Early work
Fresh out of school, Renaud was determined to become an actor. By chance he met the actor Patrick Dewaere and was invited to join the company of the comedy theatre Café de la Gare, which had recently been founded by Patrick Dewaere, Coluche, and Miou-Miou.
His early work is characterized by a volatile temperament, innovative use of French, and edgy, dark, leftist social and political themes. Raised in an educated milieu, the son of an intellectual, Renaud adopted the looks and attitude of working-class youth in the 1970s, and reflected this in his lyrics. A recurrent theme is his disgust for the average French person with petit-bourgeois preoccupations and right-wing leanings . His music focuses on the disparity between classes, the abuse of political power, overbearing authority and disgust for the military and the police, with rare glimpses of tenderness for his fellow humans, the planet earth, and art.
Middle period
In 1985, in a concert in Moscow, in what was an orchestrated gesture, roughly one third of the spectators upped and left the concert hall when he sang the anti-militarist "Déserteur". In the late 1980s and the 1990s, Renaud's work was distinguished by "softer" subjects such as his then-wife Dominique, his daughter Lolita and his friends, as well as comedian and singer Coluche for whom he wrote the tribute "Putain de camion" after Coluche's death in a road accident. He has also ventured into regional music and language, such as the language of Marseille in La Belle de Mai, the north with Renaud cante el' Nord and even Corsican polyphonics in "Lolito lolita".
In 1992, he financially helped resurrect the defunct satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo and wrote a column titled Renaud bille en tête for a couple of years. His column appeared again in 1995–1996, retitled Envoyé spécial chez moi. In 2006, he published Les Bobos, as a satire on the Parisian lower bourgeoisie.
In 1993, he also played the leading part of Étienne Lantier in the film Germinal directed by Claude Berri.
Resurgence
After an unproductive period marked by alcohol addiction, he made a very significant comeback with his 2002 album Boucan d'enfer. That album's iconic hit was "Manhattan-Kaboul", a powerful duo with Axelle Red which tackled current issues by drawing a parallel between a victim of the 9-11 attacks in New York and an Afghan girl, both caught up in a war they don't understand.
In 2009 Renaud released Molly Malone – Balade irlandaise, his long-awaited album of classic Irish ballads. Produced by ex-Boomtown Rats bassist Pete Briquette, the album was commercially successful but the singer's feeble, often out-of-tune vocals caused some negative reviews.
In 2014, a collective of 15 artists released a tribute album containing 14 tracks covers of his songs under the title La Bande à Renaud.
On 26 January 2016, on his official web site, Renaud released "Toujours debout", the first track from his new studio album yet to be released. On the same day, he announced on the French public radio station France Inter the title of his new studio album: Toujours debout. The video "Toujours debout" is released on 26 February 2016.
On 8 April 2016, Renaud released his new long-awaited studio album, announced and known under the title Toujours debout but oddly sold under the simple title Renaud.
