Fréhel

A symbol of French realist song in the first half of the twentieth century, Fréhel scored many hits with her darker, streetwise lyrics. Born in Paris on July 13, 1891, Marguerite Boulc'h was the daughter of a Breton couple from Finistère, her father an invalid railway worker and her mother a janitor. She began singing in bars at an early age, and worked as a delivery girl, then as a door-to-door saleswoman, when she met Caroline Otero, known as the "Belle Otero", who nicknamed her "Pervenche". She made a name for herself in 1905, and in 1908 recorded her first album under this name, "C'est une gosse", by Christiné, which was the first 78-turn record by a female singer. She married the actor Roberty (Robert Hollard), who left her for Damia, then Maurice Chevalier, who left her for Mistinguett, then took the name Fréhel, which was that of a Breton cape. During the First World War, she fell into poverty as she traveled from Russia to Romania, until 1925, when she returned to the stage at the Olympia in Paris, then at the cabaret Le Bosphore. "L'inoubliable inoubliée", as Roberty dubbed her on her return, went on to enjoy a string of successes and film appearances. She appeared in some twenty films, including Cœur de lilas (Anatole Litvak, 1931), Le Roman d'un tricheur (Sacha Guitry, 1936), Pépé le Moko (Julien Duvivier, 1937), in which she sang "Où est-il donc?", and Une java (Claude Orval, 1939), known for housing her greatest and last success, "La Java bleue", by Géo Koger and Vincent Scotto. The most popular singer of the interwar period, Fréhel continued to perform during the Second World War, notably in Germany, which damaged her career at the Liberation and led to her taking a job as a concierge. At the invitation of admiring writers, she returned to the stage in 1950 at Les Escarpes, a ballroom on rue de la Contrescarpe, before dying in a Pigalle hotel room on February 3, 1951, aged 59. His influence on French realist chanson, including Édith Piaf, would prove important, and numerous compilations of his recordings have been released.