Gilles Vigneault is a Canadian poet, publisher, singer-songwriter, and Quebec nationalist and sovereigntist. Two of his songs are considered by many to be Quebec's unofficial anthems: "Mon pays" and "Gens du pays", and his line Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver became a proverb in Quebec. Vigneault is a Grand Officer of the National Order of Quebec, Knight of the Legion of Honour, and Officer of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.
Jean Sablon was a French singer, songwriter, composer and actor. He was one of the first French singers to immerse himself in jazz. The man behind several songs by big French and American names, he was the first to use a microphone on a French stage in 1936. Star of vinyl and the radio, he left France in 1937 to take up a contract with NBC in the United States. His radio and later televised shows made him a huge star in America. Henceforth the most international of French singers among his contemporaries, he became an ambassador of French songwriting and dedicated his career to touring internationally, occasionally returning to France to appear on stage. His sixty-one year career came to an end in 1984.
Jean Richepin was a French poet, novelist and dramatist.
Audefroi le Bastart was a French trouvère from Artois, who flourished in the early thirteenth century.
Léon Alfred Fourneau was a French humourist, music-hall artist, playwright and songwriter. Originally trained as a lawyer he invented the stage- and pen name Xanrof by inversion of the Latin fornax of his French surname fourneau ("furnace"), before finally legally changing his name to Léon Xanrof. Yvette Guilbert experienced early success singing Xanrof's songs at Rodolphe Salis' cabaret Le Chat Noir.
Pierre Delanoë was a French lyricist who wrote thousands of songs for dozens of singers, including Dalida, Edith Piaf, Charles Aznavour, Petula Clark, Johnny Hallyday, Joe Dassin, Michel Sardou and Mireille Mathieu.
Robert Arnauld d’Andilly was a French conseiller d’État, specialising in financial questions, in the court of Marie de' Medici. By the elegance of his language, he was among the major poets, writers and translators of 17th century French classicism. A fervent Catholic, he played an important role in the history of Jansenism and was one of the Solitaires of Port-Royal-des-Champs. He was also renowned for his part in the development of the pruning of fruit trees, to which he was devoted.
Henri Marius Christiné was a French composer of Swiss birth.
Colette Renard, born Colette Lucie Raget, was a French actress and singer. Renard is closely associated with the titular character from the musical Irma La Douce, a role she played for over a decade.
Amable Courtecuisse, whose stage name was Désiré, was a French baritone, who is particularly remembered for creating many comic roles in the works of the French operetta composer Jacques Offenbach.
Charles Monselet was a French journalist, novelist, poet and playwright, nicknamed "the king of the gastronomes" by his contemporaries. He specialised in comedic and romantic novels and his total output was around 40 volumes.
Henri Betti, born Ange Betti, was a French composer and a pianist.
Antoine Paul Taravel, known as Xavier Privas was a French singer, poet, goguettier and composer.
Maurice Yvain was a French composer noted for his operettas of the 1920s and 1930s. Some of which were written for Mistinguett, at one time the best-paid female entertainer in the world. In the 1930s and 1940s, he became a major success in the United States and several of his pieces appeared in the famous Ziegfeld Follies on Broadway. He also composed music for several films of notable directors such as Anatole Litvak, Julien Duvivier, and Henri-Georges Clouzot. Yvain's music blended with the then "spirit of Paris".
André Hornez was a French lyricist and screenwriter.
Eugène Héros was a French playwright and chansonnier.
Gabriel Montoya was a French singer, chansonnier and lyricist. The son of a pharmacist, Joseph-Henri-Victor Montoya and Noémie- Victoire Coste, he studied medicine in Lyon. After a trip to the West Indies in 1893, he settled in Paris where he enrolled in 1899 at the university and graduated a physician. An enthusiastic amateur singer, he joined up at night in coffee houses, where he attracted Rodolphe Salis's attention who engaged him at Le Chat Noir in Montmartre. In 1902, he toured with the troupe led by Yvette Guilbert, "Monmartre en ballade in Berlin".
Lys Gauty was a French cabaret singer and actress. Her most significant work came in the 1930s and 1940s as Gauty appeared in film, and recorded her best-known song, "Le Chaland qui passe", which is an interpretation of an Italian composition.
Paula Brébion was a French singer and actress. Brébion began her stage career at the age of 6, first learning the trade in Paris from her mother, Marie Constance Joséphine Hersilie Brébion, who was also an actress, and then with mime Louis Rouffe and his troupe in Marseille. She had a huge success in the big concert halls of the French capital and in the provinces, performing light, saucy and patriotic songs, several dozen of which were her own creations. She was nicknamed "la Reine" and "l'Etoile de la Scala". She then turned to the theatre and performed in numerous plays in France and abroad.
André Warnod (1885–1960) was a French writer, goguettier, art critic, and illustrator, who witnessed the artistic scenes of Montmartre and Montparnasse during the 1910s-1930s.
