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Florent Pagny
Florent Pagny
	Pagny in 2017
Background information
Birth name	Florent Pagny
Born	6 November 1961 (age 62)
Origin	Chalon-sur-Saône, France
Genres	Pop
Occupations	Singer; songwriter; actor;
Instrument	Guitar
Years active	1987–present
Website	www.florentpagny.org (in French)

Florent Pagny (French pronunciation: [flɔʁɑ̃ paɲi]; born 6 November 1961) is a French singer-songwriter, musician and actor. He records his work in French, as well as in Italian, Spanish and English. His greatest hits include "N'importe quoi", "Savoir aimer" and "Ma Liberté de penser"—all three were number one in France. As of 2018, he has sold more than 6 million singles and 10 million albums, becoming the 17th best-selling artist of all time in France.

Early years

Florent Pagny began his artistic career as an actor in popular films and television dramas. He appeared in La Balance, L'As des as, and A Captain's Honor or Fort Saganne.

In 1987, he wrote his first song titled "N'importe quoi". Pagny's first album, Merci, was released in 1990. The album's songs, mainly written by himself, began to attract controversy^[vague], with the press eventually boycotting some of them. This led to a decline in sales, culminating in personal problems. His follow-up album, Réaliste, was also not as successful.^{[citation needed]}

Jean-Jacques Goldman wrote three songs for Pagny under the pseudonym Sam Brewski, and presented to him a new staff. The album Rester vrai marked the beginning of his career as a performer only. Bienvenue chez moi, a semi-compilation released in 1995, was a smash success. Pagny also covered "Caruso", the hit originally performed by Lucio Dalla.

Pagny as a performer

He decided to move to Argentinian Patagonia to flee the French tax authorities and to start a new life with his wife, Azucena, and their children.^{[citation needed]} Recently, Pagny said he had enrolled his children in Miami because he didn't want them to speak Arabic while returning from school. His next album, Savoir aimer, was released in 1997. It was composed by a number of writers, including Jean-Jacques Goldman, Erick Benzi, Jacques Veneruso, Zazie and, Pascal Obispo, who also produced the album. "Savoir aimer" turned out to be an immediate success.

In 1999, Pagny released an album of cover versions of his old song, Recréation. From "Môme Julie" to "Antisocial", he mixed musical styles and dabbled with techno arrangements.

Pagny then alternated studios and cover albums (at least in part) and regularly changed his look. In 2000, he released the album Châtelet Les Halles, whose title song was produced by Calogero. He followed that with 2, an album composed of duets released in 2001. In 2003, he returned with Ailleurs land, whose first single, "Ma Liberté de penser", was composed by Pascal Obispo and Lionel Florence and deals with Pagny's problems with the French treasury. Finally, in 2004, Pagny released Baryton, an album composed of opera songs.

In 2007, Pagny released an album of covers of songs originally composed and performed by Jacques Brel entitled Pagny chante Brel.

Other activities

In 2012, Pagny made his debut on the French version of The Voice. He has since remained as a coach until 2018 where he took a two season hiatus after that. He coached again in 2021 and 2022. He also participated in the All Stars format, alongside coaches Jenifer, Mika, Zazie and The Voice Kids coach Patrick Fiori. Throughout his time as a coach, he has coached several winners consisting of Stéphan Rizon (from Season 1), Slimane Nebchi (from Season 5), Marghe Davico (from Season 10) and Nour Brousse (from Season 11). In the All Stars format, he coached Anne Sila to victory. In 2025, it was announced that Pagny would return to the panel, alongside Vianney and debuting coaches Zaz and Patricia Kaas.^[1]

Discography

Albums

Studio albums

Year	Album	Peak position				Certification	Notes
Year	Album	FR ^[2]	BEL (Fl) ^[3]	BEL (Wa) ^[4]	SWI ^[5]	Certification	Notes
1990	Merci	10	—
1992	Réaliste	20	—
1994	Rester vrai	19	—			SNEP: 2× Gold^[6]
1997	Savoir aimer	1	—	1	23	BEA: Platinum^[7] IFPI SWI: 2× Platinum^[5]
1999	RéCréation	1	—	4	94	SNEP: Platinum^[6]
2000	Châtelet Les Halles	1	—	3	16	SNEP: 2× Platinum^[6] IFPI SWI: Gold^[5]	Double CD
2001	2	3	—	3	8	BEA: Gold^[8] IFPI SWI: Gold^[9]	Covers overdubbed as duets
2003	Ailleurs land	1	—	1	2	SNEP: Diamond^[6] BEA: Gold^[10] IFPI SWI: Platinum^[9]
2004	Baryton	1	—	1	19	SNEP: 2× Platinum^[6] BEA: Platinum^[11] IFPI SWI: Gold^[9]
2006	Abracadabra	2	—	2	13	BEA: Gold^[12] IFPI SWI: Gold^[9]
2007	Pagny chante Brel	3	—	1	28	BEA: Platinum^[13]	11 covers of Belgian singer Jacques Brel
2009	C'est comme ça	2	—	1	16	SNEP: 2× Platinum^[6] BEA: Gold^[14]	Album in Spanish
2010	Tout et son contraire	1	—	1	31	BEA: Platinum^[15]
2012	Baryton. Gracias a la vida	2	176	5	40		Album in Spanish
2013	Vieillir avec toi	1	91	1	9	SNEP: Diamond^[16] BEA: Platinum^[17]
2016	Habana	2	146	4	6	SNEP: Platinum^[16]	Album in Spanish
2017	Le présent d'abord	2	110	1	1	SNEP: 2× Platinum^[6] BEA: Gold^[18]
2018	Tout simplement	5	—	4	17
2019	Aime la vie	2	169	2	5	SNEP: Gold^[16]
2021	L'avenir	1	183	1	8
2023	2bis	1	40	1	1	SNEP: Gold^[6]

Live albums

Year	Album	Peak position			Certification
Year	Album	FR ^[2]	BEL (Wa) ^[4]	SWI ^[5]	Certification
1998	En concert	2	3		SNEP: 2× Platinum IFPI SWI: Gold^[5]
2004	Été 2003 à l'Olympia	11	4	37	SNEP: Diamond
2005	Baryton – L'intégrale du spectacle	24	12	95
2012	Ma liberté de chanter - Live Acoustic	6	4	42
2014	Vieillir ensemble - Le live	33	13	30

Compilations

Year	Album	Peak position			Certification
Year	Album	FR ^[2]	BEL (Wa) ^[4]	SWI ^[5]	Certification
1995	Bienvenue chez moi	1	1	—	BEA: Platinum^[19]
1999	Les talents du siècle	—	47	—
2008	Les 50 plus belles chansons	—	39	—
2008	De part et d'autre – Triple Best Of	—	2	—
2014	Integrale	—	2	—
2018	Toujours et encore	—	11	38

Singles

Year	Single	Peak position			Certification	Album
Year	Single	FR ^[2]	BEL (Wa) ^[3]	SUI ^[5]	Certification	Album
1988	"N'importe quoi"	1	-	-	SNEP : Platinum
1988	"Laissez-nous respirer"	8	-	-	-
1989	"Comme d'habitude"	6	-	-	-
1990	"J'te jure"	16	-	-	-	Merci
	"Ça fait des nuits"	17	-	-	-
	"Presse qui roule"	24	-	-	-
1991	"Prends ton temps"	42	-	-	-
1992	"Tue-moi"	24	38	-	-	Réaliste
1993	"Qu'est-ce qu'on a fait?"	46	-	-	-	Réaliste
1994	"Est-ce que tu me suis?"	45	-	-	-	Rester vrai
1994	"Si tu veux m'essayer"	7	-	-	-	Rester vrai
1996	"Caruso"	2	3	-	-	Bienvenue chez moi
1996	"Oh Happy Day"	8	-	-	-	Bienvenue chez moi
1997	"Savoir aimer"	1	1	-	SNEP : Diamond^[20]	Savoir aimer
1998	"Chanter"	16	15	-	SNEP : Gold^[20]
	"D'un amour l'autre"	83	-	-	-
	"Dors"	29	28	-	-
1999	"Jolie môme"	13	11	-	-	RéCréation
2000	"Les parfums de sa vie (je l'ai tant aimée)"	38	30	-	-	RéCréation
2000	"Et un jour, une femme"	3	1	-	-	Châtelet Les Halles
2001	"Châtelet Les Halles"	45	5*	-	-
2001	"Terre"	37	1*	-	-
2002	"L'air du temps" (with Cécilia Cara)	20	19	-	-	2
2003	"Ma liberté de penser"	1	1	8	SNEP : Platinum^[20] BEA : Gold^[10]	Ailleurs land
2003	"Je trace"	26	34	65		Ailleurs land
2004	"Y'a pas un homme qui soit né pour ça" (with Calogero und Pascal Obispo)	20	-	45		/
2004	"Io le canto per te"	28	12	-		Baryton
2006	"Là où je t'emmènerai"	4	7	39		Abracadabra
2006	"Le mur"	-	8*	-
2007	"À tout peser à bien choisir"	-	6*	-
2007	"Un ami" (with Marc Lavoine)	-	25	-		Marc Lavoine album Les duos de Marc
2008	"La chanson de Jacky"	-	6*	-		Pagny chante Brel
2008	"De part et d'autre"	-	13	-		De part et d'autre – Triple Best of
2009	"C'est comme ça"	-	11	-		C'est comme ça
2009	"Amar y amar"	-	12*	-
2010	"Que nadie sepa mi sufrir"	-	17*	-
	"Si tu n'aimes pas Florent Pagny"	-	46	-		Tout et son contraire
	"Te jeter des fleurs"	-	19	-
2011	"8ème merveille"	-	3*	-
	"Je laisse le temps faire" (with Pascal Obispo)	-	18*	-
	"Tout et son contraire"	-	12*	-
2012	"A la huella a la huella"	-	16*	-		Baryton. Gracias a la vida
2013	"Les murs porteurs"	23	25	-		Vieillir avec toi
	"Vieillir avec toi"	68	2*	-
	"Souviens-toi"	147	-	-
2014	"Le soldat"	61	50	-
2015	"Nos vies parallèles" (with Anggun)	47	39 ^[21]	-		Toujours un ailleurs
2017	"Le présent d'abord"	38 ^[22]	-	-
2017	"La beauté du doute"	66 ^[22]	-	-

*Did not appear in the official Belgian Ultratop 50 charts, but rather in the bubbling under Ultratip charts.

Filmography

Year	Title	Role	Director	Notes
1980	Inspector Blunder	Michel's friend	Claude Zidi
1987	Les keufs	Jean-Pierre	Josiane Balasko
1987	Francois Villon - le poéte vagabond	Francois Villon	Sergiu Nicolaescu	[1]