Catherine Sauvage (26 May 1929 – 20 March 1998) was a French singer and actress. Born Marcelle Jeanine Saunier in Nancy, France, she moved with her family in 1940 to the Free Zone in Annecy. After high school, she turned to the theater, performing under the name Janine Saulnier.
Arriving in Paris, she adopted the surname Sauvage, borrowed from a childhood friend. She joins the artists and writers of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. She meets Léo Ferré and shares a billboard with him. In 1953, she made Paris canaille a popular hit.
She also performed at the cabarets L'Arlequin at 131 bis, boulevard Saint-Germain, then at L'Écluse at 15, Quai des Grands Augustins, in the 6th arrondissement. A demanding artist, Catherine Sauvage represents the provocation of quality in a world conquered by the massive invasion of commercial radio with its imposed singers, its tricked classifications... Sauvage, always left-wing, spent two years on the state radio and television blacklist for having signed the Manifesto of the 121 against the Algerian war.
She represented the spirit of May ´68 in the Bobino music hall. Boris Vian adapted for her in French the Nanas Lied that Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill had given Lotte Lenya as a birthday present.
She died in 1998, aged 68, in Bry-sur-Marne, Val-de-Marne.
