Sheila

Taking her name from a Tommy Roe hit, French singer Annie Chancel (August 16, 1945), aka Sheila, emerged in France’s booming yéyé scene in the early 60s. After being discovered by record producer Claude Carrère in 1962, she reached the top of the charts with the singles “L'École est finie” and “Pendant les Vacances,” both included in her 1963 studio debut Le Sifflet des Copains. Over the course of the next few years, Sheila remained atop of the French charts with the singles “Vous les copains, je ne vous oublierai jamais” (1964), “Devant le juke-box” (1965), “Bang Bang” (1966), “Adios Amor” (1967), and “Les Rois mages” (1971). Throughout the 70s, she started the duo Sheila & Ringo with her husband Guy Bayle for “Laisse les gondoles à Venise” (1973), and pivoted to disco music with the project Sheila and B. Devotion, whose most famous single “Spacer” (1979) was produced by Chic’s Nile Rodgers. For almost a decade, Sheila shied away from her music career but made a triumphant in 1998 with the compilation Le Meilleur de Sheila, which was followed by the dance-oriented Dense in 1999. Subsequently, Sheila kept performing live, touring with the show Âge Tendre et Têtes de Bois and Âge Tendre, la Tournée des Idoles, a series of musical performances featuring renowned artists from the 60s and 70s, and dropped the albums Seulement pour Toi (2002) and Solide (2012), which was followed by a Victoires de la Musique award for her trajectory in 2013. Venue d’Ailleurs, her twenty-seventh album, arrived in 2021.