Vanessa Paradis

Vanessa Paradis scored her breakthrough at age 14 in 1987 with the single “Joe Le Taxi,” a track that opened doors to acting and modeling and quickly turned the French performer into a global celebrity while drawing the attention of high-profile partners such as Lenny Kravitz, who produced her self-titled English-language debut in 1992, and Johnny Depp, who became the father of her daughter, actress Lily-Rose Depp, in 1999.

Born December 22, 1972, in Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, Val-de-Marne, France, she was the niece of record producer Didier Pain, who secured her an early appearance on the television talent program L’Ecole des Fans and helped launch her recording career with the 1983 single “La Magie des Surprises Parties.” Four years later she issued her debut album M&J, whose centerpiece “Joe Le Taxi” dominated the French charts at number one for eleven consecutive weeks and later reached number three in the United Kingdom.

She made her screen debut in the 1989 film Noce Blanche and followed it in 1990 with the album Variations sur le Même T’Aime, whose eleven tracks were co-written by French pop icon Serge Gainsbourg. A 1991 Chanel campaign for Coco placed her in the international spotlight and paved the way for her 1992 attempt on the American market. Working with then-boyfriend Lenny Kravitz, she recorded the English-language Vanessa Paradis, whose single “Be My Baby”—distinct from the 1964 Ronettes classic—failed to chart in the United States yet became another top-ten hit in Britain. A live set titled Live appeared in France in 1994.

Throughout the latter half of the decade she concentrated on cinema, starring in Elisa in 1995, Witch Way Love in 1997, and Une Chance sur Deux in 1998. Her most widely seen international role came in Patrice Leconte’s 1999 feature Girl on the Bridge, itself a remake of a 1951 film. By the time the picture reached theaters, Paradis had begun a relationship with American actor Johnny Depp; the couple remained together until 2012 and raised two children, Lily-Rose Depp and Jack Depp.

She resumed her recording career with the 2000 album Bliss, though the first half of the 2000s remained relatively quiet. In 2007 she returned with Divinidylle and appeared in the film La Clef. Two 2010 releases—an album called Une Nuit à Versailles and the movie Heartbreaker—were soon eclipsed by her Genie Award-winning performance, Canada’s equivalent of an Oscar, in Jean-Marc Vallée’s 2011 drama Café de Flore.

Her subsequent studio effort, the 2013 double album Love Songs, was produced by singer Benjamin Biolay. In 2016 she joined the jury at the Cannes Film Festival and shared the screen with daughter Lily-Rose Depp in Kevin Smith’s Yoga Hosers.