Graeme Allwright

Graeme Allwright is a singer-songwriter. Born in Wellington, New Zealand, he moved to France in 1948. He began to perform and write folk songs a few years later and was eventually signed by Sonogram. In the 1960s, he translated into French a number of songs written by Leonard Cohen, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger. He remained active through the 1970s. Together with Sylvie Dien, he wrote new lyrics to the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise", making it a song of peace rather than a song of war. The French government has not adopted these new lyrics, although a movement is afoot in France to get the government to do just that.