Céline / Séverine

A change of name mid-career – from Céline to Séverine – was part of a move that helped propel the French singer to international success, via a win at the Eurovision song contest.

Born on 10 October 1949 in Paris, Josiane Grizeau grew up in unusual circumstances. Her father was a circus clown, though he later took a factory job to provide stability for the family.

After finishing school, the teenager took a job as a secretary, but yearned to sing. Eventually she was offered a contract with the Vogue label in 1967, and released her first record. The four-track EP contained three covers, including Tu dis September (a version of Try to remember) and Ne réponds pas (an Italian tune by Donatella Moretti, also recorded as Don’t answer me by Britain’s Cilla Black). When it flopped, she was dropped by the label.

Nevertheless, every weekend she would go to the Golf Drouot, a Paris dive where stars such as
yé-yé girl Sheila and rocker Johnny Hallyday were discovered. Eventually the tactic paid off and she won a second shot at a singing career. Performing with various bands, under the name Robbie Lorr, she was spotted by Georges Aber, the producer responsible for dozens of hits for the likes of Petula Clark and Claude François.

Aber decided to relaunch the singer, complete with a new name. So she became Séverine.

She was offered a recording contract with
Philips and issued three singles in 1969. The
first, Mama dis-moi pourquoi (a version of
Edition Six’s Morning dew), also included Rien
qu’une fille, a cover of Aretha Franklin’s
Natural woman, a brave choice but one she
pulled off with panache.

It was followed by Pleure sur nous (which
included Je suis bien la même, a version of
Barbara Ackin’s Am I the same girl) and La la
mélodie (which had Je ferme les yeux et
compte sur dix, a cover of Dusty
Springfield’s I close my eyes and count to ten,
on the flip).

In 1970 she released the theme to the film
Le passager de la pluie, which topped the
Japanese charts, though a second film theme,
Du soleil plein les yeux, recorded with Francis Lai and issued in 1970, couldn’t repeat the success of its predecessor.

Meanwhile her entry to the French selection for the 1970 Eurovision song contest, the rousing C'est la vie, failed to make it into the top 16.

However, a year later, Séverine really made a name for herself, when she won the 1971 Eurovision song contest with Un banc, un arbre, une rue for neighbouring Monaco. The song went on to become a hit across Europe, even topping the charts in Sweden and making the top ten in the UK in its original French.

It wasn’t until 2002 that she released her next French album, a live recording of a concert she had held in Paris.