Born on 9 March: Jean-Luc Fonck (Sttellla): Suprised by life itself

Jean-Luc Fonck was born into a family of bakers in Arlon, in 1957. "I was a little fat kid, but being a little fat kid when you're the son of a baker, it's good for the shop's promotion," he said years later in an interview.  

At the age of twelve, he moved to the Belgian capital with his family. There, he met many friends on school benches, including Mimi, who was to be his partner on stage and in life for many years. Together, almost as a joke, and after a first performance on the school stage, they came up with the crazy and eccentric idea of founding their own music group. Sttellla was born in 1975: "When we started out, we played for a handful of curious people. By the end, we were playing in front of over 6,000 people." Their inimitable style and energy won  fans over, who sang along to their improbable choruses, including the famous ‘Tous, tous, tous à Torremolinos’. 

In 1993, his separation from Mimi put a temporary end to the Sttellla adventure, but didn't dampen his desire to share his music. Fonck began his solo career with a major tour that drew over 120,000 fans. On his 45th birthday, 3,500 people came to sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to him, almost all dressed up and eager to party. 

As well as music, he has had numerous TV appearances, he has a radio show and has written several books... The smiling Belgian is insatiable, his appetite for life and his humour is contagious. A singer, comedian and composer, the man who has written over 1,000 songs and 10 books sometimes recalls that, as a boy, he wanted to become a priest! Jean-Luc himself is sometimes surprised by this life: "It's a dream to do this. I've always said that for years I've been doing something I don't know how to do, and that I'd change the day people realised. Obviously, they still haven't realised."

(MH with CMa - Photo: © Etienne Tordoir)
Photo: Jean-Luc Fonck with his group Sttellla on stage at the Ancienne Belgique in Brussels (Belgium) on 11 June 2022.