Elsa Lunghini

Elsa Lunghini, performing under the streamlined name Elsa, rose to prominence as a French pop vocalist who achieved extraordinary sales during the final years of the 1980s while still a teenager. Born May 20, 1973, in Paris, she first entered the entertainment field through acting. Her screen introduction came at age seven in Claude Miller’s Garde à Vue (1981), with further film appearances preceding her breakthrough in Régis Wargnier’s César-winning La Femme de Ma Vie (1986), where her delivery of the theme song “T’en Va Pas” proved especially decisive. Written and produced by Italian hitmaker Romano Musumarra, “T’en Va Pas” appeared as a commercial single in late 1986 on the Carrère label and occupied the summit of the French singles chart for eight consecutive weeks at the start of the following year. Now billed simply as Elsa, she secured a recording contract with Ariola and began readying her first full-length solo album, working alongside her father, songwriter Georges Lunghini, and other collaborators. The resulting Elsa (1988) reached the Top Ten on the French albums chart and generated a string of major singles that continued for over two years, among them the chart-topping “Un Roman d’Amitié,” the number-two successes “Quelque Chose Dans Mon Coeur” and “Jour de Neige,” and the Top Ten entries “À la Même Heure Dans Deux Ans” and “Jamais Nous.” The next releases, “Rien Que Pour Ça” (1990) and Douce Violence (1992), likewise performed strongly, entering the Top Five of the French albums chart and yielding the Top 20 hits “Rien Que Pour Ça” and “Bouscule-moi.” Elsa’s fourth album, Chaque Jour Est un Long Chemin (1996), marked a pronounced stylistic evolution for the former teen star, who composed her own lyrics for the first time; the project nevertheless coincided with a pronounced drop in her commercial standing. Eight years later she returned with De Lave et de Sève (2004) on the Mercury label. Subsequent Mercury releases include Connexion Live (2006) and Elsa Lunghini (2008).