Hélène Martin

Hélène Martin (10 December 1928 – 21 February 2021) was a French singer and songwriter.

Born in Paris, Martin was daughter of a university professor (Sciences Po), and started singing in cabarets in the 1950s. In 1962, she recorded poems by Jean Genet who encouraged her. Jean Vilar asked her to stage a show based on poems by René Char for the Festival d'Avignon, interpreted by her and Roger Blin, Francesca Solleville, Bachir Touré (1966). She was a friend of many poets and writers, including Louis Aragon and Jean Giono. Surrealist poet Philippe Soupault published a book on her and her work.

She created a TV series dedicated to poetry, Plain-Chant (1972). She also directed a TV movie after Jean Giono's novel Jean le Bleu (1979). In 2009, aged 81, she gave a last performance at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.

Source: Article "Hélène Martin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.