Jocelyne Béroard (born 12 September 1954) is a Martinican singer and songwriter. She is one of the lead singers of the Zouk and Compas band Kassav'. As a solo artist, she helped create zouk Beton, a music genre originated by the seminal Martinican Creole band Kassav' from Paris, the main members of which are from Guadeloupe and Martinique.
Anicée Alvina, also known as Anicée Schahmaneche (born Anicée Shahmanesh or Anicee Schahmane (Persian: انیسه شاهمنش; 28 January 1953 – 11 November 2006) was a French singer and actress.
Germaine Sablon (19 July 1899 at Le Perreux-sur-Marne – 17 April 1985 at Saint-Raphael) was a French singer, film actress and a WWII French Resistance fighter.
She starred in some 15 films between 1920 and 1956.
Marie-France Gaite (French pronunciation: [maʁi fʁɑ̃s ɡete]; born 17 July 1941 in Lyon, France – died 18 January 1968), better known as Gribouille (French pronunciation: [ɡʁibuj]) was a singer, musician, and songwriter.As a teenager, she suffered from a mental disorder, and for a time was confined against her will to a psychiatric hospital in Lyon. With medication, she was able to function well enough to leave her hometown and she made her way to Paris. Gribouille, as she was called since her school days, is French for naive and foolishly happy people. Likely to throw themselves into a river to keep from getting wet in the rain.
In Paris she met Jean Cocteau while she was drawing art on the sidewalk with chalk. He drew a portrait of her and added "To my friend Gribouille." She carefully added an 'e' to ami (feminine gender for friend is amie), embarrassed that Cocteau thought she was a boy. She had a very androgynous appearance, and a deep voice, and Cocteau got her work singing in a cabaret. Since she was at the bottom, even these sleazy cabaret acts were a step up for her. In 1963, through sheer talent and her intense persona, she joined the roster of Pathé Records. She was hailed (as many were) as the new Édith Piaf, and also compared with Barbara. Charles Dumont, who wrote many of Piaf's hits, also began writing songs for her. Composer Michel Breuzard also wrote music for her, and in 1966 she recorded several EP's and her first album. She appeared many times on television to sing her songs.
She died in Paris, France, at the age of 26 from an excess of alcohol and drugs. She joined many famous and historical figures buried in the Jewish Cimetière de Bagneux in Montrouge, southwest of Paris.
Gaby Deslys (born Marie-Elise-Gabrielle Caire, 4 November 1881 – 11 February 1920) was a French singer and actress during the early 20th century. She selected her name for her stage career, and it is a contraction of Gabrielle of the Lillies. During the 1910s she was exceedingly popular worldwide, making $4,000 a week in the United States alone ($125,629 in 2022 dollars ). She performed several times on Broadway, at the Winter Garden Theater, and performed in a show with a young Al Jolson. Her dancing was so popular that The Gaby Glide was named for her.Renowned for her beauty, she was courted by several wealthy gentlemen including King Manuel II of Portugal. She eventually made the leap to silent films, making her only U.S. film Her Triumph with Famous Players–Lasky in 1915. She would make a handful of films in France before her death. In 1919 she contracted Spanish influenza and underwent several operations trying to cure a throat infection caused by the disease. She died from complications of the infection in Paris in 1920, at the age of 38.
Marie-Louise Damien (born Louise Marie Damien; 5 December 1889 – 30 January 1978), better known by the stage name Damia, was a French singer and actress.
Jeannine "Mimi" Perrin (2 February 1926 – 16 November 2010) was a French jazz pianist, singer, and translator.
Jacqueline Charlotte Dufresnoy (23 August 1931 – 9 October 2006), better known by her stage name Coccinelle (French for ladybug), was a French actress, entertainer and singer. She was transgender, and was the first widely publicized post-war gender reassignment case in Europe, where she was an international celebrity and a renowned club singer.
Marianne Oswald (January 9, 1901 – February 25, 1985) was the stage name of Sarah Alice Bloch, a French singer and actress born in Sarreguemines in Alsace-Lorraine. She took this stage name from a character she much admired, the unhappy Oswald in the Ibsen play Ghosts. She was noted for her hoarse voice, heavy half-Lorraine, half-German accent, and for singing about unrequited love, despair, sadness, and death. She sang the songs of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht. She was friends with Jean Cocteau, Jacques Prévert, François Mauriac, and Albert Camus. In fact, the text for one of her album covers was written by Camus. She was an inspiration for the composers Francis Poulenc and Arthur Honegger.
Henriette Ragon (10 June 1918 – 30 April 2015), better known as Patachou, was a French singer and actress. She was an Officier of the Légion d'honneur.