Joël Manglou

Joël Manglou was born on 14 June 1958 at Quartier-Français, in the commune of Sainte-Suzanne in Réunion, the youngest of nine children. His father, René Manglou, was a schoolteacher, and his mother, Jeannette Manglou, née Germain de Keradec, was descended from Bretons. In a 2004 L'Express feature on Réunion's mixed families, the genealogist Patrick Onézime-Laude traced the paternal line to a free worker named Jean-Baptiste Mangoulou, born in Pondicherry in 1747. Manglou himself described a Breton great-grandfather on his mother's side, a paternal ancestor from northern India and Malagasy forebears, and said that this awareness of mixed roots had made him "rich, universal and full of love".

After the BEPC he spent a year training as an electromechanic at the lycée du Butor in Saint-Denis. He later studied agriculture, livestock farming and management at the adult training centre (CFPA) in Saint-Joseph, earning an agricultural BPA, and spent a year at the École nationale de procédure in Paris while working for a bailiff. He also qualified as a sports educator specialising in horse-trekking. He did his military service with the Régiment d'artillerie de marine at La Fère, in the Aisne, where he illustrated and wrote the regimental newspaper. As a musician he was largely self-taught.

Manglou began on violin and cello and went on to play guitar, accordion, piano, banjo, trombone and percussion. In 1981 he joined Kalou Pilé, the folk ballet of René Micaud and Jacqueline Farreyrol, training at Hell-Bourg and touring Réunion, mainland France and South Africa. He then spent three years with Mascareignas, the group of Jacques de Chateauvieux.

After years devoted mainly to farming, he released his first album, Ravages, in 1995. A cause followed in 2000 on the Takamaka label, then 'Magine in 2003 and the compilation Le Meilleur de Joël Manglou in 2010 on Discorama. His repertoire moved between séga, maloya, Creole romances and French chanson. In 2025 he returned to the stage with the reunited Kalou Pilé, including the September 2025 show Kalou Pilé, les légendes du folklore at the Téat Plein Air.

Alongside music, Manglou was a farmer and livestock breeder. In 1988 he opened a farm inn at Belle Ombre in Saint-André (described by Réunion la 1ère as La ferme Belle Ombre at Champ-Borne), which he ran for about seven years, cooking with produce from his own land and playing for his guests. He developed equestrian tourism on the farm and later built horse-drawn carriages. His recording studio sat in the middle of his farm, among poultry, rabbits, horses and donkeys. He entered cooking competitions and won several prizes, and appeared in two 52-minute television films about Réunionese cuisine and spices.

According to the 2009 reference book Célébrités de la Réunion, Manglou was married to Marie-Anne Manglou, née Robert, and they had three children, Sébastien, Loïc and Mélissa. Friends described a generous, joyful and outspoken man. Pascal Saint-Pierre, director of the Bisik concert hall and a friend for more than 30 years, called him "a big heart, sometimes a big mouth, but above all a free spirit". He also painted and sculpted.

Manglou was a passionate defender of the Réunion Creole language and of the island's traditions. He was a founding member of a committee for the defence of Réunion Creole and, with artists including Jacqueline Farreyrol, of a parents' collective formed in 2003 to oppose a Réunionese literature textbook. He criticised the spelling reforms favoured by some politicians and the influence of television advertising, which he once called "human farming". He believed artists in Réunion should stay close to the public rather than live in a star system, and he championed solidarity, working with Emmaüs, La main qui étreint and the 2011 "Aid a li" project for homeless people.

Réunion's press called him "the artist of a thousand lives", and in 2023 the regional agency RANPAR described him as a "Réunionese minstrel". Politicians and artists alike stressed his role in passing on Creole culture. Huguette Bello called him "an authentic artist, a keeper of memory"; Cyrille Melchior said his work "remains a reference for current and future generations"; Jean-Jacques Morel placed him "at the crossroads of séga and maloya, in the line of the great Réunionese artists". The band Pat'Jaunes wrote that "the whole Réunionese scene dims the lights a little to pay tribute to him".

Réunionnais du Monde lists among his distinctions the Premier prix de la Chanson d'Outre-mer (first prize for songs from overseas France) won by the group Mascareignas, with which he performed for three years. He won several prizes in cooking competitions. He was a founding member of the Académie des Arts et Lettres de la Réunion and served on the regional commission of SACEM, the French songwriters' society.

Albums: Ravages (1995), A cause (2000), 'Magine (2003) and the compilation Le Meilleur de Joël Manglou (2010). On screen he played a hunter of runaway slaves in Créole Parabole (2004), and took part as an actor and presenter in several short films and two 52-minute television films on Réunionese cooking and spices. Réunion la 1ère and Antenne Réunion regularly invited him, including a 2024 Dimanche Ansanm interview and a March 2025 appearance on La Box.

Joël Manglou died in the night of Saturday 3 October 2026, at the age of 68, at about 11pm according to Zinfos974. LINFO.RE reported that the cause of death was not known, and it has not been made public since. Tributes poured in on social media from artists, friends and officials. A musical vigil gathered many artists at Primat in Saint-Denis on Sunday 4 October, and his funeral, with a mass, was held on the afternoon of Monday 5 October at the Primat funeral centre in Saint-Denis.