Léo Ferré (24 August 1916 – 14 July 1993) was a Franco-Monegasque poet, composer, singer and musician.
Born in Monaco, Ferré mixed love and melancholy with moral anarchy, lyricism with slang, rhyming verse with prose monologues. He moved from music-hall to orchestral music, breaking free from the traditional song structure during the 1970s, inventing his own musical territory, powerfully dramatic and unique. He also set to music several poems by the French poètes maudits, such as François Villon, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Verlaine, and Arthur Rimbaud, as well as French poets from the 20th century like Guillaume Apollinaire and Louis Aragon.
He took a central place in the French song world and is a prominent figure in this domain. He was involved in anarchism and worked with Radio Libertaire, an anarchist free radio broadcasting in Paris and around France. Along with Georges Brassens and Jacques Brel, he is considered one of the greatest composers and writers of French songs.
