It's been a while since the last chanson evening we did on Zoom (you can enjoy it in the article When Boris Vian, Charles Aznavour and other friends meet during the Corona period). So, following quite a few requests, our “Zoom Team” is back for another evening of chansons dedicated entirely to iconic French female singers. So who is participating in this video?
- Miriam Edri, owner of Experience Paris like a Parisian.
- Sabin Jakubowicz Lecturer in French culture
- Olivier Delchanel, who works for one of the largest record companies in France.
- And…surprise! But for that you’ll have to watch the video 🙂
As always, you are invited to watch the video and enjoy. Afterwards, you can listen to the full songs of the singers we talked about and read a little about them.
So grab a glass of wine, turn up the speakers and let's get going!
A little note before we start: This article has subtitles because some of the people interviewed in it were in French. The subtitles were written by someone whose native language is not Hebrew, so you will find errors there. We are aware of this, but we have come to the conclusion that this is better than eliminating subtitles altogether, because without them, people who are not Francophones (speakers of French) French) They won't understand some of the stories in the video, which is a shame.
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Line Renaud
Lynne Renault (born 1928) had a long and international artistic career, including appearing with Yves Montand and starring in major cabarets in France such as theMoulin Rouge And in the US. The song you heard, Sexe, was performed by her at the Casino de Paris and was a great success.
And by the way, am I the only one who thinks that the first notes of this song are suspiciously reminiscent of the soundtrack to the James Bond film “On Her Majesty’s Service”?
Jeanne Moreau (1928-2017)
We continue to 1962 to the singer and actors Jeanne Moreau. The song Le Tourbillon (The Whirlwind of Life) is taken from the famous film Gilles et Jime by François Tropeau:
https://youtu.be/dcVcwwo8QFE
Later Vanessa Paradis sang this song together with Jeanne Moreau at the opening ceremony of the festival. Cannes And you can hear it here:
And by the way, if you would like to read more about Jeanne Moreau and learn about her life and work, you are invited to visit Dr. Orna Lieberman’s wonderful article. In the whirlwind of Jeanne Moreau's life.
Brigitte Bardot
Brigitte Bardot (born 1934) is undoubtedly the most famous singer and actress of France In the 50s and 60s, thanks to her beauty and her becoming an icon of the liberated woman. The song Moi je joue symbolizes this precisely because here the woman plays the man and not the other way around.
Marie Laforet (1939-2019)
Another great singer and actress who became famous in the sixties. The song we chose to play here was written in 1966 and deals with two types of women: gentle Marie and angry Marie, and it expresses the change that occurred in the status of women in the sixties. What is interesting about this song is not only the lyrics but also the fact that it is a melody by the Rolling Stones, which creates a great French-English fusion for us. In this song, Marie Lafora says that although she is a gentle and pampered woman, in one moment she can become angry Marie.
Jacqueline Taieb (born 1949)
The next song is a lesser-known gem from the 1967s (at least to the Israeli audience). The song is called “Seven in the Morning” and was first sung in 18 by a young XNUMX-year-old singer and is a fascinating combination of French and English, French poetry and American rock.
Jacqueline Taieb achieved success as a child when she won a young talent competition. She grew up listening to the great chansonniers but also to jazz music and later rock and roll that came Marais“And this influence can be clearly heard in her songs. Despite her great success, she did not give up on academic studies and went to study at the Sorbonne, from where the jazzy song “The Faculty of Humanities” (La Fac de Lettres) comes, which tells of student life there. As can be understood from the song, the boredom of studying English culture at the Sorbonne caused Jacqueline to leave the Sorbonne following the student uprising of 1968:
What's interesting about Jacqueline Taib is that she not only sang but also composed, and some of her songs became big hits. An example of this is the song "Ready to Follow You" by Dana Dawson.
Another American singer who sang in French and for whom Jacqueline Taieb composed songs is Jeane Manson, whom she met at “La Madrague,” where Brigitte Bardot also lived. Jacqueline Taieb sang the song by the pool, and Jeane Manson was thrilled with it and asked her for the song. Here is the result:
Despite her success with American singers, Jacqueline Taieb's most famous collaboration was undoubtedly with Michel Fugain, one of the greatest French pop singers of the 1960s and 1970s. The first song she wrote for him was called Les Sud Americains (The South Americans).
https://youtu.be/hEKiIwdlf0Q
And that’s not all, Jacqueline Taieb was honored to compose an entire album for no less than the legendary Yves Montand. It is a musical called “The Peace Record” and deals with the disarmament of nuclear weapons, in which Yves Montand plays the presidents of France, the United States, and the USSR. Here is an excerpt from it:
And finally, what's amazing is that Jacqueline Taieb doesn't stand still or rest for a moment, and just recently she released a duet with a young French singer whose nickname is Cutting Edge:
Zvi, thanks for the article. I miss Françoise Hardy, Fracne Gall and Juliette Gréco.
But the singers mentioned here are great!!
Hi Matty. There is an article about Juliette Greco inLink this
There will be an article about Françoise Hardy in about two months, so it's definitely worth coming back. As for France Gal, I don't have an article about her yet, but there is an article about Michelle Berger her husband.