Michel Polnareff (born 3 July 1944) is a French singer-songwriter, who was popular in France from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s with his penultimate original album, Kāma-Sūtra.

Michel was born into an artistic family: his mother, Simonne Lane (1912-1973), was a Breton dancer and his father, Leib Polnareff (Russian: Лейб Полнарёв) or Léo Poll [fr] (1899-1988) was a Russian Jewish[1] immigrant from Odesa who worked with Édith Piaf.

Polnareff also played with his image: long hair, black glasses, fancy trousers, and ambiguous provocations.

After a rest period in the Paris area, and long months in isolation and therapy healing from his depression, Polnareff gradually resumed touring.

Unable to pay his debts, and crushed by the death of his mother, he left France by boat for the United States, where he lived in anonymity.

He was joined by his friend and long time partner, Annie Fargue who became his manager and stayed in this capacity for many years even after their separation.

He also created the soundtrack for the exploitation rape drama Lipstick (1976), which starred American model Margaux Hemingway and her sister Mariel.

For a year and a half, Polnareff was locked up at Le Royal Monceau in Paris and recorded Kāma-Sūtra, with Mike Oldfield adding some guitar parts.

The album was released in February 1990, met with commercial success and marked Polnareff's true return with hits such as "Kâma Sûtra", "LNA HO" and "Toi et moi".

Rumors spread about his health, and in 1994, he finally decided to have a cataract surgically (and successfully) removed to prevent him from becoming blind.

Polnareff returned to the United States and performed live (for the first time in ages) on 27 September 1995 at The Roxy on Sunset Boulevard with executive-producer / guitarist Dick Smith (Earth, Wind and Fire, Aretha Franklin) and Alex Acuña (Weather Report, Elvis Presley and Michael Jackson).

His 1977 hit "Lettre à France" enjoyed a new success in 2004 following its inclusion on the French version of the Star Academy talent contest.

It includes images from rare files mixed with interviews with media personalities like Marc-Olivier Fogiel, Jacques Séguéla, Jean-Luc Lahaye and Frédéric Beigbeder explaining to the televiewers what Michel Polnareff represented for them and for France.

[4] In 2014, a documentary, called "Quand l'écran s'allume" pictured Polnareff, his partner Danyellah and their son Louka, in theatres first, and on TV a few months later.

On 8 December 2015, Polnareff announced the release of his new album in the first half of 2016 (between January and April 2016) and a new tour of 50 dates, mostly in France but also in Belgium and Switzerland, split into two legs : a Summer leg due to start on 30 April 2016 in Epernay and to end on 26 July 2016 (including a four-date stay at the Paris-Bercy Arena in early May 2016 and many appearances at Summer Festivals) and an Autumn leg due to start on 4 November 2016 and to end on 10 December 2016 in Bordeaux.

On 3 October 2018, Polnareff announced the forthcoming release on 30 November 2018 of Enfin !, his (28-year) long-awaited new studio album.

[6] [7] On July 24, 2022, four years after the release of ‘Enfin !’, Polnareff announced a new album consisting of all his major hits done entirely instrumentally.

On 21 February 2011, Polnareff announced via a Facebook post that a DNA test had revealed that he was not the biological father of the child and that Danyellah had used a sperm donor.

He is a self proclaimed fan of the manga series and previously had his Twitter profile picture set as Jean-Pierre Polnareff.