Brigitte Fontaine

A free electron of French chanson, Brigitte Fontaine (born in Morlaix, Finistère, on June 24, 1939) has established herself over the last half-century as a scathing musical icon. Between rebellious chanson, poetry, rock, avant-garde jazz and spoken-sung delirium, she has carved out her own unique path in a series of daring albums, accompanied by Jacques Higelin in her early days and her partner Areski forever, from the premonitory Brigitte Fontaine Est... Folle! (1968), followed by the experimental Comme à La Radio (1969), with support from the Art Ensemble of Chicago. Driven by a constant attention to words, a keen sense of discovery and new encounters, she has adapted to the times, even anticipating them with Je Ne Connais Pas Cet Homme (1973) or L'Incendie (1974), then French Corazon (1988, re-released as Le Nougât in 1999), after a hiatus in the 1980s. Since his return to the forefront with the album Genre Humain, produced by Étienne Daho in 1995 and the success of Kékéland in 2001, the irremovable artist has continued to push back the boundaries of his universe, with his flayed voice, over the course of funny and grating albums: Prohibition in 2009, L'Un N'Empêche Pas l'Autre in 2011 and J'ai l'Honneur d'Être in 2013 prove to be as alert as they are impertinent. Seven years later, the itching powder of French chanson is still at work on the album Terre Neuve (2020). In 2024, she joined forces with Toulouse duo The Limiñanas, on instrumentation and production, for the album Pick Up.