Danielle Frida Hélène Boccara (29 October 1940 – 1 August
1996) was a French singer of Italian descent and born in Casablanca, who
performed and recorded in a number of languages, including French, Spanish,
English, Italian, German, Dutch and Russian. She recorded more than thirty
albums in thirty years of career.
Boccara was born in Casablanca, Morocco, into a Jewish
family of Italian origin that lived in Tunisia before they settled down in
Morocco.
She started a vocal and instrumental trio with her brother and sister
in Casablanca, with some success. But she knew she would have to try her chance
in Paris, where she was taken on by the celebrated teacher of chanson singing
and composition, Mireille, who in 1954 had founded her Petit Conservatoire de
la Chanson in the rue de l'Universite, where she used her unique training methods
to help talented youngsters discover their true musical abilities and
personalities.
In 1964, Boccara had submitted the song Autrefois to the
French Eurovision Song Contest selection panel, but she was unsuccessful. Through
Mireille, Frida soon began making music-hall appearances and recordings, and
was launched on an international career, for at first she appeared mainly
outside France, in tours of Eastern Europe, and performed in jazz festivals
like the one in Sofia in 1967.
She also travelled to Australia, Canada and Central and
South America, where several of her hit numbers became successful: "Cent
millions chansons" ("One Hundred Thousand Songs"), and "Les
Moulins de mon coeur" ("The Windmills of my Heart"),
written and
composed especially for her warm, intimate, caressing voice by Eddy Marnay and
Emile Stern, her permanent parolier and composer.
Frida with Eddy Marnay |
One of the very few really memorable songs of the
deplorable Eurovision Song Contest (Grand Prix, 1969) was "Un Jour un
enfant", and in those days, when a triumph on television truly mattered,
it shot Boccara to even greater fame. Her song shared first place along with
the entries from the Netherlands, the UK, and Spain.
She won the prestigious Prix de l'Academie Charles Cros,
and was also honoured with a number of golden discs. She never forgot her classical roots, and
some of her later songs were set to music by Telemann and other great classics,
always by her parolier Eddy Marnay.
Most of the songs performed by Boccara were written by Marnay,
but she also performed songs composed by Jacques Brel, Georges Brassens,
Charles Aznavour, Émile Stern, Michel Legrand, Michel Magne, Nino Rota and
Mikis Theodorakis.
In the late 1960s, she also recorded "Un pays pour
nous", a song that was a French version of "Somewhere" (from the
musical West Side Story). Leonard Bernstein, who composed the original melody,
declared that Boccara's version was his favourite. Other of her famous songs
include "L'enfant aux cymbales" (1969), "Belle du
Luxembourg" (1969), "La croix, l'étoile et le croissant" (1970),
"Venise va mourir" (1970), "Trop jeune ou trop vieux" (1971), "Valdemosa" (1976), "L'année où Piccolli... (Jouait Le choses de la vie)" (1978), "Un monde en sarabande" (1979) and "La prière" (1979).
"Venise va mourir" (1970), "Trop jeune ou trop vieux" (1971), "Valdemosa" (1976), "L'année où Piccolli... (Jouait Le choses de la vie)" (1978), "Un monde en sarabande" (1979) and "La prière" (1979).
During the 70's she was a popular guest on many TV shows
in Canada, Australia, South America and the Netherlands. In Russia she sold
over a million records. Boccara renewed her links with Eurovision by
participating in the French national finals of 1980 – performing "Un
enfant de France" – and 1981 – with "Voilà comment je t'aime". However,
neither song won.
When success slowed down Frida withdrew from the music
business. She died in 1996 in Paris, France, aged 55, from a pulmonary
infection, after some health problems.
(Edited mainly from Wikipedia )
2 comments:
For “Frida Boccara – Master Serie” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/10658209/FRIDA_BOCCARA_-_Master_serie.rar.html
1. Cent mille chansons
2. L'enfant aux cymbales
3. Les moulins de mon coeur
4. Johnny jambe de bois
5. Venise va mourir
6. Pour vivre ensemble
7. Trop jeune ou trop vieux
8. La croix, l'étoile et le croissant
9. Autrefois
10. Un soleil d'amour
11. Le whisky de papa
12. Un jour un enfant
13. Ne me quitte pas
14. Belle du Luxembourg
1 ℗ 1968
2, 3, 4, 9, 12, 13 ℗ 1969
5, 14 ℗ 1971
6, 7, 8, 11 ℗ 1972
10 ℗ 1975
A big thank you to Ludovico @ Entra Musica for original post.
Thanks very much!
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