Étienne Roda-Gil (1 August 1941 in Septfonds, Tarn-et-Garonne, France – 31 May 2004 in Paris) was a songwriter and screenwriter.
[1] Roda-Gil was born in the Septfonds internment camp to refugees who had fled Francoism at the end of the Spanish Civil War.
His father, Antonio Roda Vallès, had been a militant with the CNT and a member of the Durruti column.
In the early 1950s the family moved to Antony, a suburb of Paris, where he studied at the Lycée Henri IV.
In 1959, when he was called to military service in Algeria, Roda-Gil instead fled to London, where he became active in anarchist and rock-and-roll circles.
[1] He met singer Julien Clerc in a café in Paris's Latin Quarter in 1968, and became his songwriter.
[1][2] He also wrote for Mort Shuman, Angelo Branduardi, Barbara, Vanessa Paradis, Johnny Hallyday, Claude François, Juliette Gréco, and Malicorne, among others.
[1] In 1989, he received the grand prix of songwriting from SACEM (La Société des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs de musique).