Jean Philippe started his professional life as a receptionist – his father was director at the Grand Hôtel in Paris.

[2] He subsequently worked as an accountant as well as a bartender in Cardiff and in the Carlton hotel in Cannes.

[2] While working as a vendor in a shirt shop in Paris, his wife registered him in a singing competition organised by a radio station, which he won in January 1957.

[3] The Eurovision Song Contest 1959 was held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France, after the victory of André Claveau the previous year, in Hilversum, the Netherlands.

[5][6] Philippe later lived in Quebec, Canada, where he operated a cafe in Montebello.