Coupé Cloué

The story so far.

Written and edited by Smokiller

Coupé Cloué was the stage name of Jean Gesner Henry, a Haitian singer, guitarist and bandleader whom The Haitian Times describes as known for defining the style of Haitian konpa. He took the nickname, which means cut and nailed, from his days playing defense for the Port-au-Prince football club Aigles Noirs. He began performing on guitar in 1951 and in 1957 formed Trio Crystal, later renamed Trio Select, which grew into Ensemble Select in the early 1970s. Spoken, often racy storytelling over the groove became one of his trademarks, and he called his own variant kompa manba. A long tour of Africa in 1978 made him a star in West Africa, where fans named him Roi Coupé. He kept recording through the 1980s and early 1990s and died in January 1998, a month after his last performance. His songs Madame Marcel and Papa Loco were used in the 1988 film The Serpent and the Rainbow.