French chanteuse Mireille Mathieu was born on July 22, 1946 into a poor stonemason’s family in the provincial town of Avignon. Mathieu was a very poor student. She left school, which she hated, at the age of thirteen. After that, she began working at a plant. The only thing she enjoyed was singing. She sang in the choir, and with her father, a keen admirer of the opera. In 1965, Mathieu won a town contest. On November 21, 1966 she appeared before the public for the first time with the song “Jezebel.” Her performance was a tremendous success. The singer’s voice sounded very much like Edith Piaf’s, a performer who had died three years earlier. Two days later, Mathieu’s father and producer Johnny Stark signed a contract and Mathieu became a professional singer. Stark, the singer’s manager, made her a world star. In 1966, a million Mireille Mathieu records sold in six months, making her one of the most popular stars in France. Great talent, musical culture and brilliant vocal skills brought her quick success. At the age of twenty, Mathieu starred at the prestigious Olympia with Johnny Stark. Later the singer went on a world tour and recorded her top songs. Mathieu has sold over 100 million records all over the world. Her repertoire consists of more than 1000 songs in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Provencal, Catalan, Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and in Finnish. She has performed before audiences in practically every country. In the summer of 1967, she gave her first performance in the USSR on a French Music Hall program. The singer also visited Russia after the breakdown of the Soviet Union. In November 2005, the legend of French stage was presented with a special ruby disc, an award established for her personally.
