Séverine

Born Josiane Grizeau in Paris on October 10, 1948, French vocalist Séverine captured first place at the 1971 Eurovision Song Contest while representing Monaco. Selected as a complete unknown, she prevailed with the wistful “Un Banc, un Arbre, une Rue” (A Bench, a Tree, a Street), which quickly emerged as a worldwide success. The track even climbed into the British Top Ten, a rare achievement for a foreign-language release; the Philips original in French outsold and out-charted the English-language counterpart “Chance in Time,” issued by CBS.

In the years that followed, Séverine registered occasional minor successes on French charts. Although none of her later singles returned her to the national Top 20, she placed three further releases—“Vivre Pour Moi,” “Comme un Appel,” “J’ai Besoin de Soleil,” “Là où Tu N’es Pas,” “Mon Tendre Amour,” “Il Faut Chanter la Vie,” and a French rendering of Cliff Richard’s 1973 Eurovision entry “Power to All Our Friends”—between 1971 and 1974. German audiences also embraced her work; “Olala l’Amour” reached that country’s Top 20 in 1972, and in 1975 she entered Germany’s national Eurovision selection, finishing outside the winning slot yet maintaining a visible profile through the remainder of the decade. Her final German chart entry arrived in 1981 with “Sieben Tränen,” a cover of the Goombay Dance Band’s “Seven Tears,” and she made one more unsuccessful bid at the German pre-selection contest the following year.