Biography
Emerging as an inspiration within the Parisian literary circles of the 1950s, a guiding presence for the songwriter-centered French pop of the 1960s, and a torch singer who continually reshaped her approach from the 1970s onward, Juliette Gréco ranked among the foremost French recording artists of the twentieth century. Montpellier-born in 1929, she received classical training at the Paris Opera during her youth. At the start of the Second World War she had to leave Paris, and when her mother was imprisoned in 1943 for resisting the Nazis, leaving her nearly without family, Gréco found shelter with her former French teacher in the St. Germain des Prés district.
By the closing stages of the conflict the literary and artistic milieu of the Left Bank was thriving, and Gréco became a regular presence there, forming friendships with Sartre and other prominent writers while performing in theater productions and on a literary radio program. The hardships she endured during the war shaped her political outlook and planted the roots of the personal freedom she openly celebrated once peace arrived, turning her into an emblem of the era’s bohemian circles.
She launched her singing career to acclaim in 1949 by introducing songs whose words came from leading French poets such as Jacques Prévert (“Les Feuilles Mortes”), Jules Laforgue (“L’Eternel Féminin”), and Raymond Queneau (“Si Tu T’Imagines”), all set to music by Joseph Kosma. In these postwar compositions lyrics took precedence over the expansive orchestrations favored by performers like Edith Piaf, and Gréco’s intellectual leanings positioned her as the ideal interpreter for this emerging style. Her vocal approach combined the dramatic delivery of Jacques Brel with the wry phrasing of Georges Brassens—fellow artists active in quite separate spheres—while adding the sensual timbre that remained distinctly hers. Two years later she issued “Je Suis Qui Je Suis,” again pairing Prévert’s words with Kosma’s music, and the track became a major success.
After touring Brazil and the United States, Gréco came back to Paris in 1954 and scored a triumph at the Olympia Hall with “Je Hais les Dimanches,” penned by the young Charles Aznavour. She spent most of the remainder of the decade pursuing a prosperous film career in the United States, yet returned to Paris in 1959 and entered a second chapter of her musical life by championing a fresh generation of French songwriters in the early 1960s. Among her collaborators were Serge Gainsbourg, who supplied “La Javanaise” for her, together with Léo Ferré and Guy Béart. By 1968, already widely recognized through prominent television appearances and earlier recordings, she released the openly sexual “Deshabillez-Moi,” a departure from the intellectual and literary emphasis that had previously defined her work.
Following a brief slowdown in her recording activity in the early 1970s caused by disputes with record companies, Gréco began the third phase of her career in 1975, working closely with Gérard Jouannest—Jacques Brel’s former pianist—who thereafter composed music for many of the texts written for her. She married him in 1989. Subsequent albums in the 1980s (“Gréco ’83”) and 1990s (the striking “Juliette Gréco”) found her continuing to explore new directions while introducing emerging songwriters such as Etienne Roda-Gil and Caetano Veloso. She put out “Un Jour d’Été et Quelques Nuits” in 1998, and in 2004 the album Aimez-Vous les Uns les Autres ou Bien Disparaissez marked a strong return, featuring partnerships with younger artists Miossec and Benjamin Biolay. Le Temps d’une Chanson appeared in 2006, followed two years later by Qu’on Est Bien: La Valse Brune. The studio album Je Me Souviens De Tout came out in 2009, with her husband Gérard Jouannest at the piano and Jean-Louis Matinier on accordion; to mark its release the trio performed four concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Given her extensive discography across multiple labels, numerous compilations surfaced over the ensuing years, among them the double-length Si Tu T’imagines: Le Siècle D’or from Harmonia Mundi and Chante...Gainsbourg et Les Autres! from Go Hit. She honored Jacques Brel on Gréco Chante Brel in 2014, and the following year a thirteen-disc box set titled L’essentielle was devoted to her work. During her sold-out Thank You tour across Europe in 2016 she suffered a stroke and had to cancel the remaining dates to recover. In 2018, at the age of 91, she resumed recording, though none of the material was issued. Juliette Gréco died on September 23, 2020 at her home near Saint-Tropez; she was 93 years old.
By the closing stages of the conflict the literary and artistic milieu of the Left Bank was thriving, and Gréco became a regular presence there, forming friendships with Sartre and other prominent writers while performing in theater productions and on a literary radio program. The hardships she endured during the war shaped her political outlook and planted the roots of the personal freedom she openly celebrated once peace arrived, turning her into an emblem of the era’s bohemian circles.
She launched her singing career to acclaim in 1949 by introducing songs whose words came from leading French poets such as Jacques Prévert (“Les Feuilles Mortes”), Jules Laforgue (“L’Eternel Féminin”), and Raymond Queneau (“Si Tu T’Imagines”), all set to music by Joseph Kosma. In these postwar compositions lyrics took precedence over the expansive orchestrations favored by performers like Edith Piaf, and Gréco’s intellectual leanings positioned her as the ideal interpreter for this emerging style. Her vocal approach combined the dramatic delivery of Jacques Brel with the wry phrasing of Georges Brassens—fellow artists active in quite separate spheres—while adding the sensual timbre that remained distinctly hers. Two years later she issued “Je Suis Qui Je Suis,” again pairing Prévert’s words with Kosma’s music, and the track became a major success.
After touring Brazil and the United States, Gréco came back to Paris in 1954 and scored a triumph at the Olympia Hall with “Je Hais les Dimanches,” penned by the young Charles Aznavour. She spent most of the remainder of the decade pursuing a prosperous film career in the United States, yet returned to Paris in 1959 and entered a second chapter of her musical life by championing a fresh generation of French songwriters in the early 1960s. Among her collaborators were Serge Gainsbourg, who supplied “La Javanaise” for her, together with Léo Ferré and Guy Béart. By 1968, already widely recognized through prominent television appearances and earlier recordings, she released the openly sexual “Deshabillez-Moi,” a departure from the intellectual and literary emphasis that had previously defined her work.
Following a brief slowdown in her recording activity in the early 1970s caused by disputes with record companies, Gréco began the third phase of her career in 1975, working closely with Gérard Jouannest—Jacques Brel’s former pianist—who thereafter composed music for many of the texts written for her. She married him in 1989. Subsequent albums in the 1980s (“Gréco ’83”) and 1990s (the striking “Juliette Gréco”) found her continuing to explore new directions while introducing emerging songwriters such as Etienne Roda-Gil and Caetano Veloso. She put out “Un Jour d’Été et Quelques Nuits” in 1998, and in 2004 the album Aimez-Vous les Uns les Autres ou Bien Disparaissez marked a strong return, featuring partnerships with younger artists Miossec and Benjamin Biolay. Le Temps d’une Chanson appeared in 2006, followed two years later by Qu’on Est Bien: La Valse Brune. The studio album Je Me Souviens De Tout came out in 2009, with her husband Gérard Jouannest at the piano and Jean-Louis Matinier on accordion; to mark its release the trio performed four concerts at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées. Given her extensive discography across multiple labels, numerous compilations surfaced over the ensuing years, among them the double-length Si Tu T’imagines: Le Siècle D’or from Harmonia Mundi and Chante...Gainsbourg et Les Autres! from Go Hit. She honored Jacques Brel on Gréco Chante Brel in 2014, and the following year a thirteen-disc box set titled L’essentielle was devoted to her work. During her sold-out Thank You tour across Europe in 2016 she suffered a stroke and had to cancel the remaining dates to recover. In 2018, at the age of 91, she resumed recording, though none of the material was issued. Juliette Gréco died on September 23, 2020 at her home near Saint-Tropez; she was 93 years old.