Reda Caire

An interpreter of popular songs and operetta arias in the 1930s, Joseph Grandour took the name Reda Caire in homage to the Egyptian city where he was born on February 14, 1905. The son of a high-ranking Egyptian civil servant and a Belgian aristocrat, he grew up in France and began singing in an operetta company in Lyon. Settling in Paris, he recorded his first nostalgic hits in 1934, such as "Je voudrais un bateau " and "Les Beaux dimanches de printemps " that year, followed by "Ma banlieue" and "Un grand amour" (1937). Classified as a "chanteur de charme", his popularity was boosted by the operetta arias he performed before the Second World War. After the lead role of Prince Danilo in Franz Lehár's The Merry Widow, he sang in Balalaïka (1938), which was a triumph at the Théâtre Mogador, then in Destination inconnue (1939) and Voilà Marseille (1940) at the Odéon de Marseille, Avec le soleil at the Théâtre des Célestins (1942), De Montmartre à la Canebière by his impresario Roger Audiffred's father at the Casino Montparnasse (1947) and, at the end of his career, Les Croulants se portent bien at the Théâtre Michel (1962). At the same time, Reda Caire made a number of film appearances, notably in Si tu reviens (Jacques Daniel-Norman, 1937), which featured one of his best-known songs, followed by Le Club des aristocrates (1937), Prince de mon cœur (1938), Vous seule que j'aime (1939), Marseille mes amours (1940) and Six petites filles en blanc (1943), giving him the opportunity to make his nightingale voice heard. In 1962, Reda Caire gave his last performance at the Théâtre du Gymnase in Marseille, before dying of heart failure at the age of 58, on September 9, 1963.

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