gerald de palmas

Born Gerald Gardrinier in 1967 to French parents in Reunion, the boy who would later be known as Gerald De Palmas spent the first ten years of his life on the small island in the Indian Ocean. In 1977, his family moved to the south of France, and young Gerald became obsessed with bands like the Specials and the Stray Cats, and starting learning how to play guitar and bass. Later, he dropped out of high school in order to more fully concentrate on music, teaming up with Edith Fambuena and Jean-Louis Pierot and forming Les Max Valentins. Though the group never found mainstream success, it did release a few singles, but Gerald decided that he wanted more, and in 1988 he left Les Max Valentins (which then became the duo Les Valentins) for Paris, where he found work as a studio musician, writing songs for himself in his spare time. In 1994, after winning a televised talent competition, De Palmas (who has taken his mother's maiden name as a performer) signed to EMI and released his debut, La Dernière Année, the next year.