Biography
Julien Ernest Philéas, better known as Gramoun Lélé, was a French singer born on 28 February 1930 in Saint-Benoît and who died on 14 November 2004. He is regarded as one of Réunion’s greatest artists.
The word ‘Granmoun’, which features in his nickname, is a term in Réunion Creole referring to elderly people. And ‘lélé’ comes from the fact that his mother would always call out to him at snack time: ‘Julien, lé lait!’.
As a teenager, he worked as a fitter in a sugar factory. After his working week, Gramoun Lélé would sing in the ‘Kabars’ – places where, in keeping with Malagasy tradition, men and women gather to dance to the sound of the island’s traditional instruments. In these kabars, people also play maloya – music inherited from enslaved ancestors who brought their percussion instruments and mystical rhythms with them from Africa.
Introduced at… a very young age to Tamil rituals by his father, and to Malagasy ceremonies by his mother, Gramoun Lélé retains a spiritual dimension in his Maloya. He draws inspiration from his dreams, his experiences and the nature that surrounds him. But it is within the family that the artist truly nurtures his musical roots. In recent years, of the twelve musicians who accompanied his unique voice, seven were his own children.
He was also a member of the Réunion Communist Party (PCR) in the Saint-Benoît branch.
Gramoun Lélé died at the age of 74 on 14 November 2004, following a long battle with kidney disease. He left a legacy of over 200 tracks to the culture of maloya, of which he was one of the greatest figures.
Based on Wikipedia (in French), translation DeepL (CC BY-SA licence)
1Songs
| Song | Year | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Miasa | 1999 |
|