Roland Romanelli

Roland Romanelli (born 21 May 1946) is a French synthesist and composer, mainly known as arranger. During his career, he worked with Barbara, Rusty Egan, and other notable figures in popular music. He was an early adopter of the Fairlight system.

Romanelli moved to Paris in 1966. He was a session player on accordion and keyboards for Barbara Brodi. He soon worked for other musicians including Charles Aznavour. In the late 1970s, he worked in the French space disco scene, and was a founding member of the popular band Space. He took up synthesizers, which helped his career grow in the 1980s. His 1982 album Connecting Flight was also released in the US on PolyGram Records.

He arranged music for Patrick Bruel, Marc Lavoine, Line Renaud, Jean-Jacques Goldman... He got closer to Vladimir Cosma, whose film music he arranged. He composed some of them himself (like the one for the Années sandwiches). He also turned to the theater and arranged the music for several plays and musicals.

In the 1990s, he worked with Jean-Jacques Goldman, joined his musical troupe (on keyboards and synthesizers), and arranged his songs and shows, as well as most of the albums of other artists composed and written by Goldman. He arranged Gang by Johnny Hallyday (whom he also accompanied on synthesizer in this album). Finally, in the 1990s and 2000s, he continued his activities as an arranger for theater and film music. He co-wrote with Goldman the soundtrack of Asterix and Obelix against Caesar.

Accompanied by Ann'so, he signed at the end of 2002 a show in tribute to the singer Barbara, Ma plus belle histoire d'amour... Barbara.

In 2008, he wrote, composed and arranged Barbara vingt ans d'amour with Rebecca Mai at the Théâtre de Paris, then at the Théâtre Hébertot and at the Variétés, as well as on tour in France. In June 2010, he published, with Christian Mars, a book on his twenty years of collaboration with the singer Barbara, titled as the show, and finally in 2013, he reworks this show with Rébecca Mai under the title Barbara by Roland Romanelli at the Théâtre Comédia.

He was also the musical director (composition and production) of the episodes of the television series Famille d'accueil, and now of Joséphine Ange Gardien.