Corneille

Cornelius Nyungura (born March 24, 1977) is a singer who performs under the name Corneille. He was born in Germany to Rwandan parents, though he currently holds a Canadian passport and sings in French and English. His work is greatly influenced by American funk and soul music; among those he admires are Prince, Marvin Gaye and Stevie Wonder.

Biography

Corneille was born in Freiburg, Germany where his parents were studying, though he spent most of his childhood in Rwanda. He discovered his passion for music in 1993, and so joined an R&B group, who won the D?couverte 1993 competition. This also introduced him to songwriting and musical composition. However, his life changed after the genocide in 1994. His father, ?mile Nyungura, was a leader of the political party (PSD); as a result, his parents and some of his relatives were killed in the massacre. Corneille fled to Germany, where some of his parents' friends took him in.

In July 1997, Corneille decided to leave Germany in order to pursue studies in communication, and moved to Montreal, Quebec (Canada) to attend Concordia University. During this time, he founded O.N.E., an R&B band, with Pierre Gage and Martin Gardy, whom he had met shortly after arriving in Quebec. Zoukin, one of the group's songs written by Corneille, rose to first place in Canadian airplay. Then, at the beginning of 2001, Corneille left the group, wishing to pursue a solo career. He began to center his songs on his past.

During 2002, Corneille worked on various projects. He wrote and composed the songs "Ce soir" for the Cocktail R&B 2 compilation (Ghetto R&B, Sony Music) and "Si seulement on s'aimait" for Hip Hop Folies (Sony Music). Invited by Dave Stewart, he performed at his first showcase at the R?servoir in Paris, and had the chance to sing with Jimmy Cliff. In January 2003, he was invited to perform the first part of Cunnie Williams at Olympia. His first public concert at Opus Club followed shortly thereafter.

Corneille's first album, the Canadian version of Parce qu'on vient de loin, was released on September 10, 2002. It was little known. The French version, which included numerous bonuses on the second disc, was released on October 20, 2003. It quickly became successful. To date, the album sold more than a million copies.

In April 2003, Corneille sang with Craig David, repeating a verse in French in the song Rise and Fall. He underwent his first tour during May 2003, receiving a full house in Paris, Marseilles, Lyon and Bordeaux. In March 2005, the singer participated in the concert Africa Live, which was organised to fight against paludism. This is the first time that he has returned to his home continent since the genocide.

Les marchands de r?ves, Corneille's second album, was released in November 2005.

Corneille is working with the Canadian Red Cross to raise awareness of children who are victims of war. He finished recording his first English-language album, The Birth Of Cornelius, which was released in July 2007. The first single is called "Back To Life".

Corneille officially became a Canadian citizen on November 8, 2004.

He married Sofia de Medeiros, his girlfriend of four years, on September 9, 2006 in a small and private ceremony by the lake at the Quintessence hotel, 130km north of Montreal. She is a model and actress of Canadian and Portuguese parentage.

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Corneille; it is used under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the CC-BY-SA.

Original Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corneille