Death of Claude Fléouter, founder of the Victoires de la Musique

Claude Fléouter, music journalist and founder of Victoires de la Musique, died on Wednesday, we learned Thursday from his entourage and from Orléans town hall. “He died yesterday morning around seven o’clock,” the city’s communications services told AFP. The causes of death were not indicated, nor his age.

Born in Brest in a working-class environment, Claude Fléouter studied law and journalism, before specializing in music. He joined the daily newspaper Le Monde in the early 1960s as a music columnist before leaving it, thirty years later, in 1990. During his career, he rubbed shoulders with many celebrities, including Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell.

Unknown to the general public, his name remains associated with the Victoires de la Musique which he founded in 1985. A decade later, he launched a separate ceremony for the Victoires de la Musique Classique. In 1996, while he was general delegate of the Victoires, he was dismissed following a controversy surrounding the prize for “female revelation”, attributed to the artist Stephend. The winner was produced by a close friend of Claude Fléouter. He unsuccessfully contested his exclusion in court.

He is also the author of numerous works devoted to music. The last, Renaud: damn life, published in 2012, looks back on the career of the Mistral winner interpreter.