In 2003 in Antwerp (Belgium), David Guetta collapsed. Heart attack. He just had the reflex to call the reception of his hotel before collapsing. It probably saved his life. The firefighters take him to the hospital. His wife Cathy, then in Ibiza, joined her husband as quickly as possible. For the couple, time will be suspended for three months. David was first hospitalized in Antwerp, then for a longer period in Paris. “Weakened, it takes weeks to be able to walk again. For the Guetta, it is more than a signal: a warning shot. They have to change their life, define what their real priorities are, ”analyzes journalist Frédérick Rapilly in his book David Guetta: No limit (first ed.). From then on, encouraged by his relatives, the DJ will then turn the page of the night business to make music 100%. “My mom was proud of me the day I quit business to become a full time artist.” (Gala, May 2016). Monique, her mother, is a Belgian who broke with her aristocratic background to become a psychoanalyst. His father, Pierre, is a Moroccan Jew, a sociologist with a Trotskyist tendency, who became a restaurateur. The couple frequented extreme left circles in the 1970s. And when they divorced, it was Monique who, initially, would look after David. “My parents always told me that the money was dirty, that what counted was knowledge, the books.” (Le Monde, November 2020). But as a good rebellious teenager, David doesn’t care about books and school. His areas of interest are Michael Jackson, funk, then hip-hop still in its infancy. At the same time, the teenager hangs out at Porte de Vanves, in Paris, smokes cannabis every day at the age of 14, and organizes paid parties (10 francs) in the cellar of the family building. And who’s the DJ? David of course, who is very interested in scratching and remixing techniques while collecting vinyl records. Problem: the kid goes into a spin and Monique, who has trouble managing him, calls Pierre for help. “My father put me back on the right track. He pained me a lot, but always let me play music. ” (Le Monde, November 2020). The bac in his pocket, David is a student in economic and social administration, but does not shine by his attendance. For a year, he has been the DJ of Broard, the gay club of the Parisian district of Les Halles in the 80s. There, the little straight guy, his nickname, polishes his art of DJing and in 1987 discovers a new sound from the clubs Chicago black gays: house music.
His discography
2002: JUST A LITTLE MORE LOVE In 2001, David set up his own label and in 2002 released a first album which sold 300,000 copies.
This third opus triumphed in Europe and sold more than 530,000 copies. The single Love is Gone becomes number 1 in the USA.
2011: NOTHING BUT THE BEAT A double album: a first disc with international artists (Sia, will.i.am, Usher, Nicki Minaj…), the second totally instrumental.
A second double album: one part with lyrics, the other instrumental. Back to basics via a rather underground house sound.
2004: GUETTA BLASTER His second album includes the successful singles: Money and Stay with the collaboration of Chris Willis.
2009: ONE LOVE The album of consecration. Many R’n’B stars are invited including will.i.am for whom David mixes the hit I Gotta Feeling.
2014: LISTEN Composed in the midst of the midlife crisis and while divorcing Cathy, this recording surprises with its more melodic, more pop tone.
2021: PEPAS, THE REMIX BY DAVID GUETTA David is back with this hit single: the Pepas remix, the Farruko hit.
Big slap for David who therefore undertakes to promote this music in the capital. He became the artistic director of Le Queen club and began to make a name for himself in the middle of the night. At the time, he made a decisive encounter. Saint-Tropez, 1989: when David sees Cathy, née Catherine Lobé for the first time, it is 3 am. The young woman is dancing at the Saint-Tropez ball, dressed in a ruffled miniskirt, a low-cut bodysuit and boxing shoes. She then worked as a waitress at L’Hysteria, a chic café. Immediate love at first sight. These two will get married in 1992 and become formidable partners in business. Cathy masters bling-bling public relations and David has a gift: making clubbers dance. Good deal. From the Queen to the Palace via the Folies Pigalle, Cathy and David prove to be artistic directors of talented clubs. Enough to become the kings of the night at the dawn of the 2000s. This new millennium will be theirs. Ambitious, they acquired various businesses: Les Bains Douches, Le Pink Paradise, Le Tanjia, La Suite… while in the process they became the kings of Ibiza with the famous F… Me I’m Famous evenings.
“I didn’t choose to deal with a blocked toilet problem.”
Total consecration. But after his heart attack, David wants to change everything: “I did not choose this job where you manage problems with blocked toilets.” He resells the shares he held in clubs and devotes himself to music. Good choice, because its EDM (electronic dance music) which has its eye on pop moves everywhere. He becomes one of the first DJs to display his face on record covers when Daft Punk hides under headphones. Sales are increasing, but French critics chuckle. His music is criticized for being the bling soundtrack of a vulgar era dominated by money and the cult of celebrities cheaps … Forgetting a little quickly that David was a pioneer of electronic music in France, just like Laurent Garnier and the Dafts who, for their part, have always respected him. David ends up getting everyone to agree by producing I Gotta Feeling by the Black Eyed Peas in 2009. The tube is so monstrous that now all the stars call on him: Madonna, Nicki Minaj, Sia, Rihanna… Artistically, he is fulfilled. Less in his private life since he is living in parallel a rather severe midlife crisis. We are in 2,013 and he decides to phone his half-brother, journalist Bernard Guetta: “I was on the verge of divorce, I asked him for advice. Bernard was against: ‘The sixties crisis is much worse! So don’t complain! ” David finally decides to leave Cathy. He presented to the media in 2015 his new love: Jessica Ledon. With this 28-year-old Cuban model, the star of the turntables now lives between Paris, London, Dubai and Miami as a perfect citizen of the world who makes the planet dance. “On all continents, young people listen to the same thing. There is no judgment to be had. I benefit from it, I will not complain about it. ”
(Le Monde, November 2020). A youth who in this troubled time needs to let go. And at 54, David Guetta is the perfect mood.
The DJ who was worth 100 million
In June 2021, David operates a big blow: he sells to Warner Music for 100 million dollars (84 million euros) the rights of his tubes published during the last twenty years. It must be said that with 14 billion listenings, the DJ is the eighth most streamed artist on the planet. What to touch revenues which oscillate between 8.5 and 25 million euros per year. “It will perhaps seem very pretentious, or it will be misinterpreted, but since my youth, the money comes to me all alone”, summarized David in Le Monde in November 2020.
Bernard and David, 2 brothers, 2 atmospheres
David dreamed of being the king of the world, Bernard wanted to become the king of the World. Among his four half-brothers and sisters, Bernard Guetta holds a special place. Journalist for Le Nouvel Observateur, Le Monde, L’Expansion and France Inter, he is now La République en Marche MEP.
Known to the general public before David, the latter asked him for his support and his recommendation to the police when the Guetta couple had trouble with the pimping repression squad when the Pink strip club opened. Paradise. In the 2000s, things turned around: it was to Bernard that the quidam asked if he was from the family of DJ David Guetta…
I have two loves…
Cathy I have two loves… After falling in love with Saint-Tropez in the summer of 1989, David, atheist, Protestant Cathy wife, in a temple in Paris in 1992. Cathy is well worth a cult… Together, they will conquer the Parisian nights and having two children: Tim-Elvis
born in 2004 (after David’s heart attack) and Angie born in 2007. After twenty-two years of marriage, the couple divorced in 2014 and divided their property.
Met in 2013, Jessica Ledon is the DJ’s new girlfriend. American born
Jessica Ledon in Havana (Cuba), she accompanied David to the Élysée Palace on February 1, 2016, during the dinner in honor of Cuban statesman Raúl Castro. The opportunity to formalize a relationship that has
took all the attire of a new melody of happiness.
To see also:
Renaud Leclercq