Barbara
A Parisian singer, pianist and songwriter known as La Dame en noir, who from the cabarets of the 1950s became a central voice of French chanson with songs such as "Gottingen", "Nantes" and "Dis, quand reviendras-tu ?".
Brussels and the Paris cabarets
Monique Andree Serf was born in Paris on June 9, 1930, and took the stage name Barbara from her grandmother Varvara Brodsky, who came from Odesa. She studied music in Paris in 1947 and 1948 and sang in the chorus of the operetta Violettes imperiales, and in February 1950 went to Brussels, where she worked in cabarets as Barbara Brodi and met Jacques Brel. In 1955 she recorded two songs for Decca. From 1956 she sang in the Paris cabarets, La Rose rouge in 1956, Chez Moineau in 1957 and L'Ecluse in 1958, and made her first television appearance on July 12, 1958.
Her first 33 rpm record was Barbara a L'Ecluse (1959), followed by Barbara chante Brassens (Odeon, 1960) and Barbara chante Jacques Brel. She opened for Felix Marten at Bobino in February 1961, moved to the Theatre des Capucines in 1963 with her own songs, signed to Philips in 1963 or 1964 and made Barbara chante Barbara (1964), which won the Grand Prix du Disque Charles-Cros in 1965. "Gottingen" was written for a July 1964 concert in the German city.
Stages and the last tour
In February 1969 she announced at the Olympia that she would stop performing live, and returned about three years later. She made the musical Madame (1970), appeared in the film Franz (1971 or 1972) with Brel, made La Louve (1973, orchestrations by William Sheller), and returned to the Olympia in 1978. Pantin 81 (35 shows, autumn 1981), Lily Passion (premiered at the Zenith on January 21, 1986, with Luc Plamondon and Gerard Depardieu), a gala at the Metropolitan Opera on July 8, 1986, the Chatelet in 1987 and 1993 and Mogador in 1989 followed. Her last tour began in Dijon on February 1, 1994 and her last concert was in Tours on March 26, 1994; the final studio album, Barbara, came out on November 6, 1996.
She received the Legion d'honneur in 1988 and the Victoires de la musique in 1994 and 1997, and died on November 24, 1997, aged 67. Keren Ann, Benjamin Biolay, Emilie Simon and Vincent Delerm are among the singers influenced by her, and Marc Almond covered "Amours incestueuses" on Absinthe (1993). A Paris Metro station named Barbara on Line 4 opened on January 13, 2022. Her unfinished memoir, Il etait un piano noir, appeared in 1998.
Songs
- Dis, quand reviendras-tu ? 1962
Her 1962 song of waiting for a lover to return, with words and music by Barbara, covered by Martha Wainwright, Benjamin Biolay and Nana Mouskouri among many.
Sources
- Barbara (singer), Wikipedia
- Barbara (chanteuse), Wikipedia (French)
- 20 ans plus tard, Paris Match Belgique (2017-11-27)
- Dis, quand reviendras-tu ?, Wikipedia (French)