Danielle Messia

Born Danielle Mashiash in Tel Aviv-Jaffa, Israel on 13 October 1956, the singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist known as Danielle Messia grew up in France, where she moved at the age of two, and learned to play several instruments during her youth. She joined folk group Grattons Labeur as a singer, violinist, flautist, and guitarist in the early 1970s, touring in the Orléans region and in several cafés-cabarets of Bretagne with Gérard Blanchard, and contributing to the group's only album Le Bal des Sorciers, released in 1970 via Môrice Benin's ABA label. She spent the rest of the 1970s travelling around Europe with her guitar, honing her voice in preparation for the release of her debut self-titled solo album in 1980. After subsequently signing to French label Barclay, she released the albums Il Fait Soleil (1981) and De la Main Gauche (1982), whose title track appeared in the credits of the film Anne Trister by Léa Pool (1986) and has been covered by various artists. She parted ways with Barclay in 1984 and signed with WEA for her third album Carnaval, released in 1985, also taking part in the Printemps de Bourges and the Equinoxe festival in Brittany. Danielle Messia fell ill with leukaemia and died on 13 June 1985 at the young age of 28. A compilation of her songs, Les Mots, arrived in 1986 and she was posthumously awarded the Grand Prix du Disque from the Académie Charles-Cros. A live recording, Eternelle, was released in 2005, followed by the Chanson Française compilation in 2015.