Patrick Hernandez

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Patrick Hernandez (born 6 April 1949) is a French singer who had a huge worldwide hit with "Born to Be Alive" in 1979.

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[edit] Biography

Hernandez was born in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France, to a Spanish father and a half Austrian and half Italian mother. Growing up in the 1960s, he became interested in music, and toured dancehalls and ballrooms of southern France with a number of groups over the next decade. Hernandez met his music partner Hervé Tholance, an arranger, guitarist and vocalist, during that period. The two formed a duo and started achieving local success backing French musicians like Francis Cabrel, Laurent Voulzy and the French group Gold among others.

In 1978, Hernandez met producer Jean Van loo, and with disco music at its peak, decided it was time to try his hand at disco. Vanloo agreed and signed Patrick to a contract. He was then sent to Waterloo, Belgium to work on songs.

After working for about a year, the first of the resulting six songs would change Hernandez's life forever and make him an international star for a short period. The songs were released on the Aariana sub-label Aquarius Records (in France) in November of 1978. The first single released was the disco song entitled "Born to Be Alive". Its success was immediate and in January 1979, Hernandez received his first Gold Record from Italy. The song spread throughout Europe where it hit number one in France in April and remained there till July. By then the United States of America had caught on and through some remixing, the record was signed to the A-Tom-Mik label headed by award winning dance promoter, Tom Hayden and legendary music publisher, Mike Stewart through their label/production deal with Columbia Records. The remixed version of "Born to Be Alive" was released on a commercial 12" single and it shot up the disco charts to number one and crossed over to the Top 40 peaking at number 16. By year's end Hernandez had racked up an impressive 52 Gold and Platinum Record awards from over 50 different countries.

While Hernandez was touring the United States of America he was accompanied by his producer Jean Vanloo and his friend Jean-Claude Pellerin. Vanloo and Pellerin held auditions in New York that spring for dancers to accompany Hernandez on his worldwide tour. The chosen dancers included a young Madonna.

Hernandez's follow-ups to "Born to Be Alive" did not fare as well in America. "Disco Queen" backed with "Show Me The Way You Kiss" did not get any radio support and sold poorly, but the album Born to Be Alive still sold well and won him a Billboard Award in February of 1980.

In 1981, Hernandez released the import 12" single of "Goodbye", first released on Aariana records and then a remixed version on the parent-label Aquarius Records (in France). By then disco had "died" in America and no label was found to license it domestically. An album followed the 12" release but without an American distribution deal it went virtually unnoticed in the US.

In the 1980s and 1990s, Hernandez toured and had occasional appearances on other artists albums in Europe. A remix of "Born to Be Alive" appeared in clubs in 1987. In 1995, a compilation of his two albums were released in America as The Best Of Patrick Hernandez on Hot Records. The fourth movie in the National Lampoon's Vacation comedy series, Vegas Vacation, prominently featured Hernandez's "Born to Be Alive" as the Griswolds were entering Las Vegas in a limousine.

Since its 1978 release Born to Be Alive has sold more than 800,000 units annually under various forms and compilations globally, and it has brought in over 25 million dollars worldwide.

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