French chanteuse and actor who was the musical embodiment of the existentialist movement
Juliette Gréco, who has died aged 93, was the most influential French popular singer to emerge immediately after the second world war. With her long dark hair, soulful eyes and deep voice, she became the musical embodiment of the existentialist movement. Although she seemed the most modern of performers, Gréco belonged to the grand tradition of Parisian chanteuses. Like her illustrious predecessors Damia, Yvonne George and Yvette Guilbert, she attracted poets and philosophers who found in her a modern femme fatale. Many of the songs she made famous were composed for her, but Gréco also sang some of the standard chanson repertory.
Her manner was simple: usually dressed in black, she would stand before the microphone and announce the name of the poet and composer. She deployed little of the showbiz formula: her stance was that of a priestess, someone with a deep and terrible knowledge of life and love, who was about to impart some of her secrets to the congregation.
