Gabriel Montoya

Gabriel Montoya was a French singer, chansonnier and lyricist. The son of a pharmacist, Joseph-Henri-Victor Montoya and Noémie- Victoire Coste, he studied medicine in Lyon. After a trip to the West Indies in 1893, he settled in Paris where he enrolled in 1899 at the university and graduated a physician. An enthusiastic amateur singer, he joined up at night in coffee houses, where he attracted Rodolphe Salis's attention who engaged him at Le Chat Noir in Montmartre. In 1902, he toured with the troupe led by Yvette Guilbert, "Monmartre en ballade in Berlin".