Eddy de Pretto

Eddy Antoine Jean de Pretto, born on 2 May 1993 in Créteil in the Val-de-Marne, is a French singer-songwriter, actor, and rapper. He defines himself as a non-genre artist and is recognized for combining elements of rap and French chanson while examining themes such as masculinity and personal reality.

De Pretto grew up in Créteil with a father who worked as a truck driver and a mother who worked as a laboratory technician. He sang about his hometown in his song Beaulieue. At the age of twelve, he began taking lessons in theatre, singing, vocal technique, and piano after his mother suggested dramatic arts. He later continued his training in Paris at the Institut supérieur des arts de la scène (ECM-ISAS).

De Pretto began writing songs between the ages of eighteen and nineteen, giving his first public singing performance at his local youth centre. His early acting career included playing a young Julius Caesar in a television advertisement for CanalSat in September 2010. He went on to perform in the short films Königsberg by Philipp Mayrhofer in 2012 and Vivre sa vie by Paul D. Meyer in 2013, as well as the 2013 feature film Paulette by Jérôme Enrico.

In his music career, de Pretto graduated from inRocKs Lab 2016 and won the Inouïs prize at the Printemps de Bourges music festival. He also participated in the Bars en Trans festival and the Festival Off Off Off in Troyes. On 6 October 2017, he released his debut EP, Kid. During live performances supporting the EP, he played audio clips directly from an iPhone connected with a cable, accompanied only by a drummer.

In early 2018, de Pretto performed a duet on the television programme Taratata with Julien Doré and released the singles Random and Ego. He was nominated for Best Newcomer Stage Act at the 33rd Victoires de la Musique in 2018. On 2 March 2018, he released his debut album, Cure, across CD, vinyl, and digital formats, alongside the music video for Normal, which addressed homophobia and stereotypes of sexual identity. Cure reached number one on the album sales chart one week after its release, selling 13,500 copies.

On 25 March 2021, de Pretto released his 16-track second album, À tous les bâtards, which included the singles Bateaux-Mouches and Désolé Caroline, as well as Parfaitement, which was performed on a COLORS SHOW YouTube video beforehand. The album featured cover artwork given to him by a fan that depicted a sketch of his head on a yellow background.

Regarding his personal life and artistic approach, de Pretto does not hide his homosexuality, which is featured in his music. Rather than positioning himself as a militant or standard-bearer, he aims to share his personal experience, normalise his reality, and explore masculinity and hypermasculinity.