How the life of the sons of the legendary singer Joe Dassin, who did not know their father and lost their mother early

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Last year, fans celebrated the 40th anniversary of the death of the legendary French pop singer Joe Dassin - romance, a chansonnier in a white suit, performing popular hits about love like no other. During his lifetime, he was called a man of the world, and who knows what heights the singer would reach if he lived a full life. Joe died almost at 42, but after him there was not only a huge legacy of songs, videos, archival tapes, but also two already completely grown sons. How the heirs of the 70s star look and how they live today.

One day in 1962, a ship from New York arrived at the port of Marseilles, from which a handsome American went ashore penniless and with a guitar over his shoulder. Then no one could even imagine that this young man named Joseph Ira Dassin, a few years later, would make a lightning-fast career and literally make a revolution on the French stage. He will easily conquer the conservative French public and become a national hero and pride of the country. And for the rest of his life, he will breathlessly call himself a Parisian, regardless of his American origin.

A bright musically gifted chansonnier of a new formation, he won the hearts of not only the French, he was listened to and loved all over the world. And first of all, he became the idol of millions of women's and girl's hearts. To say that they adored him, adored and believed literally every line he sang is to say nothing. Although he himself did not write the lyrics of his songs, but only music, he sincerely believed in what he sang about, living with his listeners all the romantic stories of his repertoire.

Why every woman believed that Joe Dassin sang just for her - read in our publication.

Despite the lack of musical education, Dassin had a unique singing talent, his voice was intuitively correctly delivered, which conquered the European public. He sang in a pleasant velvety baritone, turning into a half-whisper, then into a recitative. The whole world listened to him with incredible ecstasy. Intimate intonations, combined with innate artistry and pleasant external data, literally made Joe a favorite of the audience. And his radiant, slightly shy smile captivated women's hearts in an instant, making his performances incredibly exciting and memorable.

He knew how to joke, was smart, charming and very talented. This is how everyone who worked and communicated with him remembered him. However, few people knew what the artist actually had in his soul. Joe was monstrously notorious and incredibly demanding of himself. Anxiety and doubts always lived inside him, which he carefully tried to hide.

Joe has always enjoyed success with women. A handsome, charming young man reveled in the attention of the fair sex, regretting that so many beauties remained out of reach. Joe Dassin believed in love, fell in love himself and sought love … However, the singer's personal life cannot be called happy and happy. Unless, with the exception of very short moments that fate occasionally rewarded him with.

Two Marriages That Didn't Bring Happiness by Marise Massiera

It is regrettable to state this, but that high romantic love, which the singer sang throughout his short, but bright and eventful life, he did not manage to fully experience in real life. Soon after his arrival from America, Joe Dassin fell seriously in love. At the premiere of This Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, he met the Greek actress Maryse Massira. After a whirlwind romance that lasted more than two years, the singer married Maryse in 1966. True, the girl had to put good pressure on her lover, delivering an ultimatum: either the mayor's office, or parting. Joe, all the time putting off the talk of the wedding in a long box, gave up.

But, demonstratively appeared at the wedding in an old suit and with a three-day stubble … The couple signed at the mayor's office without much celebration at five o'clock in the evening. Joe and Maryse did not invite any of their friends and relatives, only the singer's mother, Beatrice, Ricky's sister, and Maryse's sister and brother-in-law, witnessed this event. We celebrated the wedding modestly in a Russian restaurant in Paris, where Dassin, due to despair, had plucked up to insensibility.

However, despite Joe's initially negative attitude towards marriage, family life soon began to bring him some pleasure. Maryse took care of him, was by his side during his creative quest and formation, was a reliable support and support in all endeavors. In a word, Maryse became for Joe not only a wife, but also a secretary, manager, chauffeur, nutritionist, hairdresser and dresser.

Whether the idol of millions was happy in marriage is difficult to say. He was pretty secretive. And what concerned his personal life, he carefully guarded from the encroachments of the annoying press. Joe caustically stated in interviews that. And when the reporters' questions became excessively immodest, he exclaimed: It was thanks to this that he managed to some extent to protect his home and his family from journalists.

And with the beginning of an active concert activity, Dassin, for the sake of image, hid his marriage from fans and admirers, in public he was "single", and Maryse was introduced to everyone as a companion accompanying Dassin in social events.

After seven years of marriage, in 1973, Maryse finally became pregnant and gave birth to Dassin's son Joshua. The baby was born prematurely and was very premature. The firstborn was not destined to survive, he died five days after his birth. This tragedy led to great difficulties and misunderstanding in the relationship between the spouses, for whom this child was very long-awaited.

The singer fell into depression and moved away from his wife, whom he once thought he loved very much. He could not be with Maryse and at the same time he could not be without her. These painful relationships were depressing, not giving them the opportunity to work fully. Joe lacked a spark for inspiration, which Christine Delvaux soon gave him.

Christine Delvaux

And, as often happens in such situations, the 40-year-old singer began to look for an outlet on the side. And such an outlet was a girl without a specific occupation, 30-year-old Christine Delvaux. This affair in 1977 led to the divorce of Maryse and Joe. And Christine became not so much Dassin's love, so much a passion that none of his friends and relatives approved of. The girl was a very frivolous blonde who was looking for a beautiful life, but this did not bother the singer - he lost his head and, in his words, "fell in love like a boy.", - wrote years later Delvaux in her memoirs, memoirs.

They got married in January 1978. And already in September their first son Jonathan was born, and a year and a half later a second baby named Julien was born. However, it was difficult to call these relations cloudless, and there was no need to talk about family happiness. The eccentric Christine, by virtue of her addictions, literally dragged Dassin into a vicious whirlpool of alcohol, drugs and parties. In addition, she became over the edge uncontrollable, jealous and hysterical, which did not fit in with Dassin's idea of lofty feelings. Therefore, as Joe was not happy with the second child, their marriage to Christine was doomed. Three weeks after the birth of his son, Joe was forced to file for divorce and seek custody of his children.

The intensity of passions in family relations, constant scandals have left their mark on the French chansonnier. His health was badly shaken, a stomach ulcer opened, his heart ached more and more often, which was already difficult to cope with overload. Dassin was very exhausted by the divorce from his second wife and the proceedings with his ex-wife over their sons. As a result, the court during the proceedings transferred custody of the children to the father. In addition, he had to work 12-15 hours a day.

Joe Dassin's personal drama was that he strove with all his heart for high romantic feelings, about which he sang in his hits, but fate, having endowed him with world fame and recognition, with great public love, deprived him of the most important thing - true love. What accelerated the departure of the idol of millions- read in our publication.

Tragic departure

During a concert on the Côte d'Azur in Cannes in mid-July 1980, Dassin became ill on stage during a performance. Interrupting the performance, he left the stage with a shaky gait with the words: "Excuse me, something is not good for me!" The audience froze in alarm. Backstage, the singer was given an injection and, after a few minutes, gritting his teeth, he returned to the stage to finish the concert. The delighted and grateful audience gave their idol a thunderous ovation, but a few minutes later, under a flurry of applause, Dassin barely went backstage and fainted. His ambulance is taken to the intensive care unit, where doctors diagnose myocardial infarction. And already the second, the first was in 1969.

The singer decided to recover from his illness in Tahiti with his new girlfriend Natalie. In Los Angeles, during a transit plane landing between Paris and Papeete, the singer suffered a new heart attack and Joe arrived in Tahiti in a deplorable state. Having learned about the next attack of her son, Joe's mother flew to the island with his children. In the last days of Joe's life, his mother, friends, little sons, a new beloved - everyone he loved and to whom he devoted so little time to because of his concert activities - was next to him. He hoped that rest would allow him to recover and regain strength. But the unexpected happened.

On August 20, 1980, while dining at Michel and Elian's in Papeete, Joe fell unconscious after drinking a glass of juice. This was the third heart attack, which left no chance for the artist's life. Resuscitation, provided to him on the spot, did not work. Doctors who several times managed to "get" the singer's heart, on the way to the hospital were still forced to state his death. Dassin was incomplete 42 years old … All dreams and plans crashed that August day in 1980, leaving nothing but emptiness for everyone who loved Joe … The singer was buried in the Jewish section of the Beth Olam Mausoleum cemetery in Hollywood, where his ancestors were previously buried … Joe Dassin's grave is closed from visiting a multi-million army of fans.

So unexpectedly and tragically, the life and career of the most popular French pop artist of the 60-70s and one of the most beloved foreign pop performers in the USSR was cut short. This career included 13 albums and about a thousand songs, which are still relevant and loved by fans of his work.

Sons are Joe Dassin's greatest, but shortest happiness

For Joe, sons were the happiness he had been waiting for and dreamed of for many years. But, unfortunately, fate took away his chance and opportunity to fully enjoy his fatherhood. When the singer died, the eldest son was 2 years old, the youngest was 5 months old. After Dassin's death, his mother took the boys and took them to America. But Christine fought for the children to the last, and the court returned her sons to her. They say that it took her years to get rid of drug addiction.

However, this did not help - she died at the age of 45 in a large house near Paris. The teenage boys remained in the care of distant relatives, but both grew up to be wonderful people who, like their father, devoted themselves to music. Forty years after his death, the musical legacy created by the French pop star in the distant 60s and 70s is still alive, and his two sons consider it their duty to preserve what their star father created.

Sons, years later, carefully protect the memory of their father, but are not yet ready to create his museum. Dassin Jr., having collected everything that remained after the death of the singer, tried to recreate his study in his house. On the walls I hung his photographs, gold discs, paintings. But she and her brother do not like to talk about the personal life of their parents and about their scandalous divorce. It is true, the press has long ago put everything on public display, why give a reason for new conjectures …

Jonathan Dassin (1978)

The eldest son Jonathan was born on September 14, 1978. The guy had no other way but music, which he lived from childhood. At the age of 13, he sang in a college music group. And at the age of 16 after the death of his mother, he dropped out of his studies in Belgium to go to Belgrade, carried away by ethnic motives. At 18, he had lived in Tahiti for almost a year. There Jonathan looked for himself, and then returned to Europe. Now he plays reggae, African, Antillean music, performs in various groups, records discs with other performers and travels a lot. Jonathan is married and has two children - a son and a daughter.

Julien Dassin (1980)

Julien Dassin was born on March 22, 1980, exactly five months before his famous father passed away. Unlike his older brother, who became interested in writing his own music, Julien immersed himself more in preserving and promoting his father's legacy. The guy at first did not plan to connect his life with music. Finishing school, he dreamed of becoming an actor and acting in films. Then he decided to go into business, and the university chose the appropriate one. But he soon left his studies to devote himself to music - the music of his illustrious father.

Julien began to collaborate with the same authors with whom Joe Dassin once worked. Therefore, the success was predictable and almost guaranteed. In 2010, he staged the musical "Il tait une fois … Joe Dassin", which was based on songs from Joe Dassin's repertoire and a story about his amazing life. With him, Jules began his great musical career, singing the well-known songs of his father. Of course, at first the young singer went on tour with his production in France, then in Europe. He also came to Russia and the countries of the former CIS. Julien plans to show this musical to the whole world.

In parallel, Jules began releasing his own music albums. However, viewers continue to see the father in the son singing his songs. Julien says that he is not offended, but proud of it:

Now Jules lives in a very prestigious area of Paris, and from the windows of his apartment you can see the Champs Elysees. Once Joe Dassin sang this beautiful place in his song and soon became famous not only in France. By the way, Julien's father's favorite song is "Et si tu n'existais pas". At concerts, he performs it together with his father in a virtual duet. The voice of an idol that sounds from the past, as before, excites especially women's hearts.

Especially for fans and female fans: "Salut": Joe Dassin's song that was popular all over the world.