Lucienne Boyer

Lucienne Boyer earned renown as a French vocalist during the 1930s, above all through her signature recording of the song “Parlez-moi d’Amour.” Born Émilienne-Henriette Boyer in Paris on August 18, 1903, she launched her career singing in the cabarets of the Montparnasse Quarter where she spent her childhood. During the 1920s she progressed to music-hall stages and there attracted the attention of Polish-born American theater owner Lee Shubert, who arranged her Broadway appearances in New York City. Once her New York engagement ended, Boyer returned to France and became a Columbia Records artist. Although she had begun cutting sides in the mid-1920s, her breakthrough arrived in 1930 with Jean Lenoir’s “Parlez-moi d’Amour,” which Bruce Sievier adapted into English as “Speak to Me of Love”; the English version later reached audiences through performances by Bing Crosby, Tony Martin, Ray Conniff, and additional interpreters. She maintained a steady recording schedule through the remainder of the 1930s and into the following decade, yet the outbreak of World War II sharply curtailed her activities in the early 1940s. In 1939, prior to the German occupation of France, she married fellow cabaret singer Jacques Pills, a Jewish performer whose background created difficulties during the conflict. On April 23, 1941, the couple welcomed daughter Jacqueline, who would herself enjoy a singing career highlighted by victory at the 1960 Eurovision Song Contest with “Tom Pillibi.” Following the war’s conclusion, Boyer experienced renewed public interest; retrospective compilations of her work appeared periodically, and “Parlez-moi d’Amour” continued to surface on anthologies devoted to the period. She died in Paris on September 6, 1983.