What is Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo's Net Worth?
Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo is a French musician, producer, composer, and DJ who has a net worth of $90 million. Guy-Manuel is best known for being half of the legendary French duo Daft Punk. Together with Thomas Bangalter, he created some of the most memorable electronic music tracks of recent memory and reached stunning levels of mainstream success. Outside of his activities with Daft Punk, Homem-Christo started a record label called Crydamoure along with co-owner Éric Chedeville.
In early 2021, he and Bangalter announced that they were splitting up after many years together as Daft Punk. It was assumed that the pair were going to retire after they ceased their activities together. During his time with Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel became famous for dressing as a robot. He very rarely showed his face when performing, and throughout his entire career with Daft Punk, the music and the art direction seemed to follow a very "robotic" aesthetic and style.
Early Life
Homem-Christo was born on February 8th, 1974, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. Raised just West of Paris, Guy-Manuel grew up in a family with artistic roots. His grandfather was the famed Portuguese poet Homem Cristo Filho. He is also the great-great-grandson of a famous Portuguese military leader. At the age of seven, Homem-Christo first started exploring his musical abilities after receiving a toy guitar and a keyboard as gifts. By the age of 14, he had been given an electric guitar. Throughout his career, Homem-Christo used an electric guitar to initially write music.
Career
Homem-Christo's musical career began in earnest when he met Thomas Bangalter during his time as a secondary school student. Both boys were obsessed with music from the '60s and '70s, and they also loved movies like "Easy Rider." Both boys were also musically talented, and they often got together with other students to record demos. Eventually, Bangalter and Homem-Christo teamed up with a third boy, Laurent Brancowitz. Together, they formed an indie-rock trio called Darlin'.
Homem-Christo played the guitar with this rock group, and they started to gain moderate notoriety. However, not all feedback was kind. One negative review referred to Darlin' as making "daft punky thrash." The name stuck. Bangalter and Homem-Christo decided to venture more towards electronic dance music after visiting a nightclub in the early 90s, and Daft Punk was born.
With Brancowitz pursuing further opportunities in the indie rock scene, Homem-Christo and Bangalter were free to dive headfirst into electronic music. The duo experimented with drum machines and synthesizers, formulating the sound that would come to define them. They also started to attend more raves and met with record label owner Stuart Macmillan, giving him a demo tape. This demo tape contained the basis for their first single, "The New Wave." This track was later remixed into its final form, a song called "Alive."
In 1995, Homem-Christo and Bangalter recorded "Da Funk." This would prove to be their first mainstream source of success, and they soon found a manager before signing with Virgin Records. On the heels of their early success, Daft Punk toured throughout the world, including the United States. In 1997, they were ready to release their first album, entitled "Homework." This album contained earlier tracks like "Alive" and "Da Funk," but it also featured the massive hit "Around the World."
In 2001, Daft Punk released their next album, entitled "Discovery." This album contained hits like "Digital Love and "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger." In 2003, Daft Punk also released a feature-length animated film entitled "Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem." The film was created in collaboration with legendary anime figure Leiji Matsumoto.
In 2007, Daft Punk followed up with their third album, "Human After All." Unfortunately, this album did not receive strong reviews from critics. After touring extensively, the duo appeared to focus on other projects. In 2009, they worked closely with the production of the film "Tron: Legacy," contributing 24 tracks to the film's soundtrack. In 2013, Daft Punk came out with another album entitled "Random Access Memories," which contained another hit entitled "Get Lucky." This song featured Pharrell Williams and Rodgers. By 2016, the productivity of Daft Punk had dwindled considerably, although they continued to work with artists like Kanye West and The Weeknd.
Outside of his work with Daft Punk, Guy-Manuel has teamed up with Éric Chedeville to form the group Le Knight Club and the record label Crydamoure. In 2008, he helped Sébastien Tellier produce his album "Sexuality." In 2010, he worked with SebastiAn to produce the Kavinsky song "Nightcall." He has worked with Tellier again on a number of occasions. Both Bangalter and Homem-Christo have also collaborated quite extensively with artists such as Parcels and The Weeknd.
In 2017, Guy-Manuel worked with Charlotte Gainsbourg on her fifth studio album. He also worked on the song "Hurt You" by The Weeknd and Gesaffelstein in 2018. However, by 2019, Homen-Christo had become relatively inactive in the music scene. In 2021, he and Bangalter announced that Daft Punk was no longer together and that both artists were considering retirement.
Personal Life
Like his former Daft Punk counterpart, Guy-Manuel intentionally avoided "becoming a celebrity," preferring instead to live in relative anonymity. He rarely gives interviews, and when he does he almost never talks about his personal life. That being said, Homem-Christo was far from an isolated hermit during his time with Daft Punk. The duo worked frequently with other artists – although they were apparently very careful about who they decided to collaborate with. There are few details about Guy-Manuel's life, but he is reported to have two children.