Léo Marjane

A pioneer in the intimate style of song, the interpreter of "Seule ce soir" invented her own style and renewed the French chanson of her time. Born Thérése Marie Léonie Gendebien in Boulogne-sur-Mer on August 27, 1912, she grew up in the Rhineland, where her father ran a silk business, and then in Austria. After her father died when she was six, she took singing lessons and studied piano and violin at the Vienna Conservatory, before her mother moved to Marseille. Gifted with a contralto voice, she turned to music-hall and, at the age of fifteen, made a name for herself at the Artistica competition at Marseille's Alcazar, before forming a whimsical dance and acrobatics duo under the stage name Rita Karoly. In 1931, she became Léo Marjane, a contraction of Marie-Jeanne, when she performed at the Alhambra in Paris, and signed with Columbia for the 78-turn recording "Les Prisons", then with Ultraphone for four sides in 1933. After a few years' absence, her return in 1936 marked the start of a major success story, with performances at A.B.C. and Bobino, where she sang "La Chapelle au clair de lune", before marrying the singer Raymonday (Raymond Gérard). From then on, triumphs followed triumph in a jazz-influenced style, with covers of "Begin the Beguine" and "Night and Day " (1938). Her intimate way of addressing the listener won her over as far afield as the United States, where she performed for five years, interpreting adaptations of local standards such as "L'Arc-en-ciel " ("Over the Rainbow"). Back in France during the Occupation, Léo Marjane sang at the Concert Pacra, the Casino Montparnasse, the Folies-Belleville and ran his own cabaret, L'Écrin. In 1942, his most famous song, "Seule ce soir", was published, aimed at women whose husbands were fighting in the war. At the Liberation, when she was criticized for singing on Radio-Paris, the star was censored from the airwaves and banned from concerts until 1951, even though she had taken part in the Resistance with her fiancé, Colonel Charles de la Doucette, who became her husband in 1946. The singer went into exile for a time in England and Belgium, then returned under the name Marjane to perform new songs by Louiguy and Jacques Plante, Jean Constantin, Charles Aznavour, Gilbert Bécaud and Léo Ferré, for the Véga label. She continued to perform around the world until 1961, when she retired from the stage. Léo Marjane also appeared in a number of films, including Jean Renoir's Elena et les hommes (1956). Despite a brief comeback in 1969, she devoted herself to her passion for horses in Barbizon, where she died of a heart attack on December 18, 2016, at the age of 104.

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