Suzy Solidor
Chanteuse
Famous, very famous, then forgotten
Model, then model to the greatest painters, singer, cabaret owner, then antique dealer... Famous, very famous, then forgotten, Suzy Solidor (1900-1983) had a profound impact on painting, song and the Deauville chronicle of the 1930s. An emancipated woman, she rubbed shoulders with the greatest artists of the 20th century.
Born a poor bastard in Brittany in 1900, Suzanne Rocher became Suzy Solidor, the famous tomboy of the interwar period, at the age of 20. A singular beauty, she was in turn a model for over 200 painters, including : Tamara de Lempicka, Foujita, Marie Laurencin, Man Ray, Van Dongen and Francis Bacon.
La Fille aux cheveux de lin, fascinates and inspires painters, poets and women who love women. It was in Deauville, where she made regular visits from 1919 onwards, that Suzy Solidor appeared on stage for the first time. In July 1929, she made her singing debut at Le Brummel's cabaret, which was located behind what is now the Hermès store.
A famous singer of the '30s and the first woman to be televised in 1935, she had opened her cabaret La vie parisienne in Paris three years earlier. There she met Cocteau, Colette, Churchill, Kessel and Mermoz, who fell head over heels in love with her.
In 1938 she sang her biggest hit: Escale (Le ciel est bleu la mer est verte, laisse un peu la fenêtre ouverte,...) before creating the French version of Lily Marlène in 1942.
Léo Pol, composer of Galérien (and father of Michel Polnareff) was her pianist. She gives one of her first engagements to Charles Trénet and discovers Marguerite Monnot, who also accompanies her on piano and whose 1936 song Mon légionnaire she sings.
She was one of the first performers to sing Georges Brassens' Le parapluie, and inspired Georges Moustaki to write Milord for Edith Piaf.
Her final tour in 1952 brought her back on stage at the Deauville Casino in July.
Until 1961, she hosted the summer nights of the Deauville cabaret Le Brummel's.
PhN
More than a singer, she's an incomparable monument.
Nothing resembles or has resembled what Suzy Solidor was
Jean-François Kahn
