Philippe D'Avilla

He directed a number of short films, including L'Abandon. Co-produced by the Université libre de Bruxelles, this film tells the story of a young gay man. In 1997, he took to the stage in Jean Genet’s Les Paravents alongside Laurent Capelluto, Stéphanie Coerten, Philippe Derlet and Frederik Haùgness, amongst others. With his Martin baritone voice, he then turned his hand to a career as a singer. Between 1995 and 1998, he gave numerous singing recitals in Belgium whilst continuing his vocal training. He appeared in television films, performed in the theatre, worked in radio, television and advertising, and designed costumes, masks and theatre sets… In 1999, Philippe d’Avilla became the lead performer at the Brussels cabaret ‘“Chez Flo”’. That same year, he took part in the RTBF talent show ‘Pour La Gloire’, reaching the semi-finals. After appearing in a few French television films, he auditioned for ‘Notre-Dame de Paris’ but was not selected.

Fame

In June 1999, he signed a contract to join the cast of Roméo et Juliette, de la haine à l'amour, a production in which he played the role of Mercutio. Featuring Grégori Baquet and Damien Sargue, as well as Cécilia Cara and Tom Ross, amongst others, the cast performed over 300 shows and went on several tours until 2003. Over 9 million copies sold, nearly 2 million theatregoers, and 17 non-consecutive weeks at n^umber one in France with Les Rois du monde. Certified diamond by the SNEP, the track sold around 1,400,000 copies and is the 21st best-selling single of all time in France, according to the Infodisc website. In French-speaking Belgium, the song also reached number one. As in France, the track was the second best-selling single of 2000, behind Yannick’s ‘Ces soirées-là’, which, however, spent less time at the top of the Ultratop 40. In Switzerland, the song reached number 9. In the Netherlands, the track reached n^umber 79 in the Dutch Top 40. The group won an NRJ Music Award for Francophone Song of the Year in 2001 for ‘Les Rois du monde’. The single ‘On dit dans la rue’ reached number 21 in the French charts and number 32 in Belgium. Alongside the cast of Roméo et Juliette, de la haine à l'amour, he was one of the artists featured on the Noël ensemble compilation for Sidaction in 2000.

He was one of the artists featured on the 2002 single ‘Un seul mot d'amour’, alongside Clémence, Pino Santoro and Nuno Resende. It reached number 48 in the French charts and number 20 in the Belgian best-seller charts. He was due to appear in the musical Jeanne la romantique as part of the promotion for this single, but withdrew from the project following various issues with the production of the show. That same year, the trio comprising Pino Santoro, Philippe d’Avilla and Nuno Resende recorded J'suis p'tit, which reached number 34 in the Belgian singles chart.

Eclecticism

Since 2003, he has shared the stage with Grégori Baquet, Renaud Hantson and Pablo Villafranca in Tous en scène contre la sclérose, a charity show touring France. He appeared in the short films Marie-Madeleine, Mauvaise Erreur !!! and Parking. Philippe then went into the studio to record his first solo album. A first single, a cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s ‘Pull marine’, was released from the album in the spring of 2005. He served as a vocal coach for several series of the political comedy show Sois Belge et tais-toi !. In 2005, he co-wrote two songs for Viktor Lazlo’s album Saga.

In 2007 and 2008, he was part of the cast of the musical Émilie Jolie and played the title role in Jekyll and Hyde, the musical in Belgium. He was a member of various bands, such as LouiZ in 2008 and Silent*Box in 2006. In early 2010, the first single from his album The Confession of a Drama, produced by internet users via the crowd-funded label Aka Music, was released. It was a cover of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, followed by the track Prisoner of Love. Philippe d’Avilla has directed several shows. In August 2011, he contributed to the musical La Belle au bois dormant, que veillent les fées... as set designer and performer. A CD of the show was released in December 2011.

On Vitor Hublot’s album Brassens Selon Vitor Hublot, Vol. 1, he performed the song Le pornographe in 2011.

In March 2012, he was the director and set designer for Lucie Bernardoni’s Parisian song recital Mélancosmiaque. In June 2012, the musical Les instants volés by Cyrille Garit and Steve Perrin was staged in Paris, featuring Philippe d’Avilla.

In late 2013, he formed the trio Désintégration 80 with Caroline Klaus and Sébastien Ménard. The project features offbeat acoustic covers of French songs from the 1980s. They performed for the first time on stage at the Sentier des Halles in Paris.

In 2014, he joined *Sleepin’Bee*, a tribute show to Barbra Streisand’s Broadway years. This musical, created by Franck Harscouët, premiered at the Théâtre Michel in Paris.

In 2016, he played the role of Juan Perón in the musical *Evita*, which had its world premiere in French during the Bruxellons festival at the Château du Karreveld.

For the 2017 production of Mademoiselle by Isabelle Layer and Philippe d’Avilla, he served as writer, director, set designer, lighting designer, sound designer, video artist and costume designer.