You’d know her voice if you heard it - gravelly, whiskey-roughened singing (in French) like her heart was being ripped out of her chest and if you only knew what the words meant you’d gladly lay down your life for her…
Only I don’t know who she is - I’d really like to start collecting some of her music (and its ilk) but since I don’t know her, I can’t…
As well as collecting her records try and get hold of a couple of her biographies . There is one written by her half sister describing her very colourful early life. Her later life was equally eventful . Her almost self destruct attitude has been compared to that of Billy Holliday . If you are ever in Paris you can visit her grave in the Pére Lachaise cemetery. There are always fresh flowers there from her many admirers.
She was less than five foot tall ,always wore a simple black dress but could enthral a theatre full of people with that powerful voice , singing songs (some of which she wrote herself) which the average working-class Frenchman could relate to.