Line Renaud (born July 2, 1928) is a popular French singer,
actress and AIDS activist.
She was born Jacqueline Ente in Pont-de-Nieppe on 2
July 1928. Her mother Simone was a shorthand typist; her father was a truck
driver during the week, but he played the trumpet on weekends, in a local brass
band. Line showed the first signs of her talent in primary school, when at the
age of seven she won an amateur competition.
During the Second World War, Jacqueline's father was
mobilised, spending five years away from the family. During this time,
Jacqueline was brought up by her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. Her
grandmother had a café in Armentières, where she used to sing for passing
soldiers. She auditioned at Conservatoire de Lille, singing songs
written by Loulou Gasté "Sainte-Madeleine" and "Mon âme au
diable". Louis Gasté was at that time a well-known French composer.
At the
end of the audition, she was approached by the director of Radio Lille who was
looking for a singer. She took the pseudonym of Jacqueline Ray and joined the
station singing a repertoire based on the songs by Loulou Gasté. In 1945, she
moved to Paris and got her first gig in Folies Belleville, where she was
introduced to Gasté. She was 16, and Gasté was 37. He became her mentor,
changing her image and her name.
Line Renaud made her national debut on Radio Luxembourg,
singing on a Sunday morning program. After signing a contract with Pathe
Marconi, she recorded "Ma Cabane au Canada", written by Loulou Gasté,
which won le Grand Prix du Disque in 1949. She also sang with Yves Montand in
the Théâtre de l'Etoile.
She toured Europe and Africa extensively, came back to
Paris to star at the ABC, and recorded numerous adaptations of American songs
such as "Ma petite folie", "Etoile des neiges" and "Le
chien dans la vitrine".
Line & Loulou Gaste 1949 |
Line found time to clock up 23 films (58 if you include
TV movies) between 1946 and 2008. In 1950, she married "Loulou" Gasté
and stayed with him until his death in 1995. In 1954, while performing at Moulin Rouge, she
met Bob Hope and subsequently appeared in five episodes of The Bob Hope Show in
the US. During this trip, she also sang in the Waldorf Astoria (New York) and
the Cocoanut Grove (Los Angeles), appeared on Johnny Carson, Dinah Shore and Ed
Sullivan shows and recorded with Dean Martin the song ‘Relax ay voo’.
In 1959, she started a four-year run of ‘Plaisir de Paris’ for Henri Varna and then went on to perform in a Las Vegas show at Dunes from 1963 to 1965. In 1966 she returned to Paris and the Casino de Paris starring in a new show, Desir de Paris.
Line with Elvis & Edward G. Robinson 1968 |
In the 1980s, she starred in a TV show Telle est Line for
Antenne 2 and recorded songs in English and French. At Casino de Paris, she put
on a one off show which retraced her forty-year career. Also, in 1981, she
served as an unofficial on-air "guide" for Merv Griffin when he taped
"The Merv Griffin Show" in Paris, and in 1982 she was a guest on Perry
Como's Christmas special in Paris.
In 1985, she created l'Association des Artistes Contre le
Sida and organised televised art events which enabled her to raise funds for
helping AIDS scientific research in France. In 1989, she toured around Japan as
part of a festival which marked the bicentennial of the French Revolution.
She released an album in November 2010 entitled Rue
Washington, on which she sang in duet with Johnny Hallyday and Mylène Farmer. This
return to singing allowed her to give, at age 82, her first concert at the
Olympia.
In October 2017, she opened a street bearing her name in Las
Vegas . The path, located near the mythical Strip , the gigantic artery that
runs through the city, provides access to a secondary entrance to the casino
Caesars Palace . The "Line Renaud Road" is not far from the streets
bearing the names of her friends Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin.
On April 11, 2019,
the 90-year-old singer and actress reportedly fell in her home garden in
Rueil-Malmaison and fractured her ankle and had to be hospitalized. According
to her Facebook she is now back at her home. Also this year, Brigitte Macron
awarded her the prize of the most optimistic woman in France. She has wholeheartedly embraced a career which she pursues
to this day with talent and dedication. (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)
1 comment:
Just too tired to finish yesterdays post. This very humid weather in the southern part of the UK is causing me to have nasty headaches. I managed to finish it today though, hopefully back to normal tomorrow.
Was trying to find the Bear Family album "C'est La Vie" but to no avail. So compiled this playlist from a Napster compilation with mp3's courtesy of Audiotut.
For “Line Renaud – Ma Cabane Au Canada” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/10169876/Line_Renaud.rar.html
1. Le Complet Gris
2. Nous Deux
3. Il N’Etait Pas Sentimental
4. Ma Cabane Au Canada
5. Tes Yeux Bleu
6. Ou Vas Tu Basile
7. Etoile Des Neiges
8. Les Noces De Maria Chadeleine
9. Le Soleil Sur L’Horizon
10. Mon Coeur Pleure Pour Vous
11. Mon Faible Coeur
12. Tire L’aiguille
13. Le Soir
14. Mademoiselle From Armentieres
15. Ma P’tite Folie
16. Le Bal Aux Baleares
17. Le Chien Dans La Vitrine
18. Printemps D’Alsace
19. Ton Mariage
20. Tango De L’Elephant
21. Quand Madelon
22. Mister banjo
23. Two Sleepy People (with Dean Martin)
24. Relax Ez Vous (with Dean Martin)
25. Pam Pou De
26. Les Enchaines
27. Que Sera Sera
28. Mon Coeur Au Portugal
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