Pascal Obispo

Pascal Michel Obispo (born 8 January 1965) is a French pop and rock singer, music producer and songwriter.

Pascal Obispo, son of Max Obispo (a former Bordeaux Girondins football player of Basque origin) and Nicole Guérin (originally from Angers), was born on 8 January 1965 in Bergerac. After the divorce of his parents in 1978, he was raised by his mother, who decided to settle in Rennes. His father Max gained some notoriety by publishing two books, one on football, and Le Sable d'Ararat in 2010, a novel born from a meeting with the Armenian Minister of Culture Hasmik Boghossian when he discovers the similarities between the Armenian and Basque languages.

Pascal Obispo started singing in 1980. He got his first record deal in 1990. The record deal was Le long du fleuve. Some of his most famous songs are "Plus que tout au monde", "Laurelenn", "Tombé pour elle", "L'important c'est d'aimer", "Personne" and "Fan".

With his 2007 release of Les Fleurs du Bien (a play on Baudelaire's Les Fleurs du mal) he makes allusions to Rosa Parks, Pablo Picasso and others. He is also well known for his various escapades, his unconservative behavior, his haircut, etc. His name is an anagram of painter Pablo Picasso's name.

Obispo used his popularity to help with charity work and particularly for fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. He has worked with many other well-known artists such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Florent Pagny, Johnny Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, Amel Bent, and Natasha St-Pier.

In the beginning of the 1980s Rennes was one of the cities of rock in France. While studying at the Lycée Émile-Zola, Pascal found his passion for music, after discovering the group The Cure in rehearsal next to the basketball court where he was playing. He also fell in love with the Rennes rock group Marquis de Sade.