Biography

Michel Polnareff (born 3 July 1944, Nérac, Lot-et-Garonne, France) is a French singer-songwriter, who was popular in France from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s with his penultimate original album, Kāma-Sūtra. He is still critically acclaimed and occasionally tours in France, Belgium and Switzerland. Michel was born into an artistic family: his mother, Simonne Lane (1912-1973), was a Breton dancer and his father, Leib Polnareff (Russian: Лейб Полнарёв) or Léo Poll (1899-1988) was a Russian Jewish immigrant from Odessa who worked with Édith Piaf. He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. He learned the guitar, and after his studies, military service, and a brief time in insurance, he began to play his guitar on the steps of the Sacré Cœur.