Jean Gabilou

Biography

Jean Gabilou is a French singer who was born and raised at French Polynesia. In 1963, after playing “When the saints go marchin’ in” in a rock version, he received his first record contract. He first worked with the Vernaudon brothers for two years, then started performing at the Pitate Club with the Hars Brothers for another two years. Laughlin was then approached by Petiot, a guitarist for a group called The Barefoot Boys, which he joined at the age of 23. However, in 1968, Gabilou left the group. He formed his own group, The Banjo Boys. Their song “Little Sacred Island” was released in 1968 and sold 54,000 copies.
In 1971, Gabilou signed a contract with Eddy Barclay, compiling the song “Moi girls”. Unfortunately, this was not a great success. In 1979, Jean Gabilou moved to the United States. He represented France in the 1981 Eurovision Song Contest with the song “Humanahum”. Two years later, he celebrated his 20 year career. In 1993 he returned on stage with “Hei No”. However, in 1995, feeling ill, Gabilou went to a medical clinic in Papeete where he was diagnosed with having paralyzed vocal cords. Despite the bad news, he fought to regain his voice and left for France to get therapy. In the end, he regained his voice and was able to release a new album. In 2000, he started producing his own songs. The years after, he gave huge concerts at the Cook Islands. In 2018, he recorded a song called “Source de ma vie” together with Claudia Haustien from New Caledonia.