Monique Morelli

A singer with lyrics, Monique Morelli has interpreted the great poets of French chanson, including Aragon and Mac Orlan. Born in Béthune on December 19, 1923, Monique Dubois (real name) abandoned her pharmacy studies to pursue a career in theater, moving to Paris where she performed at the Vieux-Colombier and the Cirque d'hiver, before launching her singing career. Married to composer and accordionist Lino Léonardi, she recorded her first album in 1957, a tribute to Fréhel, and the following year, Fleur de Berge, before devoting her repertoire to the poets her husband had set to music, Louis Aragon and Pierre Mac Orlan, as well as others such as Francis Carco, Jehan-Rictus, Gaston Couté, Aristide Bruant, François Villon and Tristan Corbière. In 1962, the creator of Léo Ferré's "L'Affiche rouge " opened her own cabaret, Chez Ubu, in Montmartre, the neighborhood where she began singing. It hosted the debuts of Brigitte Fontaine and Colette Magny before closing in 1969, the year she opened for Georges Brassens at Bobino (Paris). From 1967, Monique Morelli appeared on television in the TV film Valmy and the soap opera Mandrin (1972), on stage in Jean-Paul Sartre's Le Diable et le Bon Dieu (1968) and on film in Anna Karina's Vivre ensemble (1973). In 1975, she devoted an album to the songs of the play in which she appeared, Barbe-Bleue et son fils imberbe, by Jean-Pierre Bisson, before retiring from the stage after a singing tour in 1979. In 1981, under the direction of Serge Baudo, she recorded Louis Aragon's Messe d'Elsa, which her husband had set to music. Named an Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters, Monique Morelli twice won the Prix de l'Académie Charles-Cros for her recordings Chansons d'Aragon (1961) and Ronsard (1978), also awarded by the Académie du disque français. She recorded for the EPM label before passing away on April 27, 1993 at the age of 69.

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