The singer, in the honor of the Victoires de la Musique, was not born Bernard Lavilliers in the civil registry.
The Victoires de la Musique celebrate Bernard Lavilliers. The 77-year-old singer receives an honorary trophy this Friday evening, live from the Seine Musicale, during the ceremony broadcast live on France 2 and France Inter. The opportunity to celebrate the immense career of the committed artist, who had to wait until 2011 and almost fifty years of career to receive one of these precious rewards, the Victory for the album of songs from the year with Lost Causes and tropical music.
If there are many intriguing aspects in the life of Bernard Lavilliers, the first of them could be that of his real name. Indeed, the singer, well known by his stage name, is in fact called Bernard Ouillon in his civil status. It was in 1968 that the artist decided to change his surname, swapping Ouillon for Lavilliers, which is, among other things, a nod to the town of Aubervilliers.
The interpreter of Idées Noirs himself explained it in an interview with Le Monde in 2018: “Lavilliers, it’s a name that I invented, no one’s name is like me! It comes a bit from Aubervilliers, as in Prévert’s poem. Lavilliers sounds like a street aristocrat.”