Mireille Mathieu

French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu earned her reputation through the elegant French crooning that defined her work throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She entered the world on July 22, 1946, in Avignon, France, as one of fourteen children in a family employed in stone labor, and during childhood she set aside factory wages to fund vocal instruction. Early in the decade, Johnny Stark, manager for French pop vocalist Johnny Hallyday, discovered the singer’s captivating vocal presence and later shaped her into a solo attraction by giving her the signature urchin hairstyle and eye-catching, colorful stage attire. Observers soon labeled her the successor to Edith Piaf, and a 1965 engagement at the Paris Olympia led directly to her contract with Barclay Records. Tracks including “Mon Credo,” “C’est Ton Nom,” and “Qu’elle Est Belle” turned Mathieu into a European sensation while registering only modest attention across the Americas; nevertheless, her French-language rendering of Englebert Humperdinck’s “The Last Waltz” reached British charts. In return, Humperdinck recorded Mathieu’s composition “Les Bicyclettes de Belsize.”