Bobino
Encyclopedia
Montparnasse
Montparnasse is an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail...
area of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(14th arrondissement), France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, is a music hall
Music hall
Music Hall is a type of British theatrical entertainment which was popular between 1850 and 1960. The term can refer to:# A particular form of variety entertainment involving a mixture of popular song, comedy and speciality acts...
theatre that has seen most of the biggest names of 20th century French music
Music of France
France has a wide variety of indigenous folk music, as well as styles played by immigrants from Africa, Latin America and Asia. In the field of classical music, France has produced a number of legendary composers, while modern pop music has seen the rise of popular French hip hop, techno/funk,...
perform there.
During its long history it was also known as Les Folies Bobino (1873), Studio Bobino (1991), Gaieté Bobino and Bobin’o (2007).
History
Started by Lisa Bennie. Bobino began as a dance hallDance hall
Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. From the earliest years of the twentieth century until the early 1960s, the dance hall was the popular forerunner of the discothèque or nightclub...
in 1800, became a theatre
Theatre
Theatre is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music or dance...
in 1873, and was converted back to a music hall in 1926.
Bobino was one of the most popular entertainment spots in France during the 1920s and 1930s. On April 8, 1975 Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker
Josephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
, the African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
superstar of France who had appeared at Bobino beginning in the 1920s, gave her last performance there at the age of 68.
After 183 years, Bobino closed its doors in 1983, but reopened in 1991. In 2007, Gerard Louvin and Stéphane Cherki turned Bobino into a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...
named called Bobin'o.
Performers
The entertainers who have performed at Bobino include:- Josephine BakerJosephine BakerJosephine Baker was an American dancer, singer, and actress who found fame in her adopted homeland of France. She was given such nicknames as the "Bronze Venus", the "Black Pearl", and the "Créole Goddess"....
- Guy BéartGuy BéartGuy Béart is a French singer and songwriter.-Biography:He was born Guy Béhart-Hasson in Cairo, Egypt, to a family of Spanish, Swiss, and Russian background. His religious background is unclear, having been referred to as both Jewish and Christian...
- Gilbert BécaudGilbert BécaudGilbert Bécaud was a French singer, composer and actor, known as "Monsieur 100,000 Volts" for his energetic performances. His best-known hits are "Nathalie" and "Et Maintenant", a 1961 release that became an English language hit as "What Now My Love"...
- Georges BrassensGeorges BrassensGeorges Brassens , 22 October 1921 – 29 October 1981), was a French singer-songwriter and poet.Brassens was born in Sète, a town in southern France near Montpellier...
- Lucienne BoyerLucienne BoyerLucienne Boyer was a French diseuse and singer, best known for her song "Parlez-moi d'amour". Her impresario was Bruno Coquatrix.-Early career:...
- Jacques BrelJacques BrelJacques Brel was a Belgian singer-songwriter who composed and performed literate, thoughtful, and theatrical songs that generated a large, devoted following in France initially, and later throughout the world. He was widely considered a master of the modern chanson...
- DalidaDalidaDalida , born with Italian name of Iolanda Cristina Gigliotti, was a world-famous singer and actress born in Egypt with Italian origins but naturalised French with the name Yolanda Gigliotti. She spent her early years in Egypt amongst the Italian Egyptian community, but she lived most of her adult...
- Marie-Louise DamienMarie-Louise DamienMarie-Louise Damien was a French singer and actress better known by the stage name Damia.-Robert Hollard:...
(Damia)
- Lucienne DelyleLucienne DelyleLucienne Delyle was a French singer.After the very famous song Mon amant de Saint-Jean , in 1942, Lucienne Delyle became the most popular French female singer of 1950s....
- Marie DubasMarie DubasMarie Dubas was a music-hall singer, diseuse and comedienne.Born in Paris, France, Marie Dubas began her career as a stage actress but became famous as a singer. Using the great Yvette Guilbert as her model, Dubas started singing in the small cabarets of Montmartre mixing comedy into her routine...
- Georges GuibourgGeorges GuibourgGeorges Guibourg was a French singer, author, writer, playwright, and actor, George Guibourg, alias Georgius, alias Theodore Crapulet, was one of the most popular and versatile performers in Paris for more than 50 years....
- Juliette GrécoJuliette GrécoJuliette Gréco, — also Michelle – is a French actress and popular chanson singer.-Early life and family:Juliette Gréco was born in Montpellier to a Corsican father and a mother who became active in the Résistance, in the Hérault département of southern France. She was raised by her maternal...
- Pauline JulienPauline JulienPauline Julien, CQ was a singer, songwriter, actress, feminist activist and Quebec sovereigntist.Born in Trois-Rivières, Québec, Julien was the companion of the poet and Québec provincial MLA Gérald Godin, another Trifluvian and sovereigntist. She also worked with Gilles Vigneault and recorded...
- Alice PrinAlice PrinAlice Ernestine Prin , nicknamed Queen of Montparnasse, and often known as Kiki de Montparnasse, was a French artist model, nightclub singer, actress, memoirist, and painter. She flourished in, and helped define, the liberated, early 1920s culture of Paris.- Early life :Alice Prin was born in...
(Kiki de Montparnasse) - Daniel LavoieDaniel LavoieDaniel Lavoie is a Canadian singer–songwriter.Lavoie was born in Dunrea, Manitoba, Canada. His mother was a musician and he learned to play piano at a young age...
- Félix LeclercFélix LeclercFélix Leclerc, was a French-Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, writer, actor and Québécois political activist. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 20, 1968...
- Félix MayolFélix MayolFélix Mayol was a French singer and entertainer.-Career:Mayol was born in Toulon, France. His parents were both amateur singers and actors, who arranged for Felix to make his debut stage at six years of age....
- Mireille HartuchMireille HartuchMireille Hartuch was a French singer, composer, and actress. She was generally known by the stage name "Mireille"....
- MistinguettMistinguettMistinguett was a French actress and singer, whose birth name was Jeanne Bourgeois. She was at one time the best-paid female entertainer in the world...
- Yves MontandYves Montand-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
- Georges MoustakiGeorges MoustakiGiuseppe Mustacchi, known as Georges Moustaki , is a French singer and songwriter of Italo-Greek Jewish origin, best known for his poetic rhythm, eloquent simplicity and his hundreds of romantic songs...
- Édith PiafÉdith PiafÉdith Piaf , born Édith Giovanna Gassion, was a French singer and cultural icon who became widely regarded as France's greatest popular singer. Her singing reflected her life, with her specialty being ballads...
- Frida BoccaraFrida BoccaraFrida Boccara was a French singer.Frida Boccara was born in Casablanca, Morocco. She submitted the song "Autrefois" to the French Eurovision Song Contest selection panel in 1964 but she was unsuccessful...
- Serge ReggianiSerge ReggianiSerge Reggiani was an Italian-born French singer and actor. He was born in Reggio Emilia, Italy and moved to France with his parents at the age of eight...
- Amália RodriguesAmália RodriguesAmália da Piedade Rodrigues, GCSE, GCIH, , also known as Amália Rodrigues was a Portuguese singer and actress.She was known as the "Rainha do Fado" and was most influential in popularizing the fado worldwide. She was one of the most important figures in the genre's development, and enjoyed a...
- Monique SerfMonique SerfMonique Andrée Serf , known as Barbara , was a popular French female singer...
(Barbara) - Charles TrenetCharles TrenetCharles Trenet was a French singer and songwriter, most famous for his recordings from the late 1930s until the mid-1950s, though his career continued through the 1990s...
- Tereza KesovijaTereza KesovijaTereza Ana Kesovija is an internationally acclaimed Croatian singer, one of the most recognisable figures on the Balkan music scene, renowned for her wide vocal range and operatic style and one of the most important artists of the former Yugoslavia. She also had a very successful career in France...
- Jocelyne JocyaJocelyne JocyaJocelyne Jocya was a French singer, songwriter, and advocate of children's rights best known for her rendition of "Bon Voyage"....
- a-haA-haA-ha were a Norwegian pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. The band was founded by Morten Harket , Magne Furuholmen , and Pål Waaktaar...
- Amy WinehouseAmy WinehouseAmy Jade Winehouse was an English singer-songwriter known for her powerful deep contralto vocals and her eclectic mix of musical genres including R&B, soul and jazz. Winehouse's 2003 debut album, Frank, was critically successful in the UK and was nominated for the Mercury Prize...
In literature
Joris-Karl HuysmansJoris-Karl Huysmans
Charles-Marie-Georges Huysmans was a French novelist who published his works as Joris-Karl Huysmans . He is most famous for the novel À rebours...
frequented the Bobino and used these experiences as a reference for his first published novel, Marthe
Marthe
Marthe, histoire d'une fille was the first novel by the French writer Joris-Karl Huysmans, published in 1876....
. The Bobino is featured prominently as the lead character's place of employment.