Post by rayshae3 on Jul 21, 2023 19:41:59 GMT -5
The British-born singer and actress, Jane Birkin died recently in Paris at the age of 76. She recorded one of the most famous non-English singles of all time “Je t’aime moi non plus” with Serge Gainsbourg (that Gainsbourg originally had written for the actress Brigitte Bardot a couple of years earlier). Despite limited airplay in the US, the song managed to get to #58 on the Hot 100 in 1969. In the UK, it was banned from the radio period. Therefore, as was the case with the sales-based British chart, word of mouth increased sale so it became a #1, the first UK chart topper not sung in English.
Jane Birkin was born in a middle-class and art-oriented household. Her mother, a theater actress, had all types of musical talent connections as well. It was through her mother, the teenage Jane met much older John Barry (famous soundtrack composer especially because of Bond movies) whom she married within months. With John they had a daughter, Kate Barry, who died in 2013. In fact, it was at Kate's Funeral that she chose a John Barry piece to honor her daughter (it was a choral piece from John Barry’s Lion in Winter soundtrack).
After her divorce from John, she relocated to Paris for good, when she became a permanent fixture of the same Saint-Germain-des-Pres neighborhood throughout the rest of her life.
She never remarried again , but from her two other partners (Serge 1968-1980) and director Jacque Doillon (1980-1993) she gave birth to 2 other daughters: half-siblings Charlotte Gainsbourg and Lou Doillon.
Jane’s acting career was far more extensive than her musical activity, especially 1966 English language film Blowup, and a number of French movies (least of which the 1976 picture titled “Je t’aime moi non plus” directed by who-else-but Serge Gainsbourg himself.)
Although she spent almost 55 years in France, she spoke French with a heavy English accent (being apparent in both her music and movies) such that when she died on July 16th, the Paris mayor in a tweet wrote: "We will never forget her songs, her laughter or her incomparable accent."
Obituary:
www.euronews.com/culture/2023/07/16/franco-british-singer-and-actress-jane-birken-dies-in-paris-aged-76
Now for a tribute song for Jane Birkin, I choose one by her daughter Charlotte Gainsbourg who plays piano and sings in French 2005’s “L'un part l'autre reste” (One Goes, the Other Stays)
youtu.be/Tec7xssbC14
