Danielle Charaudeau, known professionally as Valérie Lagrange, was born in 1942 in Paris and began her artistic career as an actress, making her screen debut at 17 in La Jument verte in 1959 while also starting to record music. She released her first EPs in the mid-1960s, including Paris-Wellington and La Guerilla, which brought her early success. Her 1980 album Valérie Lagrange, released on Virgin and produced by Mike Howlett, includes the hit “Faut plus me la faire”, which features a guitar solo by Steve Hillage. She continued to issue albums through the 1980s, Chez moi (1981), Les Trottoirs de l’éternité (1984) and Rebelle (1985), and she contributed to the charity single “SOS Éthiopie” (1985). After her Virgin contract ended in 1986, she returned to the studio in 2003 with the album Fleuve Congo, made in collaboration with Benjamin Biolay. In 2004 she was nominated as female artist of the year at the Victoires de la musique.
