Nous (British:  /ˈnaʊs/; US: /ˈnuːs/), sometimes equated to intellect or intelligence, is a philosophical term for the faculty of the human mind which is described in classical philosophy as necessary for understanding what is true or real, similar in meaning to intuition. It is also often described as a form of perception which works within the mind ("the mind's eye"), rather than only through the physical senses. The three commonly used philosophical terms are from Greek, νοῦς or νόος, and Latin intellectus and intelligentia respectively.

In philosophy, common English translations include "understanding" and "mind"; or sometimes "reason" and "thought". To describe the activity of this faculty, apart from verbs based on "understanding", the verb "intellection" is sometimes used in philosophical contexts, and the Greek words noēsis and noein are sometimes also used. In colloquial British English, nous denotes "common sense", which is close to the original everyday meaning it had in Ancient Greece.

Hervé Vilard (born René Villard, 24 July 1946 in Paris, France) is a French pop–singer, who first became famous in the 1960s. His first single "Capri c'est fini" became an international hit in 1965 and made him instantly famous. The song sold 3.3 million copies.

His long national and international musical career as composer, singer and stage performer spans four decades. In 1992 in recognition of his contributions to French culture he was awarded the Ordre national du Mérite in a ceremony at the Parisian Théâtre des Variétés hosted by Jean-Paul Belmondo.

René Vilard was born 24 July 1946 in a taxi which was transferring his mother Blanche to the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris to deliver. He never met his father who left home soon after the birth of his son. His mother eventually lost custody of her children and young René was sent to an orphanage in Paris. Later he was transferred to the Berry region of France into the custody of various foster homes. Young René became a runaway during that period of his life. Eventually he was moved to the Cher region of France where he met a priest, Father Angrand who became his mentor and taught him literature and music. In 1991 Vilard bought the monastery at La Celette where he met Father Angrand and made it his home.

Hélène Ségara (French pronunciation: [elɛn seɡaʁa]; born Hélène Rizzo on 26 February 1971 in Six-Fours-les-Plages, Var) is a French female singer revealed in her interpretation of Esmeralda in the French musical Notre Dame de Paris.

Hélène Ségara was born on 26 February 1971 in Six-Fours-les-Plages in her grandfather's farm. Her father is of Italian descent and mother is Armenian.

She said that she had been traumatized in her childhood by the divorce of her parents when she was 8, and by the death of her grandfather when she was 16. As she wanted to become a singer, she left school and family at the age of 14.

Then she had many successive jobs including performances in the piano bars of the French Riviera. At 18, she gave birth to Raphael, her first son. Her repertoire was expanding, with many musical influences and over a thousand songs. In 1993, a first single entitled "Loin" was released, but didn't meet success.

In 1996, accompanied by her young son, she moved to Paris, where she met Christian Loigerot, who became one of her composers. She also met the famous producer Orlando, Dalida's brother, who supervised and gave new impetus to her career. Although she was marked by the experience and professionalism of this mentor, she remains under contract with her first producer.

Joseph Ira Dassin (November 5, 1938 – August 20, 1980), more commonly known as Joe Dassin, was an American singer-songwriter best known for his French songs of the 1960s and 1970s.

Joe Dassin was born in New York City to American film director Jules Dassin (1911 - 2008) and Béatrice Launer (1913–2005), a New-York-born violinist, who after graduating from a Hebrew High School in the Bronx studied with the British violinist Harold Berkely at the Juilliard School of Music. Both parents were Jewish. His father was of Russian and Polish Jewish extraction, his maternal grandfather was an Austrian Jewish immigrant, who arrived in New York with his family at age 11.

He began his childhood first in New York City and Los Angeles. However, after his father fell victim to the Hollywood blacklist in 1950, he and his family moved from place to place across Europe.

Dassin studied at the International School of Geneva and the Institut Le Rosey in Switzerland, and graduated in Grenoble. Dassin moved back to the United States where he earned a doctorate in ethnology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Alix Mathurin (born, December 28, 1977) better known as Kery James, is a French rapper, singer, songwriter, dancer and record producer, who was born in West Indies from Haitian parents. His mother raised him in Orly, a suburb of Paris. Nowadays with his three solo albums, he is one of the most respected French rappers. The media labelled him "the rapper repented through Islam". Kery James is aware of it, he really assumes this image. " I prefer to be the one who hold this role rather than somebody else. Numerous young Muslims are tempted to be intolerant or extremist. If I can open their eyes it is a good thing for them."

Kery James arrived in continental France at the age of seven. He started at a young age to rap, dance, and write his own texts. The famous MC Solaar noticed him when he was only 10 years old in a cité (suburban housing estate) of Paris. He described the setting as "A place where the Islamic faith was omnipresent. All my friends in , and the symbols of the religion.

At around thirteen years old, he became a member of the group Idéal Junior (later abbreviated to Idéal J). They garnered a few singles with explicit titles like Hardcore, Pour une poignée de dollars and a first album titled Original MC’s sur une mission. In 1992, their single La vie est dure was released showing great promise though one of the talented artists, Alter, promptly left the group. In subsequent years while colleague Mehdi progressed as a prominent producer, Kery worked extensively on writing new material, his texts reflecting a life that involved altercations with the police, street rivalries and an omnipresent fear of death.