Jules Jean Vanobbergen (6 July 1936 – 1 December 2021) was a Belgian singer-songwriter better known as Grand Jojo in French and Lange Jojo in Dutch. Grand Jojo is best known as the co-writer of "Anderlecht Champions (Allez, Allez, Allez)", which later became "Olé, Olé, Olé", and "Chef, un p'tit verre, on a soif" (Barman, a little drink, we are thirsty).[3]
Early life
Vanobbergen was born on 6 July 1936 in Ixelles. He enrolled in the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts, because he wanted to become a painter. At the academy he received the nickname Grand Jojo/Lange Jojo.[3] After graduating, he first worked as a marketing draughtsman then as a cartoonist.[4]
Career
While he was working in a record store, he realized that the market, at the time, lacked festive songs. Therefore, he decided to write his own songs under the alias Grand Jojo. Initially, his songs were only released in French, however, being bilingual, he always recorded a Dutch version as well.[4]
Grand Jojo was a Belgian icon who represented his country by displaying the typical Belgian identity often based on self-mockery and referred to as belgitude (French; lit.'Belgianness').[5][6]
Grand Jojo mainly performed drinking songs such as "Chef, un p'tit verre, on a soif", "Sergent Flagada", "La petite bête à bon Dieu", and "Jules César". For his debut performances, he chose surrealistic tango songs such as "Le Tango du Congo", "Victor le footbaliste" and "Sitting Bull".[7]
Hans Kusters Music [nl] commissioned Grand Jojo and Roland Verlooven [nl] to write a song in honour of the victory of R.S.C. Anderlecht which was easy to sing along to. The song "We are the Champions (Allez, Allez, Allez)" later became corrupted as "Olé, Olé, Olé".[9]
His 1979 single "Chef, un p'tit verre, on a soif" was notably used by the presumed killer of Grégory Villemin, a four-year-old who was kidnapped and killed in France in 1984. Three years before the kidnapping, the main suspect in that case, called "corbeau" (meaning raven), had harassed Grégory's parents on the phone by playing the song every time he called.[10]
Later life
In 2006 (in Francopholies de Spa, a music festival in Belgium), Grand Jojo made a come back and joined the stage with ska punk bands such as Skaïra,[11] as well as Poulycroc,[12] who for the occasion released an album paying tribute to Grand Jojo. A Grand Jojo tribute concert took place in Louvain-la-Neuve on 7 September 2007, after an invitation from the régional athois and the CESEC—a student organization in economic, social and political sciences—during a celebration of their 30th anniversary.[13]
In 2011, Grand Jojo returned to Universal Music Belgium.[14] In December 2013, Grand Jojo performed at the Cirque Royal in March and at Forest National.[15] Grand Jojo announced his retirement on 29 June 2021.[16] Vanobbergen died on 1 December 2021 at the age of 85.[17][18]
Awards and legacy
On 11 May, 1998, Vanobbergen was knighted in the Order of Leopold.[19] Grand Jojo was made an honorary citizen of Brussels in 2015.[20]Manneken Pis wore a Jules César costume in his honour at the award ceremony.[21] That same year he was awarded the Silver Medal of the National Order of the Golden Fry Cone as recognition of being the sponsor of "Week of the Fry 2015".[22] In 2016 he was made an honorary citizen of the Marolles.[20]
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