Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall (9 October 1947 - 7 January 2018), better known by her stage name France Gall, was a French singer. Gall was born in Paris on 9 October 1947, to a highly musical family. In spring 1963, she was encouraged by her father to record songs and send the demos to the music publisher Denis Bourgeois. That July France was subsequently signed to Philips.
The first airplay of France's first single "Ne sois pas si bête",
occurred on her 16th birthday. It was released in November and became a
hit, selling 200,000 copies. Serge Gainsbourg, was asked by Bourgeois to write songs for Gall. Gainsbourg's "N'écoute
pas les idoles" was Gall's second single;
it reached the top of the French charts in March 1964 and stayed there
for three weeks. Gall and Gainsbourg's association produced many popular singles, continuing through the summer of 1964 with the hit song "Laisse tomber les filles" followed by "Christiansen" by Datin-Vidalin.
In 1965, aged 17, she won the Eurovision Song Contest with Gainsbourg's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son". This ensured that Gall became even more known outside Europe and she
recorded the winner song in French, German, Italian and
Japanese. That same year, Gall toured France for several months with "Le Grand Cirque de
France", a combination of radio show and
live circus. Her singles continued to chart successfully, including the
Gainsbourg-penned "Attends ou va-t'en" and
"Nous ne sommes pas des anges". She also had a hit
with the song "L'Amérique" by Eddy Marnay and Guy Magenta.
Gall regularly recorded in Germany from 1966 to 1972, in particular with the composer and orchestrator Werner Müller. She had a successful German career with songs by Horst Buchholz and Giorgio Moroder:
"Love, l'amour und Liebe" (1967), "Hippie, hippie" (1968), "Ich liebe
dich, so wie du bist" (1969) and "Mein
Herz kann man nicht kaufen"(1970). Her
other German hits included "Haifischbaby, "Die schönste
Musik, die es gibt", "Was will ein Boy" (1967), "Ja,
ich sing", "Der Computer Nr. 3" (1968), "I
like Mozart" (1969), "Dann schon eher der Piano player" (1970), "Komm mit mir nach Bahia, Miguel" (1972).
At the end of 1968, on reaching the age of 21, Gall separated from
Denis Bourgeois and spread her wings upon the expiration of her contract
with Philips. The early seventies continued to be a barren period for Gall. Although she was the first artist to be recorded in France for Atlantic Records in 1971, her singles "C'est cela l'amour" (1971) and "Chasse neige" (1971), faltered in the charts. In 1974, "La Déclaration d'amour" was to be the first in a long line of hits which marked a turning point in Gall's career. From that point on Gall only sang songs written by Michel Berger until his death in 1992.
In the late 70s she took part in the musicals "Made in France" and "Starmania" and in the 80s she joined Chanteurs Sans Frontières and many other humanitarian projects.
A long-term breast cancer survivor, Gall died, aged 70, of an infection after a two-year battle with cancer, at the American Hospital of Paris in Neuilly-sur-Seine on 7 January 2018.
