The singer Daniel Lévi, known for having played the role of Moïse in the musical The ten Commandmentsdied on Saturday at the age of 60 from cancer, his wife announced.
The funeral of the artist, born in 1961 in Constantine, will take place on Sunday at the Jewish cemetery Saint Pierre in Marseille, said Sandrine Lévi on the artist’s Instagram account.
Benjamin of a family of seven children, Daniel Lévi spent his childhood in Lyon and studied the piano for ten years. He began his career in the early 1980s with a first album, Cocktail which does not enjoy the expected success.
Daniel Lévi collaborates with Gloria Gaynor, who engages him in the first part of her European tour. Michel Legrand offers him to record songs from the film’s soundtrack Car park by Jacques Demy in 1985 (it was finally a new recording by Francis Huster which was chosen by the director). Daniel Levi participated in his first musical in 1991: he played the roles of Frédéric Chopin and Alfred de Musset in the show Sand and the Romanticswritten by Catherine Lara and Luc Plamondon.
In 1993, he recorded This blue dreamthe cartoon song Aladdin for Disney Studios. This duet with the singer Karine Costa will mark a generation.
In 2000, Daniel Lévi achieved recognition by playing the role of Moïse in the musical comedy by Élie Chouraqui and Pascal Obispo The ten Commandmentsand performing his flagship song The desire to love. The musical is a triumph at the Palais des Sports for several weeks, then on tour. The album sold 1.3 million copies, according to Universal Music France.
Then, Daniel Lévi resumed his solo career and his compositions of songs tinged with jazz and soul. In total, Daniel Levi had produced seven solo albums, the last of which, Thanks to youwas released in 2021.
The singer was suffering from colon cancer, a disease which he had made public in 2019.
“Daniel Lévi was a voice, singular, powerful. Fights too: climate, caregivers, fight against racism, support for Lebanon, he never hesitated to commit himself to making the world a little better. All my condolences to his family and loved ones,” reacted Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak on her Twitter account.