Singer Nicole Croisille dies at the age of 88

"Until the end, she fought with great strength and courage," said Jacques Metges, adding that the singer of the hits "Parlez-moi de lui" and "Téléphone-moi" and the catchy "dabadabada" from the film "A Man and a Woman" had died in Paris.

Born on October 9, 1936 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, Nicole Croisille was drawn to the stage at a very young age, but her father - who taught her English by listening to the BBC - forbade her from becoming a little rat at the Opera.

Resigned, she took typing classes but also practiced dance in the classes of the Comédie-Française. At 17, she joined the company's ballet.

"I appeared in L'amour médecin, Le Bourgeois gentilhomme (...) The atmosphere was good but the members had wandering hands," she told Philippe Bouvard in 1983.

At 20, the dancer landed the lead role in "The Apprentice Fakir," a musical comedy by Jean Marais. In 1958, she joined Josephine Baker's troupe. Then she met Marcel Marceau and toured with him in the United States. There, she deepened her passion for jazz and lent her soprano voice to the Playboy Club in Chicago. Her first 45 in 1961 was an adaptation of Ray Charles.

That same year, she opened for Jacques Brel at the Olympia, met Claude Nougaro, but failed to make a breakthrough on the music scene obsessed with the yéyé wave. She then left for New York and became a revue leader for two shows at the Folies Bergères on Broadway.

"Song and Greyhounds"

Her encounter with Claude Lelouch and composer Francis Lai in 1966 was decisive. The "dabadabada" would lead her to the director's credits ("Living for Living," "The Ones and the Others," "Itinerary of a Spoiled Child," "There Are Days and Moons"). She entered her flamboyant period.

From 1970 to 1980, the hits followed one after the other: "Parlez-moi de lui" (1973) , "Une femme avec toi" (1975) and the very lyrical "Téléphone-moi" (1975)...

The "most beautiful voice of 1975" became the singer with a French variety voice, a register which would become fashionable under the impetus of her younger sisters Patricia Kaas and Lara Fabian.

"I've only sung love songs and I know what I've brought to people," this staunch single woman told Paris Match in 2017. No husband, no children: "Nicole Croisille only has songs and her greyhounds in her heart," joked Philippe Bouvard.

With "Blues du businessman" - the Starmania hit that she adapted for "Itinéraire d'un enfant gâté" - she achieved her last major popular success in 1985. With a voice that had become more husky, she returned to jazz with "Jazzille" (1987), "Black et Blanche" (1991) and bossa nova ( "Bossa d'hiver", 2008).

Then this workaholic returned to the stage, performing in various Parisian theaters. In 1992, she realized "her dream" by playing the title role in "Hello, Dolly!" , the American musical.

In 2019, at the age of 83, she played a former mistress of Michel Sardou in a vaudeville by Sacha Guitry: "I'm having a blast! At my age, I only like challenges."