France Gall

France Gall was born Isabelle Genevieve Marie Anne Gall on October 9, 1947 in Paris. She is a popular French singer. Her father was lyricist Robert Gall, and her mother, Cécile Berthier, was the daughter of Paul Berthier, co-founder of Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois.
France Gall was married to, and had a very successful singing career in partnership with, the well-known French singer-songwriter, Michel Berger.
Early years:
In spring 1963, Robert Gall encouraged his daughter to record some songs and send the demos to musical publisher, Denis Bourgeois. That July, she attended an audition at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, after which Bourgeois wanted to sign her immediately. As France was a minor, her father signed the contract with the Philips record label.
At the time, Bourgeois was already with the label as Artistic Director for Serge Gainsbourg. Bourgeois thus becomes Gall's artistic director as well, and he has her start her career by recording four titles with jazzman, composer, and arranger Alain Goraguer.
Early Career:
In 1963, on Gall's 16th birthday, she heard the first airplay of her song on the radio. This single, "Ne sois pas si bête" ("Don't Be So Stupid"), was released in November and became a hit. Serge Gainsbourg, whose career was faltering in spite of his several albums and his songs written for singers such as Michèle Arnaud and Juliette Gréco, was asked by Bourgeois to write songs for Gall. Gainsbourg's "N'écoute pas les idoles" ("Don't listen to the idols") became Gall's second single; it reached the top of the charts in France in March 1964.
At the same time, Gall made her live debut, opening for Sacha Distel in Belgium. She teamed up with Distel's business manager, Maurice Tézé, who was also a lyricist. This team allowed her to create an original repertoire, unlike the majority of her contemporaries ("yéyés") who sang adaptations of Anglo-Saxon hits. However, under the immense weight of this team of music veterans, Gall struggled to defend her choice of material.
In addition to her father's songs, Gall's success in the 1960s was built on songs written by some of the biggest names among French composers and lyricists: Gérard Bourgeois, Jean-Pierre Bourtayre, Vline Buggy Pierre Cour, Joe Dassin, Jacques Datin, Pierre Delanoë, Jean Dréjac, Alain Goraguer, Hubert Giraud, Georges Liferman, Guy Magenta, Eddy Marnay, Jean-Michel Rivat, Jean-Max Rivière, Frank Thomas, Maurice Vidalin, André Popp, Gilles Thibaut, and Jean Wiener.
France was often given stereotyped lyrics of a teenager as seen by adults. The elaborate orchestrations of Alain Goraguer blended styles, permitting her to navigate between jazz, children's songs, and anything in between: Witness "Jazz à gogo" (lyrics by Robert Gall and music by Goraguer) and "Mes premières vraies vacances" (by Datin-Vidalin).
France Gall and Serge Gainsbourg's association produced many popular singles, continuing through the summer of 1964 with the hit song "Laisse tomber les filles" ("Forget the girls") followed by "Christiansen" by Datin-Vidalin.
1965:
Having previously resisted, Gall gave in to the demands of her managers at the end of 1964 and reluctantly recorded a single intended for children. The song "Sacré Charlemagne," whose lyrics were penned by her father to the music of George Liferman, was an enormous hit in 1965, selling more than 2 million copies around the world. It sold across Europe to Africa and Japan, but passed the United States by.
Eurovision:
Gall was then selected to represent Luxembourg for the Eurovision Song Contest. Out of the 10 songs proposed to her, she chose the Gainsbourg penned "Poupée de cire, poupée de son."[1] On March 20, 1965, Gainsbourg, Gall, and Goraguer attended the Contest in Naples, where the song was booed during rehearsals. Although she delivered the song somewhat out of tune, the uniqueness of the song impressed the jury, and she was elected Grand Prize-winner.[2] Success carried her fame past European borders, and Gall recorded the song in no fewer than five languages, including Japanese. The French public retrospectively reproached Gall and Gainsbourg for having represented [and won for] Luxembourg and not for their own country.
Summer tour:
In the summer of 1965, France Gall toured France for several months with "Le Grand Cirque de France" ("The Great Circus of France"), a combination of radio and circus. Her singles continued to chart successfully, including the Gainsbourg-penned "Attends ou va-t'en" ("Wait for me, or get lost") and "Nous ne sommes pas des anges" ("We are not angels"). She also had a hit with the song "Amérique" ("America") by Eddy Marnay and Guy Magenta.
New label, new beginnings:
Gall had several other releases in France in 1968, none of which aroused any great interest. At the end of 1968, on attaining the age of 21, Gall separated from Denis Bourgeois and stretched her wings upon the expiration of her contract with Philips.
She moved to a new record label, "La Compagnie", born from the association of artists Hugues Aufray, Nicole Croisille and Michel Colombier. At "La Compagnie", Gall made a number of recordings, but she never succeeded in finding a coherent style with Norbert Saada as Artistic Director. She went her own way in 1969 with two adaptations: one Italian and the other British: L'Orage / La Pioggia) ("The Storm") which she sang with Gigliola Cinquetti at the 1969 San Remo Music Festival, and Les Années folles ("Gentlemen Please"), created by Barbara Ruskin. Her songs Gens bien élevés, La Manille et la révolution, Zozoï and Éléphants were largely ignored. Moreover, "La Compagnie" went bankrupt.
The early seventies continued to be a barren period for Gall. Although she was the first artist to be recorded in France for Atlantic Records in 1971, despite prestigious authors C'est cela l'amour (1971) and Chasse neige (1971), faltered in the charts. In 1972, Gall returned to see Gainsbourg, who wrote Frankenstein and Les Petits ballons, which she recorded for the label EMI-Pathé, but these also failed. Teaming up with Jean-Michel Rivat as artistic director, 5 minutes d'amour (1972) and Par plaisir or Plus haut que moi (1973) all disappointed.
Beginning in the 1970s, Gall started regularly visiting Senegal, which she loved. There, she built her "hideaway" on the island of N'Gor, close to Dakar in 1990.
Michel Berger
France Gall was seduced by Michel Berger’s music when she heard his song Attends-moi ("Wait for Me") one day in 1973. During a later radio broadcast, she asked him for his opinion on songs which her then producer wanted her to record. Although he was disconcerted by the quality of the songs, there would be no question of collaboration.
Only 6 months later, in 1974, after she sang vocals on the song Mon fils rira du rock'n'roll on Berger's new album, Gall's publisher asked him, at her behest, to write for her. Gall had already made her mind up that "It will be him or else it will be nobody" (documentary France 3 France Gall by France Gall). Thus, in 1974, La Déclaration d'amour was to be the first in a long line of hits which marked a turning point in Gall’s career.
Meanwhile, the two artists, whose affinities became more than musical, married on June 22, 1976. France Gall shared years of work and family life with Michel Berger. The couple had two children.
Musicals: In 1978, pushed by Berger, she once again trod the boards of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées where she had auditioned 15 years earlier, for a show entitled "Made in France". The most novel aspect of this show was that, except for the Brazilian duo drag act Les Étoiles, the members of the orchestra, choir and the dance troupe were exclusively female[4]. In this show, France sang Maria vai com as outrasa Brazilian (Portuguese) the original version of Plus haut que moi.
In 1979, Gall took part in a new show which remains memorable for many. Composed by Michel Berger and written by the Québécois author Luc Plamondon, the rock opera Starmania enjoyed success not typically reserved for musicals in France. The show played for one month at Palais des congrès de Paris.
In 1982, Gall rehearsed in the Palais des Sports of Paris to present Tout pour la musique, an innovative spectacle without spangles but with lots of bright colours and electric music. The songs Résiste, Il jouait du piano debout ("He played the upright piano") quickly became French pop standards.
1980s and the Humanitarian projects:
Musicians were involved in a great humanitarian actions in the 1980s, lead by Bob Geldof and Band Aid. In 1985, France Gall joined Chanteurs Sans Frontières, on the initiative of Valerie Lagrange. She also worked for S.O.S Ethiopie for the benefit of Ethiopia under the aegis of Renaud Séchan ("Renaud").
In parallel, taking over from Renaud at the new Zénith of Paris, she gave a successful series of concerts lasting three weeks, where she sang, increasingly accompanied by her public, new songs like Débranche ("Loosen-up"), Hong-Kong Star, and gave solid acoustic performances of Plus haut, Diego libre dans sa tête and Cézanne peint.
Action Écoles is an organisation of schoolboy volunteers which collect essential food products in France for African countries where famine and drought prevail. In 1985 and 1986, Gall worked with Berger, Richard Berry, Daniel Balavoine and Lionel Rotcage for the benefit of the organisation, in particular in Mali. The organization distributed water pumps and tons of food. On January 14, 1986, during a trip to Africa, Balavoine tragically perished in a helicopter crash. In 1987, the song Évidemment, written by Berger and sung by Gall, was a moving homage to their lost friend. The song is a track on the album Babacar.
A new show Tour de France ’88 produced by Berger, was launched. Starting from Le Zénith, its Parisian launchpad, the dazzling production toured all France.
In 1988 Gall topped the pop charts in many countries with Ella, elle l'a ("Ella has it"), a Berger tribute to Ella Fitzgerald.
Death of Michel Berger
France Gall wanted to take a break and did not record any more for several years to come. She agreed to a project with Berger: with two voices, but not exactly a duet. She gave herself totally to this project, and Double Jeu surprised when it appeared in 1992.
Gall and Berger announced a series of concerts in various Parisian rooms like the Cicada and Bercy. The project was interrupted by the untimely death of her husband from a heart attack, on August 2, 1992.
Gall was strongly affected by his death, and also by the serious health problems and subsequent death of their elder daughter in 1997. Eight months after Berger's death, Gall was diagnosed with breast cancer, which was successfully treated.
Since that time, Gall made some appearances on the musical scene, but Gall has never been the same as when her husband was still alive.
Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son