Biography

Jil Caplan is a French pop singer whose peak success came in the early '90s in collaboration with hitmaker Jay Alanski. Born Jil Valentine on October 20, 1965, she initially became acquainted with Alanski during the mid-'80s when he collaborated with her friends in the band Les Innocents on their 1987 Top 40 hit single "Jodie." Alanski found Caplan promising and chose to collaborate with her on A Peine 21 (1987), her full-length album debut. Written and produced almost entirely by Alanski, A Peine 21 was a modest success for the previously unknown singer and spawned her first Top 40 hit single, "Oh! Tous les Soirs." The follow-up album, La Charmeuse de Serpents (1990), again written and produced by Alanski, built upon the breakthrough success of its predecessor and spawned a series of singles including the Top Ten hit "Tout C'qui Nous Sépare," the Top 20 hit "Natalie Wood," and the Top 40 hit "As-tu Déjà Oublié?" Moreover, the success of the album earned Caplan the 1992 Victoire de la Musique award for Female Pop Revelation of the Year. In the wake of this acclaim, Caplan collaborated with Alanski a third time for Avant Qu'il Ne Soit Trop Tard (1993), but when that album failed to rival the success of its predecessors, she changed direction. Her fourth album, Jil Caplan (1996), was a more personal effort on which she co-wrote a good share her material for the first time, collaborating primarily with Franck Eulry. A few years after the best-of compilation Jours de Fête (1998), Caplan released Toute Crue (2001), a collaboration with Jean-Philippe Nataf (aka Jipé of Les Innocents). She subsequently collaborated with Jean-Christophe Urbain, another member of Les Innocents, for Comme Elle Vient (2004), and reunited with Alanski for Derrière la Porte (2007). ~ Jason Birchmeier, Rovi