Catherine Sauvage born 26 May 1929

Catherine Sauvage (26 May 1929 – 20 March 1998) was a French singer and actress. 

Born Marcelle Jeanine Saunier in Nancy, France, she moved with her family in 1940 to the Free Zone in Annecy. After high school, she turned to the theater, performing under the name Janine Saulnier. After eight years of studying piano, singing and drama, in 1950 she met Léo Ferré and fell in love with his songs. In 1952 she sang his "Paris canaille", which became a hit. In 1954, she won the "Grand Prix du Disque", a famous French award, for the song "L'Homme", again by Ferré. On tour in Canada, she made the acquaintance of Gilles Vigneault, who wrote "Mon Pays, Le Corbeau, la Manikoutai" for her. 

Arriving in Paris, she adopted the surname Sauvage, borrowed from a childhood friend, and, began studying drama: “I did my apprenticeship with Jean-Louis Barrault, John Vilar, Roger Blin, AND Marcel Marceau. The chance of life allowed me to be presented to Moyses, who was the director of the cabaret Le Boeuf sur le Toit. I sang him some stuff like that, recited two or three poems. As a result, Moyses hired me the next day. I used a directory with songs including Marianne Oswald. I stayed two months at the Boeuf sur le Toit --- afterwards, I sang at the Quod Libet, a nightclub on 3 rue des Prés-At-Clerics.”She also performed at the cabarets L'Arlequin in Saint-Germain, then at L'Écluse in the 6th arrondissement. 

Sauvage with Leo Ferre & Lino Ventura

She met Léo Ferré, whom she helped in bringing recognition to his music: "It was the meeting of my life. As a happiness never comes alone, they say, Jacques Canetti came to hear me a beautiful evening. He was always looking for artists for the record company of which he was the artistic director, as well as for the concert hall Les Trois Baudets that he had established." She has always given preference to poetry set to music. Léo Ferré and Gilles Vigneault have said they considered Sauvage their best performer. Aragon, one of her favourite poets, wrote about her: "And suddenly with her voice, like a gift, every word makes complete sense." 

Jacques Canetti hired her in 1953 and 1954 to work at Les Trois Baudets. "So I visited that cabaret on Rue Coustou for two years. Later I was featured at the Olympia, and received a grand prize for record L'Homme with Léo Ferré." After the Trois-Baudets in 1953, she became a star in 1954 at the Olympia . Her interpretation of Léo Ferré's L'Homme earned her, the same year, a Grand Prix du Disque awarded by the Charles-Cros Academy . In 1955, she was still at L'Olympia then in 1960 at Bobino for a long singing tour. 

                              

Politically she always remained far to the left, and defiantly non- cooperative with official sources. She was banned by French radio and television for having signed the Manifesto of 121 intellectuals against war in Algeria. She performed Boris Vian's adaptation of Brecht's Nana's Lied and other Brecht-Weil classics. 

In 1968, during the summer of student rebellions, she supported their struggles singing for them at the Bobino. Her interpretations of The Threepenny Opera songs were deliciously, diabolically wicked. Her devotion to Brecht led her to act in his Caucasian Chalk Circle (1966-67) and Mother Courage (1969). Recognized and appreciated abroad, she brought French song to the stages of Beirut , Mexico City and Tokyo. 

She was taken up again by the ORTF in their radio "trial club" emissions in which she sang many of her own musical settings of contemporary and classical poetry. She was the first singer to record Leo Ferre's last heart-breaking success, "Avec le temps" in 1970. In 1974, she made Chants et poemes de la Resistance with Sylvia Monfort and Marcel Mouloudji. But she gradually retired from the public scene, her intelligence and beauty swept away by wave after wave of what the French still call "le yeye" - fake Beatling. 

In the 80s, Catherine Sauvage lived in semi-retirement and made a few appearances on television in dramas, and in the cinema. In 1991, she recorded an album entirely devoted to Jacques Prévert . Her last appearance on stage was for the Francofolies de La Rochelle , in July 1994. But in 1997, she made a double CD, Catherine Sauvage chante les poetes, which gives the essence of her style and her fine artistry. It tells us how she changed the whole art of the French chanson. 

Sauvage's intelligence and wide culture made her prefer the company of painters, writers and actors, one of whom, Pierre Brasseur, became her companion until his death in 1972. She then became friends with Gérard Paris, whom she married in 1997. She died from cancer in 1998, aged 68, in Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne. 

(edited from Wikipedia & The Independent)