“Is
there life after the scene?
I realize, after fifty years of song, that apart from my family and close friends, there is only one thing that interests me, writing and singing.
It's my happiness, it's my life,
”she told Bertrand Dicale in the pages of
Le Figaro
for her fifty-year career, in 2007.
Singer Anne Sylvestre, whose feminist works have often remained in the shadow of the success of her musical tales for children, died Monday at the age of 86, "from a stroke", told AFP on Tuesday Sébastien d'Assigny, his historic press attaché.
Known mainly for her
Fabulettes
pour enfants, which earned her to have left her name to schools, her repertoire is also rich in more committed songs, such as
Non, tu n'as pas de nom
(1973), on abortion, two years before the Veil law.
She had a tour scheduled to perform her show
New Rides
, including four dates at La Cigale in January 2021.
Throughout her career, she was interested in the facts of society, and in particular in the condition of women, claiming the term of singer "feminist", which was sometimes heavy to bear:
"I suppose that it slowed me down in my career. because I was the pain in the ass, but my gosh, if that was the price to pay ... "
She also championed the cause of same-sex marriage in
Gay, marions-nous!
in 2007.
Never at the top of the bill but still very present in the French musical landscape since the end of the 1950s, Anne Sylvestre, embodied a song with text, intelligent, ignoring fashions, in the wake of a Guy Béart or 'a Georges Brassens.
Like them, Anne-Marie Beugras, born in Lyon on June 20, 1934, made her debut in a cabaret on the left bank in Paris.
Under the pseudonym Anne Sylvestre, she became one of the first women to write and compose her songs, alongside Nicole Louvier or Hélène Martin.
From 7 to 77 years old
During her shows, which brought together all generations, Anne Sylvestre always had the same success.
Without making noise, she pursued a rich and sympathetic artistic journey.
The childish part of her work has done a lot for the fame of Anne Sylvestre, even if she had never sung them on stage in 2007:
“I don't want them.
I never wanted to.
I would be very shy in front of children.
My career as a singer is not that. "
As for her songs for adults, she shared with Georges Brassens a curious timelessness: from the first songs, à la Colombe, in 1957, from the first album, in 1961, the writing reached its maturity, its style and its technique. are comparable to what they are today.
She confirmed in 2007:
“I could write
My husband is gone
or
Lazare and Cécile
today
.
At first it must have been instinctive and then I figured out how it worked.
I hope not to repeat too much.
"The
only significant change for her:
" It is more and more difficult.
"
It recognizes that sometimes turn ideas into his head a few years before becoming songs.