Graeme Allwright is a singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriter

Singer-songwriters are musicians who write, compose and sing their own musical material including lyrics and melodies. As opposed to contemporary popular music singers who write their own songs, the term singer-songwriter describes a distinct form of artistry, closely associated with the...

. Born in Wellington

Wellington

Wellington is the capital city and third most populous urban area of New Zealand, although it is likely to have surpassed Christchurch due to the exodus following the Canterbury Earthquake. It is at the southwestern tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Rimutaka Range...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

, he moved to France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 in 1948. He began to perform and write folk songs a few years later and was eventually signed by Sonogram

Sonogram

A sonogram may refer to the following:* A diagnostic medical image created using ultrasound echo equipment, see medical ultrasonography...

. In the 1960s, he translated into French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 a number of songs written by Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

Leonard Norman Cohen, is a Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet and novelist. Cohen published his first book of poetry in Montreal in 1956 and his first novel in 1963. His work often explores religion, isolation, sexuality and interpersonal relationships...

, Tom Paxton

Tom Paxton

Thomas Richard Paxton is an American folk singer and singer-songwriter who has been writing, performing and recording music for over forty years...

 and Pete Seeger

Pete Seeger

Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...

. He remained active through the 1970s.

Together with Sylvie Dien, he wrote new lyrics to the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise", making it a song of peace rather than a song of war.[1][2] Needless to say, the French government has not adopted these new lyrics, although a movement is afoot in France to get the government to do just that.

Discography

• Le trimardeur, 1965, BAM.
• Joue, joue, joue, 1966, Mercury.
• Le jour de clarté, 1968, Mercury.
• Recollections, 1970, Mercury.
• A Long Distant Present from Thee ... "Becoming,", 1971, Mercury 6459 100
• Jeanne d'Arc, 1972, Mercury.
• Graeme Allwright chante Leonard Cohen, 1973, Mercury.
• À l'Olympia, 1973, Mercury.
• De passage, 1975, Mercury.
• Questions..., 1978, Mercury.
• Condamnés?, 1979, Mercury.
• Graeme Allwright et Maxime Le Forestier enregistement au Palais des Sports, 1980, Mercury.
• Ombres, 1981, Mercury.
• Lumière, 1992, EPM.
• Live, 1994, EPM.
• Graeme Allwright & The Glenn Ferris
  Glenn Ferris
  Glenn Ferris is a jazz trombonist who has also worked in other fields. Outside of jazz he has played for Frank Zappa, Stevie Wonder, James Taylor, Duran Duran, and others....
  
  Quartet, 2000, EPM.