Nicole Rieu

Nicole Rieu
Background information
Born (1949-05-16) 16 May 1949 (age 75)
OriginChaumont, Haute-Marne, France
GenresPop
OccupationSinger
WebsiteNicole Rieu

Nicole Rieu (born 16 May 1949) is a French singer, best known outside France for her participation in the 1975 Eurovision Song Contest.

Rieu signed her first record contract with AZ Records in 1969. In 1973 she was spotted by the larger Barclay label, where she was offered a deal, and scored a hit with her first release "Je suis". In 1975, Rieu was chosen internally by channel TF1 as the French representative for the 20th Eurovision Song Contest with the Pierre Delanoë-penned song "Et bonjour à toi l'artiste". The contest was held on 22 March in Stockholm, and Rieu finished in fourth place of 19 entrants.[1][2]

An English language version of the song with the title "Live for Love" and with lyrics by Lynsey de Paul[3] was also released[4][5][6] that was covered by Ben Thomas and released as a single later that year.[7][8]

Rieu followed her Eurovision appearance with further successful singles such as "Je m'envole" and "En courant" (a French-language version of Diana Ross' "Theme from Mahogany") in 1976, "L'immigrant" (1977) and "La goutte d'eau" (1979). She took a career break of several years in the 1980s in order to concentrate on raising her son, since when she has continued to tour and release albums at sporadic intervals.

  1. ^ ESC History - Eurovision - France 1975
  2. ^ "Et bonjour à toi l'artiste" at diggiloo.net
  3. ^ page 48, Record World, 12 April 1975
  4. ^ https://www.discogs.com/release/3867514-Nicole-Rieu-Live-For-Love [bare URL]
  5. ^ "Nicole Rieu - Live for Love".
  6. ^ page 46, Billboard, 5 April 1975
  7. ^ https://www.discogs.com/release/2152342-Ben-Thomas-Live-For-Love-Et-Bonjour-À-Toi-LArtiste [bare URL]
  8. ^ "Ben Thomas - Live for Love".