Romain Didier was born in Rome, at the Villa Medici, during a residence of his father, Pierre Petit (Prix de Rome for composition and eventually director of the École Normale de Musique de Paris) and his mother, Christiane Castelli, a singer at the Opéra Garnier (Paris Opera). Romain Didier chose his stage name in tribute to his native city, but he spent his childhood in Paris. Refractory to piano lessons, he learned to play on his own and became a self-taught pianist in a few years.
In the 1970s, he became a bar pianist. He was then spotted by Gilbert Bécaud's publishing house, who asked him to work on orchestrations and to collaborate in the production of an album by Francis Lemarque. This meeting was decisive for the development of his career.
His first songs, with lyrics by friend and accomplice Patrice Mithois, were performed by Nicole Croisille in 1980. That same year, he released his first album on RCA. At the same time, he composed music for films and shows. He had his first success in the early 1980s with his songs Promesses Promesses and Amnésie.
In 1985, Romain Didier met Allain Leprest, a singer-songwriter with an artistic sensitivity close to his own, who became his friend and with whom he began a collaboration that led to the birth of many songs and several albums.
Much appreciated by his peers, Romain Didier is regularly invited by some of them to orchestrate their work or to write songs for them. He thus puts his talents of orchestrator at the service of Pierre Perret, Yves Duteil and, of course, Allain Leprest. He writes for various artists, such as Annie Cordy, Isabelle Aubret and the radio host Jean-Louis Foulquier in 1993 (with Allain Leprest) or, more recently, Jean Guidoni, Enzo Enzo and Kent. He is the composer of several operas for children including Pantin Pantine and Pinocchio court toujours with Pascal Mathieu.
A discreet artist unknown to the general public, Romain Didier is nevertheless one of the most prolific songwriters of the French song, as evidenced by the richness of his discography. He was awarded three times in his career by the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros, in 1986 for his double album Piano Public, in 1997 for the album Romain Didier en concert and in 2007 in the category "Jeune public" for the album Pinocchio court toujours.
A singer with a sober style and timeless talent, attracted equally to piano-voice and richly orchestrated jazz (as shown by the 1999 album J'ai noté), Romain Didier offers a repertoire full of poetry and humanism. In recent years, he recorded Dans ce piano tout noir, an intimate and uninterrupted journey into the world of songs he wrote surrounded by those that have nourished it. In November 2019 he released the album Leprest en symphonique, recorded with the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire.
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