André Manoukian

André Manoukian, (born in Lyon on April 9, 1957) is an French songwriter, arranger, and jazz musician.Since 2002, he is also one of the four judges in the French version of Pop Idol, "Nouvelle Star".

Biography

André Manoukian is of Armenian extraction. (His actual name or middle name is Antranik, having been rendered "André" for Western languages.)

He began playing the piano when 7 years old. Later, when he was a student, he sold organs in a shop to earn money. At 20, he studied music at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. After the basics he studied musical composition, arrangement and harmony. Upon returning to France, he started a jazz band : Horn Stuff. At the same time he composed for female singers and two jazz-funk albums were recorded. He was also approached to join the band of the singer Michelle Torr.

In 1983, he met the singer Liane Foly, became her boyfriend and composed her first successes, including "Au fur et à mesure" and "Doucement". He also wrote for such artists as Michel Petrucciani, Richard Galliano, Charles Aznavour, Freddy Zucchet, Gilbert Bécaud, Diane Dufresne, Nicole Croisille, Natacha Atlas, Janet Jackson, Myriam Abel, Camille Bazbaz et Malia. He completed the musical arrangement and composition for films including "Quatre étoiles" et "Jean-Philippe". He is currently well known by the general public for being on the M6 reality TV series, "Nouvelle Star" (New Star). He has been on the jury since the first season along with Marianne James, Manu Katché and Dove Attia. During transmission he is the "poet" and psycho-erotico-cosmic philosopher juror. He is a member of the jury of La Nouvelle Star series 6, besides singers Sinclair and Lio and the music journalist Philippe Manoeuvre.

In 2004 he did dubbing in the DVD bonus of "Shrek II", where he dubbed one of the jurors of the singing competition.

He was also in the tranmission of "T'empêches tout le monde de dormir" (You stop everyone sleeping) on M6 presented by Marc-Olivier Fogiel where he portrayed in his manner the "Psycho-erotico-cosmico-musical" of the guests by translating the name of a personality in shorthand notes with a melody which he composed and played on the synthesizer.on the 5 February 2007, André Manoukian presented the Globes de Cristal besides Elisabeth Quin on Paris Première.

From the 21st of February 2007 he has presented "Dédé les doigts de fée" (Dede nimble fingers) on Paris Première, a program about guests who are from different types of music. For him, their life is a song recorded on a multi-track. To better portray his guests, André Manoukian invites them to recount their lives in a real recording studio. He composes a new piece in his style. He makes a musical instrument and a line of the music correspond to the colour of each period of the life of his guest. At the keyboard, a piece totally personal, the hit of a life.

In the same year André Manoukian composed the new album for Beverly, a contestant in Nouvelle Star 4 and he also accompanied Miss Dominique at the piano during some of her concerts. He has been married to Stéphanie for 14 years. For seven years André has worked with the African British Malia whose third album "Young Bones" came out in May 2007.

From 2008, he will be presenting from his piano the second series of "DéDé les doigts de fée" on Paris première. All the guests will be female.

His first book "La Mécanique des Fluides" (Fluid Mechanics), comes out in February 2008, This is in fact an autobiography in the form of a monologue mainly tracing his artistic career as a pianist and a composer as well as his artistic and emotional life including Liane Foly.

Discography

Composer and producer

*1988 - "The man I love" - Liane Foly
*1990 - "Rêve Orange" - Liane Foly
*1993 - "Les petites notes" - Liane Foly
*1994 - "Sweet mystery" (English version of "petites notes") - Liane Foly
*2002 - "Yellow Daffodils" - Malia
*2004 - "La Chanteuse de bal" - Liane Foly
*2004 - "Echos of dreams" - Malia
*2007 - "Young Bones" - Malia

Producer

*1994 - "Lumières" - Liane Foly
*1998 - "Jazzaznavour" - Charles Aznavour
*1999 - "Faut faire avec" - Gilbert Bécaud
*2006 - "La Vie devant toi" - Myriam Abel André Manoukian has also produced albums for Michel Petrucciani and Richard Galliano.

Composer

*1994 - Translation of "Again" from Janet Jackson
*2000 - "Épine de rose" - Diane Dufresne (lyrics: P. Grosz)
*2002 - "Ne dis rien" - Julie Demne
*2003 - "À quoi ça sert" - Gérard Darmon - (lyrics: C. Bazbaz)
*2004 - "Éternelle" - Nicole Croisille

Cult Quotes of André Manoukian

eason 2003

*I appreciate the Mad Max meets Lara Fabian aspect, at this level it makes an interresting psycho-erotic shock.
*I'd say the same thing in a rarther crude phrase, it smells too much of soap and not enough of front bottom, if you know what I mean...

eason 2004

*I like the post modern Nana Mouskouri side.
*I really like your cosmic cabaret side !
*You, you're a sort of cosmic rocker-crooner.
*Despite your super cosmic slut look, you're worth more than that!

eason 2005

*Swing, that was swing from I-know-not-what country, but not swing from the country of swing.
*The problem is that you have the expression of a porn actor. You know, they make love but you feel that they feel nothing of it at all. That's a shame.
*There you sing as if you're in a bar of left wing whores, in other words a bit intellectual.
*I have a weakness for female singers with big balls, so I'm going to say yes.
*It's like you take a bird and you beat her instead of giving her kisses, you've beaten me a bit in my teenage heart.
*I really like the Calamity Jane of the Parish Fair side but...

eason 2006

*There's this little overaged side which gives it a flavour of... the slight flavour of mushrooms, you know?
*This is the first Hobbit female singer I've heard!
*You're the first blond female singer, who has a vocal fry register, who has made me crack.
*I like it when cowboys kiss under the tent.
*This vibrato is psycho-erotic.
*We will've heard turtles, frogs, soon spermatazoa singing, but you, we don't want to hear you sing any more!

eason 2007

*Miss, you have as much feeling as a fisherwife.
*And eroticism in all that.
*A grungy surrealist poet, a folk singer on the couch, a postmodern Stevie Wonder and a mystic crooner.
*We have an intelligent R&B singer!
*Stop singing, because your mice are going to kill themselves.
*You are a bit "Las Vegas" of the left.
*You can really feel this guy's sexual pulse when he sings.
*When you started the song, I was really afraid that you would make some Turkish delight soul in a bah mitzvah atmosphere.
*The guitarist was in major and you were in minor, so that gave "mijor".