Fréhel

France, 1908–1951

Born Marguerite Boulc'h in Paris, she sang in the street as a child and became the hardest-lived of the realist singers — ruined by drink and morphine, back on stage in the 1930s with the ruin audible in the voice and used deliberately. Piaf took her repertoire and her stance.

MusicRoots documents 1 artist who influenced Fréhel and 1 artist Fréhel influenced in turn. Every connection cites a published source.

Who influenced Fréhel?

• Emma Liébel — The same inheritance, one generation earlier.

Which artists did Fréhel influence?

• Édith Piaf — Piaf began with 'Comme un moineau', a song Fréhel had created, and took the whole realist stance with it — the street childhood sung back as material rather than hidden.