Stella

Though usually lumped in with the yé-yé girls of the 1960s, French singer Stella was more of an anti-yé-yé. Her compositions were styled in the fashion of the period, but the lyrics mocked the yé-yé genre.

She was born Stella Zelcer on 12 December 1950 in Paris into a family of Polish immigrants. She showed great musical aptitude as a child and learned to play a number of instruments, including the piano and guitar. She also began composing songs with her uncle, Maurice Chorenslip, and the pair sent a demo to the Vogue record label.

The move resulted in a contract for the young singer – at this time she was still just 12 years old – and her first EP, Pourquoi pas moi, was issued in November 1963 on Vogue’s Contact label. The song, like most of her subsequent records, was written by the niece and uncle team. In it, she insisted that she had all it took to become a pop star: the ability to sing “yé yé yé yé yé yé”.

The mocking tone of the lyrics summed up her approach to the yé-yé sound. While her contemporaries embraced it, she was highly dismissive of the trend. She was particularly critical of Sheila, France’s schlockiest – but most successful – yé-yé girl. In fact, her next release, La surprise est partie, issued on the main Vogue label in June 1964, enjoyed a little jeu de mots on Sheila’s then recent hit Ma première surprise partie. More open derision was to follow.

Stella was then teamed with producer Gerard Hugé, the man behind releases by Pussy Cat, and her next EP marked something of a departure in style. Though given the ridiculous title Si vous connaissez quelque chose de pire qu’un vampire, parlez m’en toujours, ça pourra peut-être me faire sourire (sometimes shortened to Le vampire), the song was a successful mix of sound effects and a catchy tune. It gave the singer another hit, in the autumn of 1966. The release also included Beatnicks d’occasion, which had a dig at supposed beatnick types who drove round in sporty Triumph TR4s and has become a favourite of French femme pop fans.

In 1967 Stella issued two further EPs, Tout va bien and Carnet de balles. Neither of the title tracks was as instantly memorable as her previous releases, and both disappeared without trace. Nevertheless, the two EPs contained strong material, including Je ne veux plus te voir en peinture on the former and Je ne me reconnais plus dans la glace on the latter.

The following year she released her first single, Matière à réflexion, though the flip, the fuzz guitar fest L’idole des jaunes – another clever, if politically questionable, jeu de mots – is undoubtedly the better side.

For her final single, issued in February 1968, Vous devriez avoir honte was chosen, though, again, the B-side – this time Pauvre cloche – was, arguably, the better song.

By this time, however, Stella had had enough of the music business and had lost heart in her work. She left RCA Victor and joined a band that played blues and rock, and later met and married Christian Vander of the progressive rock band Magma.

In the 1990s she recorded a solo album as Stella Vander and has issued several albums in the last few years.

Stella on YouTube