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singer

Jacqueline Francis, singer

Jacqueline Francis was a woman of the world, demanding and well-tempered . From 1945 to 1965, "Mademoiselle de Paris" - is also the title of one of her greatest hits - had embodied the chic Parisian and French music from Japan to the United States via Brazil. Millionaire disk at a time when the best sales in the tens of thousands, no doubt Ambassador of France post-war interpreter died March 7 in Paris at the age of 87 years in the utmost discretion.

A voluntary discretion: she did not fuss. Besides, the years were right rock has long been famous.

Guillemautot Jacqueline was born January 30, 1922 in Neuilly-sur-Seine. Eldest of five children of a bourgeois family, she received a strict upbringing, which includes piano lessons. The father holds a senior position to brilliantines Roja ( "To be beloved, have the charm " , directs the calls). Dissenting, but always well-bred, Jacqueline Francois occurs in cabarets and seduces because it has a voice that will prove to be one of the most beautiful in France. Claire , impeccable phrasing with "American" says the World Charles Aznavour, it was one of the first performers in the early 1950s ( His youth, can not never know ...)

Jacqueline Francois count in early recognition of Aznavour, as Catherine Sauvage had helped to publicize Leo Ferré or Patachou, Georges Brassens. "She had an extraordinary ear. I first crossed the Pont-Aven, a small restaurant in the black market. She sang for little pay and a sandwich, it sounded as it did was no need " says Charles Aznavour, admitting of" complicity old and intimate " with Parisian elegance.

At the end of the war, Jacqueline Francis wants to sing "realistic" like his peers at the time, Renee Lebas (born 1917), Leo Marjane (1912) and Edith Piaf (1915-1963). In 1945, the young woman auditioned for radio. she comes across the guitarist and composer Gasté Loulou, husband Line Renaud, who invited him to record two of his compositions. Gentleman and It was not original (lyrics Françoise Giroud) are engraved in 1947 on two 78s for Sofradir.

On tour, she met Dr. Henry Decker, who became her husband and the father of an only child, Francis. Henry Decker him this musician Paul Durand Sète, composer among other Only tonight, a tube of Leo Marjane in 1941. With Jacques Canetti, artistic director of the Polydor label, Paul Durand will convince Jacqueline Francis to abandon the genre for a song more realistic modern, very imprint of jazz, Latin rhythms and love blue flowers, listen to Sunday sunny, while the country rediscovered the idea of happiness after the horrors of war.

In 1954, she approaches the pianist and composer Michel Legrand in a cross Musicorama in Olympia, then left Polydor for Philips, leaving his former guardian angels, Canetti and Durand, on the sidelines.

"THE LAUNDRESSES OF PORTUGAL"

Jacqueline Francis is equipped for success: in 1948, she managed to put on everyone's lips C is the spring , cover of a song by Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein It Might As Well Be Spring , which was created in French by Jean Sablon more discreetly. Then she won her greatest commercial success to the star Renée Lebas when Paul Durand Contet allied to Henry, one of the leading authors of Edith Piaf, to write a melody elegant Mademoiselle de Paris ( "His kingdom is the Rue de Rivoli, his destiny is to dress the other. They say it is little hand" ). They work from the cons-song Ball night, as Renée Lebas was created without success. Same scenario with Three times thank you, Pierre and Michel Elmer Dorsey, another writer attached to Piaf with You Cannot t'figurer Paul Misraki (created by Suzy Delair). Each time, sales rise with Miss Francis.

Great success also with The Washerwomen Portugal, Roger Lucchesi and Andre Popp, earning him his second Grand Prix du Disque in 1955. "She has built the commercial fate of Polydor says Jerome Collet, author of a cabinet, Mademoiselle de Paris (Mercury / Universal, 2002), because it sold a lot. Then she has contributed to the strength of Editions Raoul Breton singing in the world of the perpetrators of the house, like Trenet, she threw Sea across the Atlantic, or Aznavour (now owner of Breton editions) when touring, especially in the USSR and Brazil until the late 1960s. "

In 1950, Jacqueline Francis had made a first appearance in the United States, where " it ends up being better known as Edith Piaf " , Charles Aznavour recalled that for the conquest of America was less easy. " During his time at the Plaza New York, tails, impressive, did all the buildings around the block " . She edited twelve 33 laps, a record for a French singer. On stage, Piaf was madness, indescribable force. Jacqueline Francis is smart, very American, beautiful place. Connections perfect grammar, diction impeccable. "When one is abroad, we can not afford to be badly dressed," said, dryly this eternal well coiffed.

Jacqueline Francis would have brought the French song? Response Aznavour : "The quality, thoroughness of the directory, voice. Every song, even" songs "that she chose to interpret it, was well written, with a perfect melody." She yet cleared the threshold of the 1970s, after twenty years of unprecedented success, appearing on television only in the emissions of Pascal Sevran. Probably because they have managed to keep his legend.

Veronica Mortaigne

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Milestones

January 30, 1922
born in Neuilly-sur- Seine.

1948
"Mademoiselle de Paris" receives its first Grand Prix du Disque.

1955
was awarded his second Grand Prix du Disque for "The Bathers of Portugal."

1974
"When you're a woman."

March 7, 2009
Death in Paris.