Brigitte Fontaine
A French singer, poet, novelist and actress from Morlaix, who with her partner Areski Belkacem made Comme a la radio (1969 or 1970), an album of chanson with the Art Ensemble of Chicago on the Saravah label.
Morlaix, Paris and Bobino
Brigitte Fontaine was born in Morlaix, in Finistere, on June 24, 1939, the daughter of two schoolteachers, and moved to Paris at seventeen to be an actress, playing in Ionesco's La Cantatrice chauve at the Theatre de la Huchette. In 1963 she sang her own texts in cabarets including Les Trois Baudets, where the producer Jacques Canetti spotted her, and she acted in Boris Vian's Le Dernier des metiers. In 1964 Georges Brassens offered her an opening slot at Bobino. With Jacques Higelin and Rufus she co-created the play Maman j'ai peur (1965 and 1966), and Higelin introduced her to Areski Belkacem, with whom she made the show Niok in 1969.
Her records began with 13 chansons decadentes et fantasmagoriques (1965 or 1966) and Brigitte Fontaine est... folle! (1968, arranged by Jean-Claude Vannier). In the 1970s, as Brigitte et Areski, she made about six albums, mostly on Saravah, and performed theatre and song happenings without an orchestra between 1973 and 1979, including in prisons and psychiatric hospitals; L'Incendie (1974) and Vous et nous (1977) are called among the most unclassifiable records of the French scene.
Returns
After a recording silence in the 1980s, in which she wrote and worked in theatre, she returned to the stage at the Bataclan in 1993, with Genre humain (1995) a critical success and Les Palaces (1997). "Y'a des zazous" with -M- came in 2001, and Kekeland (2001) and Rue Saint Louis en l'Ile (2004) went gold. She performed at the Barbican in London in 2006 and at the Olympia in 2007, and made Libido (2006), Prohibition (2009, with Grace Jones and Philippe Katerine), L'un n'empeche pas l'autre (2011), J'ai l'honneur d'etre (2013), Terre neuve (2020) and, with the Liminanas, Pick Up (November 1, 2024), her 20th album.
She received the Prix de l'humour noir du disque in 2010, was made Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres in 2014 and Chevalier de la Legion d'honneur in 2017, and has written novels and plays. Etienne Daho called her a classic of today, Pierre Barouh said her texts would be discussed like Rimbaud, and Sonic Youth, Stereolab and Beck have praised her. Areski Belkacem, born in Versailles in 1940, died on June 1, 2026, aged 86.
Albums
- Comme a la radio 1970 · Saravah
Her best-known album, made with Areski and the Art Ensemble of Chicago: ten songs, an eight-minute title track and, on the CD, two bonus duets with Jacques Higelin.
Songs
- Comme a la radio Comme a la radio · 1970
The title track, which opens the album and gave its name to the Vieux-Colombier show it came from.
Sources
- Brigitte Fontaine, Wikipedia
- Brigitte Fontaine, Wikipedia (French)
- Areski Belkacem, Wikipedia
- Adieu Areski, Politis (2026-06)