Hélène Ségara

French singer Hélène Ségara was born Hélène Aurore Alice Rizzo on February 26, 1971 in Six-Fours-les-Plages, France. She wrote songs and performed where she could as a teenager, and her career took off after relocating to Paris in 1996. It was there that she began collaborating with songwriter Christian Loigerot and producer Orlando Gigliotti, Dalida's brother. Her 1996 debut LP, Cœur de Verre, went to Number 6 and boasted three hit songs including the chart topping duet with Andrea Bocelli "Vivo per lei (Je vis pour elle)". In 1999 she became celebrated for playing Esmeralda in the stage musical Notre-Dame de Paris, but cysts on her vocal cords led to surgery and a fear that her career had ended. However, after recovering from the procedure she recorded 2000’s Au Nom d’Une Femme, a huge success that included the Number 1 single "Il y a trop de gens qui t'aiment". 2003’s Humaine again topped the charts, as did 2006’s Quand l'Éternité..., which featured Hélène Ségara writing about more personal subject matter while adopting a more rock-oriented approach to the music than she had on previous albums. After 2008’s La Moitié de Nous became her seventh top 10 hit, her commercial fortunes as a singles artist began to diminish. However, albums like 2011’s Parmi la Foule, 2013’s Et Si Tu N’Existais Pas, and 2016’s Amaretti all went top 10. After a five year gap without any new material, she returned in 2021 with Karma.