Françoise Cactus, alias Françoise Vanhove, from the Stereo Total tandem, died of breast cancer at the age of 57, Wednesday February 17.
Icon of the Berlin underground scene, the Frenchwoman formed with the German Brezel Göring (real name Friedrich Ziegler), the duo Stereo Total.
Born in 1964 in Villeneuve-l'Archevêque, she left her native Burgundy to settle in Berlin in the 1980s: “
What could we have criticized her for?
She was tall, witty, always chic behind her glasses and able to bend her perfect legs under a mini-battery to sing hilarious lyrics against a drum background - all with the most charming accent
, ”the German daily praised.
Die Tageszeitung
quoted by
Courrier international
.
Before Total Stereo, the musician
cut her teeth
with the group
Die Lolitas
, composed of the Franco-German Coco and the Italian Tutti Frutti, notably known for their punk cover of the title
D'yer mak'er
by Led Zeppelin.
With Brezel Göring, she ignited the Berlin scene with pieces from all musical genres, from punk to disco through synthetic pop: “
We had never seen or heard anything like Stereo Total in this city
”
,
remembers
Die Tageszeitung
.
English, German, French, Turkish, or even Japanese, Françoise Cactus sang in all these languages, accompanied by a simple drums and a synth.
“
And that accent
!
My God, no one -
French or not
- played it with as much talent as she,
”continues the Berlin daily.
