality worldwide: Sources, methods and major patterns in GLOBOCAN 2012

    · 2014 · cited 21,630x

  5. Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries

    · 2024 · cited 20,735x

via Crossref · CC0

Quotes

  • “Adieu, Francoise, my trusted wife; Without you I'd have had a lonely life. You cheated lots of times but then, I forgave you in the end Though your lover was my friend.Adieu, Francoise, it's hard to die When all the birds are singing in the sky. Now that spring is in the air With your lovers ev'rywhere, Just be careful; I'll be there.”
  • “If we only have love Then tomorrow will dawn And the days of our years Will rise on that morn.”
  • “If we only have love We can reach those in pain We can heal all our wounds We can use our own names.”
  • “If we only have love We can melt all the guns And then give the new world To our daughters and sons.If we only have love Then Jerusalem stands And then death has no shadow There are no foreign lands.”
  • “If we only have love We will never bow down We'll be tall as the pines Neither heroes nor clowns. If we only have love Then we'll only be men And we'll drink from the Grail To be born once again; Then with nothing at all But the little we are We'll have conquered all time All space, the sun, and the stars!”

via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA

Official website

Fondation Brel à Bruxelles | Le site dédié à Jacques Brel

fondationbrel.be →

Link to the official site · 10,779 chars · not written by Vinony

Works in European collections

1 object attributed to Jacques Brel, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana

Jacques Brel still lives, 1982 Jacques Brel still lives, Jacques Brel is Jacques and well and Jacques in Paris

Jacques Brel still lives, 1982 Jacques Brel still lives, Jacques Brel is Jacques and well and Jacques in Paris

~40 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Jacques Romain Georges Brel ( French: [ʒɑk ʁɔmɛ̃ ʒɔʁʒ bʁɛl] ; 8 April 1929 – 9 October 1978) was a Belgian singer and actor who composed and performed theatrical songs. He generated a large, devoted following—initially in Belgium and France, but later throughout the world. He is considered a master of the modern chanson.

Although he recorded most of his songs in French and occasionally in Dutch, he became an influence on English-speaking songwriters and performers, such as Scott Walker, David Bowie, Brett Anderson, Alex Harvey, Marc Almond, Neil Hannon, and Rod McKuen. English translations of his songs were recorded by many performers, including Bowie, Walker, Anderson, Ray Charles, Judy Collins, John Denver, The Kingston Trio, Nina Simone, Shirley Bassey, James Dean Bradfield, Frank Sinatra, and Andy Williams.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Jacques Brel” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (12)

Available in 69 languages

Show 50 more

via Wikidata sitelinks · CC0