Born Marguerite Boulc'h in Paris in 1891 to poverty and a childhood spent partly on the streets, Fréhel became one of the most powerful voices of chanson réaliste, a hard-lived survivor whose raspy, world-weary alto carried songs about hardship and lost love with an authenticity drawn from her own turbulent life. Her 1939 hit 'La Java Bleue' became her signature recording. A major star of Paris cabaret through the 1920s and '30s, she was one of the singers a young Édith Piaf was directed to study.

the sound in question

1939

La Java BleueFréhel