Joël Holmes (CHANTEURS ET CHANTEUSES)
82 Rue de Montreuil, 75011 Paris, France

Originally from Bessarabia, then part of Romania, Joël Holmes immigrated to France with his family in 1934. He was orphaned during WW2 when his parents were deported to Auschwitz, he was just 14 years old. To make ends meet he worked several jobs (electrician, salesman, photographer, etc.) before taking acting classes and beginning his singing career. Holmes sang in various Parisian cabarets but it was his victory on the show Numéros 1 de demain, organised by the radio station Europe 1, that gave him his first recording contract in 1959. Although he won the Grand Prix of the Charles-Cros Academy in the 1960s, he gave up singing before the end of the decade.