Jean-François Bodart was born on the 30th of September 1964 in the Reine Astrid maternity ward in Charleroi in the South of Belgium. Home was a dentist father, a housewife mother and quite naturally a piano to play. An instrument which he hated. "I‘ve still got a huge grudge against Bach and Schubert," he says, "but I managed to learn classical guitar as well". And soon enough he subverted it by making it go electric : "I cobbled together a mike which I plugged in to the instrument". 

The rock era 

At six, Jeff made his stage debut at the Primary school in Farciennes where he sang a hit by the Poppys. A... playground success which enabled him to realise that the stage was sacred. Soon, he progressed to other bands. At twelve his discovery of the Rolling Stones and Roxy Music coincided with the discovery of French rock bands which were springing forth at that time : Bijou in particular and Starshooter whose members included Kent, who was to become one of his best friends. Closer to the eighties, punk became all the rage. Jeff started his first band, Spasmes, without a bass-player, with two guitarists and a drummer.

In 1985, it was as the leading figure of Gangsters d'Amour that Jeff Bodart became well-known with two albums and a few singles ("SOS Barracuda", "Meurtre à Hawaï", "Baron rouge", "Coûte que coûte", "Willy ne pense qu'à ça", ...). They made appearances on all the French as well as Belgian stages. They were guests in the first part of the James Brown concert at the Forest national (the biggest concert hall in Brussels.). In 1992, after the tour to top all tours which took them from Louisiana to Russia and right up to the Chinese borders, Jeff went off on his own. "The last thing I can handle is to find myself in stuck in a mould, impervious to anything else." he explained when interviewed for Télémoustique.

Research solo 

In 1994, Jeff Bodart set himself up on his own. As a soloist, he made a name for himself with songs which are proof of a research into irony in his writing and music. His first album, "Du vélo sans les mains" was released in 1995. Devoutly optimistic, he explains in a totally serious manner, albeit tongue-in-cheek, that in order to be happy all you have to do is whistle. A long tour followed. 

In 1998, his second solo album, "Histoires universelles", sent Jeff Bodart heading towards crooning pop songs, which combine feeling and emotion, a certain style of arrangements and striking melodies. Five songs were attributed to Kent including "Il faut de tout pour faire un homme". The actor Benoît Poelvoorde added the odd lyric and his voice can be heard here and there. The first two thousand albums came with a "Guide to Bodart" as if it were a life-style guide. With his cap firmly ensconced on his head, his two faithful accompanying instrumentalists on either side, Olivier Bodson (percussion, trumpet, guitar) and Pierre Gillet, known as Julio (keyboards, guitar, percussion), once again Jeff performed all over the French-speaking communities. In July of that same year was also his "Fête" at the Spa Francofolies (in the East of Belgium). M (Mathieu Chedid), Marka, Philippe Lafontaine were there. The public was captivated to the point of having to sit on paving-stones when this charming man began a romantic duet with the beautiful Axelle Red. 

The singer also wrote music for feature films, TV and short films like "Petite misère" by Laurent Brandebourger with Marie Trintignant. When you ask him about musical influences, he replies : "What fool can boast originality ?". His taste encompasses Jo Jackson and Alain Bashung, and includes Christophe who he is stunned by. : "He sings like a living god. It’s amazing.". 

Jeff reinvents nostalgia

In 2001, "Ça ne me suffit plus" reveals a new maturity. As is shown by the title of this third album, the author no longer is satisfied by his image as the eternal optimist, the happy hatted singer. Miossec ("La vie, la mort"), Marc Morgan and the author and journalist Rudy Leonet gave him a helping hand in his writing. Benjamin Biolay, with the string arrangements and Jean-Marie Aerts, a long-standing colleague of Arno’s in TC Matic, added several contrasting colours to the album’s musical palette. It was also the record of the break-up with the Russian concert-pianist who was his partner of nine years.

A charming rogue, Jeff always burns with passionate intensity whilst relating the stories that only he knows how to tell. In the middle of his concerts, you can find him paddling in a fountain in the centre of Brussels, suddenly singing a song by Brel, or scrambling up the loudspeaker ramps around the stage. He even went as far as to slip on a banana skin at the Spa Francofolies in 2002 and ended the concert limping before getting in an ambulance which was waiting for him backstage. He returned with his ankle in plaster but would never have dreamt of interrupting his show. Because for him, making music "is like digging a hole and looking for water" : "You don’t know where it will take you. You have to take certain risks. The best thing we can give people is to take risks and to dig deep. I’m not interested in doing the same record twice."

In June 2003, Bodart’s partly-ironic, partly-melancholic fourth album "T'es rien ou t'es quelqu'un" (You’re nothing or you’re someone"), explored the dilemma of ‘being or nothingness’ common to all artists trying to grapple with fame - or the frustrating lack of it!

In July 2004, Bodart put in an appearance at the Francofolies music festival in La Rochelle, performing a special "Belgomania" concert with Marka and Philippe Lafontaine. The trio went on to perform the same Belgian music set at the Francofolies de Spa a few days later.

In September 2005, Bodart was given a prestigious honour when the Culture Minister of the French Community in Belgium made him a ‘Chevalier de l'Ordre de Léopold II.’ (Marka was awarded the same honour on the same occasion).

In 2006, Bodart got down to work preparing material for a new album. Once his intensive period of songwriting was finished, he set off to record his new songs in Brussels and Denis Moulin’s studio in Montpellier, in the south of France. Bodart’s new album was mixed in Miami by Patrice Cramer before being mastered by Dave Collins in Los Angeles.

2008: "Et parfois, c'est comme ça"

Bodart’s new album, "Et parfois, c'est comme ça", finally hit record stores in January 2008. This was a major achievement after what the singer himself described as an "extremely difficult year" (a year during which Bodart had taken his alcoholic binges and all-night excesses to a new extreme). The thirteen songs on the album featured guest contributions from François Bernheim, Jacques Duvall, Miossec (his laughter can be heard at one point), Isabelle Antena, ex-Gangsters member Olivier Bodson, Pierre Gillet and Henri Hiernaux. Lyrically speaking, "Et parfois, c'est comme ça" was a highly intimate, quasi-autobiographical album on which Bodart exposed a number of his personal problems and licked his open wounds.

In February 2008, Bodart hit the live circuit again, kicking off a new tour with a concert at La Rotonde du Botanique, in Brussels.

In April, Bodart suffered a seizure as a result of a malignant brain tumour. Doctors induced an artificial coma but the singer died in hospital three weeks later, on 19 May. He was 44 years old.

May 2008

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