The last time we met Annie Cordy, two summers ago, her hometown of Brussels was celebrating her nineties with great pomp.
In the middle of the main square, in spring 90, she had been seen for the first time sobbing in front of so much honor.
As always, she had left us in her hotel with a burst of laughter.
“We meet for my 100th birthday.
See you soon, young people.
And enjoy.
Enjoy every moment!
"
But she broke her promise and this Friday night, it was she who made us cry.
She died at the age of 92 in her villa in Vallauris (Alpes-Maritimes), as revealed by Nice-Matin.
Called at 6.30 p.m. for a discomfort by her niece, Michèle, who lived with her, the firefighters failed to revive her.
Annie Cordy was the smile of the twentieth century, the songs we all took up at the end of family meals.
"Tata Yoyo" and her big hat, "the priest's maid" "who would like to but can not", the articulated mats of "Frida Oum Papa" and "Cho Ka Ka O" with her cup on her head.
"But I have always remained Léonie Cooreman," confessed the artist born under this name on June 16, 1928 in the district of Laeken.
I never forgot where I came from.
Cooreman, that means the wheat man.
Every time I traveled, I would say to customs:
I am Belgian, I sing and I dance
.
I always say that France is my country and Belgium my homeland.
"
As a child, her carpenter father and her grocer mother made her sing and dance to strengthen their fragile health daughter.
“I wasn't raised in cotton,” she says.
My mother was five feet tall, couldn't read or write, but it was a funny gun, as they say in Belgium.
Able to send me to a school for good sisters, with prayer at all hours.
No need to go to mass afterwards.
I took for the rest of my life.
"
The owner of the Lido fell in love with her when he discovered her at the Bœuf sur le Toit, a cabaret in Brussels.
He debauchery and on May 1, 1950, at age 22, she began as a review leader at the Lido.
Léonie becomes Annie Cordy.
This pretty Belgian blonde full of energy and humor is the Angèle of the time.
She becomes the starlet of operettas with Bourvil or Luis Mariano and musicals ("Hello Dolly"), meets Henri Salvador, Louis de Funès, signs her first hits: "Bonbons Caramels", "La ballade de Davy Crocket" ...
The queen of the music hall
No wonder Line Renaud is one of the first to react on Twitter this Friday evening.
“Annie was my lifelong friend.
I have so many memories by his side.
We both laughed so much.
My pain is immense.
I will miss you terribly, my Nini.
"
Annie was my lifelong friend.
I have so many memories by his side.
We both laughed so much!
My pain is immense.
I will miss you terribly my Nini.
Your Line #AnnieCordy pic.twitter.com/vomLfzvEKN
- Line Renaud (@linerenaud) September 4, 2020
With her friend Line, Annie is in the 1950s and 60s the queen of the music hall, with an extra string to her bow, fantasy, funny song.
What energy!
You could nickname her Mademoiselle 10,000 volts.
At the end of her career, she will have 10,000 galas.
And songs?
The legend lists 700 of them. Princess of feathers and boas, she sang in 1956 at the princely wedding of Grace Kelly and Rainier III of Monaco.
The whirlwind of life, its songs and its choreographies propels it on a triumphant tour abroad.
In 1976, with “Nini la chance”, she created more than a show: she gave herself her nickname on a stage.
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After thirty years of career, it is the second youth.
In 1980, she was 52 when she signed the hit of a lifetime.
"Tata Yoyo".
On TV, we only see the Carpentiers, Danièle Gilbert or Drucker.
His smile slung over his shoulder.
She was still part of the "Enfoirés" in 2000. Four years later, she was ennobled by the King of the Belgians.
We now give him Madame la Baronne.
She recorded her last album, a Christmas record in jazzy mode, in 2014. But she still turns a lot for TV and cinema.
"My secret to longevity is work, work, work," said the one who hid an absolute perfectionism behind her joking mind.
Since the death of the love of her life, François Henri Bruno, known as "Bruno", in 1989, she was resting between two shoots in Vallauris with her niece Mimi and her two white poodles as cotton, Fleecy and Fluffy.
In July 2018, we thought that her memory was faltering a bit.
But on the names, not on the sensations.
“I loved working with these young people,” she told us of her partners in song, theater and cinema.
And the less young.
What's great is that everyone knows me.
I've been here forever.
" And forever.