Singer Georgette Lemaire, singer of “You were beautiful, madame”, died at 82

Figure of French song who had his hours of glory in the 1960s-1980s and performed the success You were beautiful, ma’amGeorgette Lemaire died on Sunday at the age of 82, her son announced to AFP on Monday. The singer died at the Maison des artistes in Nogent-sur-Marne (Val-de-Marne), said Antoine Blanc-Sellers.

Born Georgette Kibleur in Paris in 1943, the artist “begins by performing in a café-concert at Les Puces de Saint-Ouen, Chez Louisette, with a repertoire of realistic songs”recalls the Universal Music France label on its website. In 1965, she signed up for the talent show “The Game of Luck”. In this game, she arrived tied with the singer Mireille Mathieu, which led to them being presented as rivals by the music press. “I am very sad to learn of the death of Georgette Lemaire on the eve of the Christmas holidays. May Georgette rest in peace. All my thoughts are with his family and loved ones.”reacted Mireille Mathieu Monday evening to AFP.

Skip the ad

At the end of 1965, Georgette Lemaire signed a contract with Philips and then recorded To make love without love, The Untuned Heart et What if it was truesigned by the composer Charles Dumont, which are “successes from his first album” published in 1966, recalls Universal. The artist performs as the opening act for Georges Brassens’ concerts at Bobino. You were beautiful, ma’amsigned Pascal Sevran in 1968, will be his greatest success. Married at 17, she divorced and remarried her pianist, Bob Sellers.

Knight of Arts and Letters in 1986

The singer regularly records, for example Millions of lovers (1969) or Tomorrow will be differentsong from the film The Professor (1972) with Alain Delon. Jean-Loup Dabadie, Pierre Delanoë and Charles Aznavour signed his titles, the latter writing an entire album for him, For Aznavour (1980). In 1997, she returned with Respondentwhich includes several re-recordings. In 2009, she published Unforgettablewith unpublished titles, and participates in the tour of variety artists Âtender and Têtes de bois. His autobiography To tear my heart (Éditions du Toucan) was released in 2010. In 2014 his last album appeared, composed of covers of the capital, Paris Jazz.

The artist, who changed labels several times, was made a Knight of Arts and Letters in 1986. While she was threatened with eviction from her Parisian accommodation due to unpaid debts, she wrote to President François Mitterrand, who appointed her a member of the Economic and Social Council in 1989, which sparked controversy. “It paid my rent. (…) Politicians have always helped me (…), it’s not people in the artistic world”she confided to Franceinfo in 2014.