Mama Béa

Béatrice Tékielski dite Mama Béa, born in Avignon on August 23, 1948, is known as one of the most powerful voices in French rock. Italian on her mother's side and Polish on her violinist father's, who left when she was just two, Béatrice Tékielski grew up with the songs of Léo Ferré, Colette Magny and Janis Joplin in her ears, tracing her passion between chanson and rock. In 1967, she appeared on TV's Télé dimanche to sing "L'Idiot du village", before taking part the following year in the "La Fine fleur de la chanson française" competition, where she finished runner-up at the Théâtre Bobino. Released in 1971 by SFP (Société française de phonographie), her folk-rock debut Je Cherche Un Pays..., featuring contributions from Jack Treese, Teddy Lasry, Jean Cohen-Solal and Patrice Caratini, was followed six years later by Faudrait Rallumer la Lumière Dans Ce Foutu Compartiment and La Folle (1977), where psychedelic and progressive rock meets chanson à texte, with François Jeanneau on synthesizer and saxophone. Signed to the RCA label, the artist, who adopted the name Mama Béa Tékielski, or Mama Béa for short, reached a wider audience with the album Pour Un Bébé Robot... (1978), which saw her perform at the Olympia in Paris and win the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles-Cros. Now recognized for her powerful voice and committed rock songwriting, Mama Béa went on to record the albums Visages (1979), Le Chaos (1979) and its 14-minute opening track, Pas Peur de Vous (1980), Aux Alentours d'Après Minuit (1981) and Où Vont les Stars? (1982), without making any commercial concessions. In 1983, she sang all eight songs in Claude Lelouch's film Édith et Marcel, five of them written by Charles Aznavour, including the duet "Je n'attendais que toi", with compositions by Francis Lai. Despite this success, her contract with RCA was terminated, and she turned to independent production with the albums La Différence (1986), featuring a duet with Little Bob, and Violemment la Tendresse (1988), followed by the creation of her own label, Mafalda Connection Production, under which she released No Woman's Land (1991), the Léo Ferré tribute Du Côté de Chez Léo (1995) and Indienne (1998), signed Mama Béa Tékielski, before retiring from the stage. In 1994, the double CD Ma Compilation retraced his career with his best-known songs.