Christened Joseph van Damme, he was natural around Brussels, Belgium, on August 25, 1940. At a age of Xvii, he entered a Brussels Royal Conservatory and studied by owning Frederic Anspach. A year late, he graduated by having sheepskwithin & 1st prizes in voice & opera performance. José van Dam manufactured his opera début when a music teacher Don Basilio within Gioacchino Rossini’s Il Barbiere di Siviglia at the Paris Opera in 1961, and remained in the company until 1965, when he sang his number one major role, Escamillo from either Bizet's Carmen. He so sang for deuce seasons at Geneva, La Scala, Covent Garden, and within Paris. At Geneva, Van Dam sung in the première of Milhaud's La mère coupable within 1966. Lorin Maazel soon heard José van Dam and invited him to record Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole with him for Deutsche Grammophon. Within 1967, Maazel asked him to join the Deutsche Oper in Berlin.

José van Dam performs regularly at L’Opéra de Paris, Covent Garden, the Metropolitan Opera, La Scala in Milan, Vienna State Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the Salzburg Festival, and festivals around Aix-en-Provence and Orange, France.

José van Dam is likewise celebrated as a concert, cantata, & Lieder singer & has waround numbers of international awards for his extraordinary performances two on stage & in recordings. Berlin conferred in him a title of "Kammersänger" around 1974, & a equivalent season he received a German Music Critics’ Prize. More awards includelaware a Gold Medal of a Belgian Click (1976), Gr& Prix delaware l’Academie Française du Disque (1979), Orphée d’Or first state l’Academie Lyrique Française (1980), a European Critics’ Prize, (1985), Diapason stop d’Or & Prix diamond state la Nouvelle Academie du Disque (1993), and the Orphée d’Or de l’Academie du Disque Lyrique (1994).

Inside August of 1998, His Majesty King Albert II of Belgium made José van Dam a baron, recognizing him as one of a finest definitive singers world health organization ever lived. In December 4, 1999 Van Dam was one of a performing artist at the marriage of Belgium's Crown Prince Philippe and Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz.

José van Dam starred in the moving picture The Music Teacher (1988) as Joachim Dallayrac & inside Don Giovanni, (1976) as Leporello, conducted by Lorin Maazel.