Hélène Martin

Hélène Martin (French: [elɛn maʁtɛ̃], born in Paris, 30 June 1928) is a French singer and songwriter.

Biography

Hélène Martin is the daughter of a university teacher (Sciences Po), and started singing in cabarets in the fifties. In 1962, she recorded poems by Jean Genet who encouraged her. Jean Vilar asked her to stage a show based on poems by René Char for the Festival d'Avignon, interpreted by her and Roger Blin, Francesca Solleville, Bachir Touré (1966).

She was a friend of many poets and writers, including Louis Aragon and Jean Giono. Surrealist poet Philippe Soupault published a book on her and her work.

She created a TV serie dedicated to poetry, Plain-Chant (1972). She also directed a TV movie after Jean Giono's novel Jean le Bleu (1979).

In 2009, aged 81, she gave a last performance at the Théâtre des Bouffes du Nord.

Discography

• 1996: Hélène Martin chante les poètes, EPM Musique. Songs recorded 1962-1983, with Laurent Terzieff.
• 2000: La Douceur du bagne, book & CD, EPM/Le Castor astral
• 2002: Le Condamné à mort, sung by Marc Ogeret, music Hélène Martin, recorded 1970, EPM "poètes et chansons".
• 2003: Lucienne Desnoues, reissue, EPM "poètes et chansons"
• 2006: Jean Genet, Un chant d'amour, Buda Musique, with Richard Armstrong.
• 2006: Chansons pour les enfants, EPM Musique, 2006.
• 2006: Va savoir, EPM
• 2007: Pablo Neruda, de la poésie à la lutte. Includes L'Elégie à Pablo Neruda sung by Hélène Martin.
• 2007: Terres mutilées followed by Dans mon pays, poems by René Char, 1968, reissue, EPM "Poésie".
• 2008: Journal d'une voix, Des femmes-Antoinette Fouque.
• 2009-2010: Voyage en Hélénie, 13-CD case.

Awards

• 1961: Grand Prix du Disque
• 1967: Prix de l'Humour noir.
• 2009: Prix Jacques Douai