Les Prêtres / Les Pretres

Modeled after the Priests, a classical music trio of Catholic priests from Northern Ireland who were a blockbuster success throughout Western Europe in 2008, French trio Les Prêtres made their chart-topping album debut with Spiritus Dei in 2010. Hailing from Gap, the capital of the Hautes-Alpes department in southeastern France, the trio is comprised of two priests, Le Père Jean Michel Bardet and Le Père Charles Troesch, and seminarian Dinh Nguyen Nguyen. In association with the TF1 label, Les Prêtres made their full-length album debut with Spiritus Dei, and with proceeds of record sales going toward charitable projects, the album topped the French charts for several weeks straight. Produced by Florent Bidoyen, Spiritus Dei includes traditional material like "Ave Marie" and "Amazing Grace" as well as secular classics like Jacques Brel's "Quand On N'a Que l'Amour" and Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." While the album was a commercial blockbuster, critics were often unkind to Spiritus Dei, pointing out how clearly it was modeled after the 2008 eponymous album debut of the Priests, which had been a Top Ten smash hit across much of Western Europe with the exception of France.