Francesca Solleville was born in Périgueux on March 2, 1932. The daughter of a Gascon man and an Italian woman who had fled the Fascist regime, she studied literature at the Sorbonne and took singing lessons with Marya Freund. In 1960, she joined the vocal group Les Barclay and began recording for the BAM label. A member of the rive gauche movement, Francesca Solleville sang texts by Aragon, Mac Orlan, Ferré, Ferrat and Brassens, and performed in cabarets such as l'Écluse, la Contrescarpe, la Colombe and le Port du Salut, where her songwriters and peers came to listen to her, as well as making records for children. Appearing in the film Dragées au poivre (1963), and in a play by Rafael Alberti, the singer was awarded the Grand Prix du disque de l'Académie Charles-Cros the following year, and continued in a committed vein in the late 1960s, before recording two albums with Mouloudji, one devoted to Aristide Bruant and the other to airs from the Commune. After Chante Louis Aragon (1971) and Chante la Violence et l'Espoir (1972), she signed with Le Chant du Monde for the following albums Le Visage de l'Homme (1974), Aujourd'hui les Femmes (1975), Chants d'Exil et de Lutte (1975), 77 (1977), L'Émotion (1980) and 1983 (1983). In 1989, she celebrated the bicentenary of the French Revolution with Musique, Citoyennes! followed by original recordings for the EPM label: Je Suis Ainsi... (19990), followed by "Al Dente" - Chansons d'Allain Leprest Écrites pour Francesca Solleville (1994), which was the subject of a live album. In 2001, she performed in Japan between two other albums, Grand Frère, Petit Frère (2000) and On S'Ra Jamais Vieux (2003). 2004 saw the publication of her autobiography A piena voce. In addition, new songs complete the albums La Promesse à Nonna (2012), Dolce Vita (2017) and Les Treize Coups de Minuit (2019), recorded at the age of 87, between the anthologies Venge la Vie 1959-1983 (5 CDs, 2010), Avanti Popolo 1962-2013 (3 CDs, 2016), Mes Amours - 60 Ans de Combats et d'Amour (2019), Récitals - Intégrale des Enregistrements Studio BAM (4 CDs, 2020) and Le Temps de Vivre (5 CDs, 2021).
