Marc Cerrone (; born 24 May 1952) is a French disco drummer, composer, conductor, DJ, record producer and creator of concerts. Cerrone is a producer of 1970s and 1980s disco songs. He has sold over 30 million albums worldwide, including over four million copies in France, and eight million copies of Supernature. The single "Love in C Minor" (1976) reached No. 3 and was in the charts for two months, selling three million copies. With "Supernature" (1977), Cerrone merged symphonic orchestration with synthesisers. At the 1978 Billboard Disco Forum, Cerrone received six awards, including Disco Artist of the Year.

In addition to Love in C Minor, Cerrone's Paradise and Supernature, Marc Cerrone enjoyed success in Europe with albums such as Cerrone IV: The Golden Touch (1978), Where Are You Now (1983), The Collector (1985), Human Nature (1994) and more recently with the dance albums Hysteria (2002) and Celebrate (2007). Cerrone is also known for live performances. In 1991, he played on the show Harmony to celebrate the launch of Japan's first high-definition TV satellite. The rock opera was played to over 800,000 spectators at Tokyo harbour. Cerrone adapted "Harmony" for the theatre. In 1992, the musical Dreamtime, which was based on an original story by Cerrone, ran for 140 shows on Broadway at New York's Ed Sullivan Theater.

Cerrone has recorded and performed with Nile Rodgers, Toto, Laura Branigan, Jocelyn Brown, La Toya Jackson and Axelle Red. His music has been sampled by artists such as the Avalanches, Bob Sinclar, the Beastie Boys and Run-DMC.

Career

Cerrone was born in Vitry-sur-Seine to the son of Italian immigrants. At the age of 12, he started playing drums and listening to Otis Redding songs. Cerrone's passion for music was discouraged by his father, who tried to distract him from his obsession. By the end of the 1960s, he was fascinated by Jimi Hendrix, Carlos Santana and Blood, Sweat & Tears, among others. At the age of 17, he convinced Gilbert Trigano to hire rock bands for his all-inclusive holiday-hotel operator Club Med. Cerrone became its worldwide A&R scout, responsible for the musical entertainment at Club Med's 40 vacation villages.

Recording

Love in C Minor was recorded at Trident Studios, London, during sessions in September and October 1976.

The album’s liner notes include acknowledgements to studio personnel and associates, thanking Sarah, Sue, Peter Booth, Bernie "Clic" Spratt, Ray Staff, Brainiac, Psycho, Gunpowder Green, Don Ray, R. Costandinos, and Daniel Galfo. A departure from the lush orchestration with electronic instrumentation added to the mix, it was co-written by Alain Wisniak. The lyrics to "Supernature", written by Lene Lovich, More recently, on 26 July 2024, the 2024 Summer Olympics opening ceremony used the theme Supernature as one of the main songs played with an outstanding spectacle of lights coming from the Eiffel Tower and performed by a sign language artist.

The Golden Touch

After the success of Supernature, Cerrone IV: The Golden Touch, Cerrone signed up for management with Steven and Martin Machat. They helped oversee his worldwide career. Steven Machat negotiated a new deal for Cerrone in the US and Canada with Atlantic and CBS outside the US, Canada, as well as France.

These were major artists' deals for that time period. The album got great reviews in the US, and Atlantic threw a party in New York City, October 1978 that was one of the largest parties ever thrown for an artist up to that point in time. The album was another Cerrone U.S. disco chart-topper. Driven by "Je Suis Music", "Look for Love", and the urban-slanted "Rocket in the Pocket" which featured Jimmy Page on guitar, and "Phonic" by Cristal, the latter of which echoes the synth boom that was started by Space's "Magic Fly". A song featuring La Toya Jackson was also issued, entitled "Oops, Oh No".

In 1992, Cerrone's show Dreamtime ran on Broadway at the Ed Sullivan Theater. In 1995 the Dream CD, with music from the Broadway musical Dreamtime, was released by Malligator, a division of Unidisc Music Inc.

21st Century

In 2000, Bob Sinclar worked with Cerrone for his disco album Cerrone by Bob Sinclar, which was released the following year.

In 2002, he released the album Hysteria. The song "Hysteria" was the only single from the album. In February 2005, he signed the score of the French adaptation of A Clockwork Orange given in the Cirque d'Hiver in Paris.

By 2007, he issued the song "Laisser Toucher". It is the lead single from his album Celebrate!, released in early 2008. The second single from the album was "Misunderstanding".

Cerrone issued his twentieth album release, Love Ritual, on 7 July 2008. The lead single is the title track, which preceded the full-length album. "Love Ritual" also has a supporting music video. It was quickly followed by the next two singles, "It Had to Be You" and "Tattoo Woman". The single, "Tattoo Woman", with remixes by Jamie Lewi,s was made available domestically in the U.S. on traxsource.com.

By 2009, Joey Negro released a remix of Cerrone's "Paradise". In the same year, Cerrone was one of the members of the jury of the television program X Factor in France on W9 and in Belgium on RTL-TVI.

On 12 March 2009, Cerrone released the album Cerrone by Jamie Lewis for free on his website. He stated that "music is condemned to be free and that it is necessary to find other solutions to make revenues".

Cerrone Symphony, Variations of Supernature was released in February 2010 with the first single: "Supernature Project" featuring Dax Riders. "Supernature Symphony" took place in Paris-La-Défense on 2 October 2010, in the evening of "Nuit Blanche". It was the first date of his tour, which included Los Angeles, London, Rome, Dubai and Moscow.

In September 2016 he released the single "Move Me" featuring Brendan Reilly as a precursor to the forthcoming album Red Lips.

It was followed by a remix EP of the same song in January 2017, released through Big Beat Atlantic Records.

Select Performances

He performed in large concerts and events such as the 2005 Dance Party Live in Versailles and the 2000 Los Angeles Millennium Célébration, where, at the request of the Mayor of Los Angeles, Cerrone staged the beginnings of the Hollywood cinema era. In 1989, he performed in the concert at Paris's Place de la Concorde for the celebration of the bicentenary of the French Revolution.

In 1991, he performed a concert event in Tokyo for the launch of the first HD satellite TV channel in Japan.

  • In November 1988, he organized a production of the rock opera The Collector on the square of Trocadéro (the site of the Palais de Chaillot) at the request of Jack Lang, then the French Minister of Culture, and the City Hall of Paris.
  • On 14 July 1989, he participated in the celebrations of the Bicentenary of the French Revolution on the banks of the Seine.
  • In 1991, Cerrone performed the concert show "Harmony", which took place in the Port of Tokyo during the evening for the launch of the first Japanese high-definition television channel.
  • On 12 July 1996, he produced a show of sounds and lights for peace, with the support of the 14th Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso, settled off the Promenade des Anglais in Nice.
  • He played at the Los Angeles Millennium Celebration, which was held to mark the passage into the year 2000.
  • On 1 July 2005, he organised a free concert at the Palace of Versailles, claiming it was "the biggest discotheque in the world" which was followed the next day by the concert Live 8.
  • In 2008, with his old accomplice Nile Rodgers, he organized the "NY Dance Party" in the middle of Central Park, in New York, recreation of a huge discothèque to celebrate thirty years of dance music (the event was originally planned for 6 October 2007 and had to be held in Times Square, between 42nd and 49th Street).
  • Cerrone performed at the Opening Ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics.
  • Starting in November 2025, Cerrone opened several dates for the British band Jamiroquai's Heels of Steel tour.

Discography

;Studio albums:

  • Anikana-O (1974)
  • Love in C Minor (1976)
  • Cerrone's Paradise (1977)
  • Supernature (Cerrone 3) (1977)
  • Africanism (1978)
  • The Golden Touch (Cerrone IV) (1978)
  • Angelina (Cerrone V) (1979)
  • Panic (Cerrone VI) (1980)
  • You Are the One (Cerrone VII) (1980)
  • Back Track (Cerrone VIII) (1982)
  • Your Love Survived (Cerrone IX) (1982)
  • Where Are You Now (1983)
  • The Collector (1985)
  • Way In (1989)
  • Dream (1992)
  • X-Xex (1993)
  • Human Nature (1994)
  • Hysteria (2002)
  • Celebrate ! (2007)
  • Cerrone Symphony – Variations of Supernature (2010)
  • Red Lips (2016)
  • DNA (2020)

See also

  • List of Billboard number-one dance club songs
  • List of artists who reached number one on the U.S. Dance Club Songs chart

References

  • – official site (in English and French)
  • Marc Cerrone biography – Yahoo Shopping