Marie-Josée Neuville C/D?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Yys7VL2Uo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAekD6APoMo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bPKLhqQ-8o

where is the love for this forgotten '50s singer-songwriter who sounds like Georges Brassens with the voice of a ye-ye girl? I can't find any info on her that isn't in French, but thanks to Google translate, I've been able to piece together that she debuted at a talent contest in 1955 at the age of 17, gained a large following of French teenagers, toured with the Platters, was contractually obliged to keep her hair in pigtails until she turned 20, and permanently damaged her reputation when she got a haircut and wore high heels onstage in 1958.

despite the icky schoolgirl image, she comes across as an incredibly witty and independent performer, especially when it's just her and her old-timey guitar picking. one of her songs ("Le monsieur du métro") was banned from the radio at the time because the lyrics were about being groped by an old man on a subway. though I don't speak French, these lyrics (from "Gentil camarade") are pure poetry even in a crappy translation:

Oh my great friend filled with kindness
If we went all over the sunken lanes
I would entrust my fate to your misspent youth
And, my hand in your hand, we would walk joyfully
And so much the worse for the geography
One learns in books
We would be content as two friends to travel
Enchanted by roads

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnya9A1CFNQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_w7vgZkv9aE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEI5wRzI4cc

<3

apparently her only fans are, like, me and a million nostalgic 70-year-old French people. it seems weird that such a unique figure ― she was the first teen idol of French music & was allowed to write risque lyrics (by '50s standards) and play without accompaniment at a time when female singer-songwriters were considered an oddity ― should go unrecognized even in her own country, but maybe her music just comes across as too juvenile to fit alongside guys like Brel and Brassens and too spare and old-fashioned to fit in with the teen pop explosion of the '60s.

or maybe I just stan for this kind of music randomly and with no rational basis. I'm ok with that.

I find this thread embarrassing in retrospect, bud damn I can't believe more people haven't heard of her

I'm french and relatively "au courant" of old ye-ye sensations but I had never heard of her. She has *something* indeed. Sounds quite modern, really.