Jocelyne

The singer known as Jocelyne was born Jocelyne Esther Journo in Tunis on August 14, 1951. Already drawn to singing when her parents arrived in France in 1958, she produced a demo for record companies five years later. Noticed by Mya Simille (née Micheline Helyett), she signed with the Polydor label, which saw in her an emulator of Brenda Lee. After a first EP including "Il a tout pour lui " (1964), based on Darlene Love's "Fine, Fine Boy", the thirteen-year-old singer performed for three weeks at the Olympia, achieving success with adaptations of American hits including "Le Dimanche et le jeudi" based on Brenda Lee, "Les Garçons" after Lesley Gore's "Boys", "La La La La La" (Stevie Wonder) and "J'ai changé de pays", modeled on Jackie DeShannon's "Heart in Hand", included on her first and only original album, Jocelyne, released in 1965. The teenager, too young to perform at New York's Carnegie Hall, was nevertheless invited to appear on NBC's Hullabaloo in January 1965 and recorded "Chaque fois que je rêve" in London. After her appearance on Jean-Marie Périer's "Photo du siècle" in April 1966 and the Regarde-Moi EP the same year, Jocelyne signed with the Barclay label for the Chantons Plus Fort EP, then went to Canada, where she stayed until 1971, recording for the Vedettes label. Back in France in 1972, she performed a song written by Alain Bashung, "Qui la nuit", and covered "My Way" in an arrangement by Jean-Claude Vannier, for Butterfly Records, before dying in a motorcycle accident on June 25, 1972, aged just 20. In 2002, the double CD Twistin' the Rock, Vol. 19 - Jocelyne compiled her recordings from 1964 to 1966, before the 2015 release of the Salut les Copains compilation.