For more than seven decades, Deauville has vibrated to the rhythm of French song

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Mistinguett, Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet, Juliette Gréco, Maurice Chevalier, Dalida, Charles Aznavour, Sylvie Vartan, Claude François, Joe Dassin… “ They all went through Deauvilleeven those we have forgotten,” smiles Philippe Normand.

The former cultural director of the City of Deauville (Calvados) and the Franciscans shares, in last issue ofAthena on Touquesa ” exciting story “. That of great hours of French song in Deauvilleof 1912 to 1988.

Places for song

This story begins in 1912, at the time of the construction of the casino by Eugène Cornuché who had also been artistic director of two Parisian café-concerts.

When Eugène Cornuché designed the Deauville casino, he quickly imagined places for singing: he built a theater dedicated to the Music hall, he planned that dances and songs could also be held in the large hall and that the The ambassadors’ lounge can host dinner shows.

A place with multiple spaces focused on song… which is quickly confirmed by the inaugural season of the casino orchestrated by Gabriel Astrucpatron of the Champs Elysées theater. “Until 1988the song was the main programming axis of the casino », confirms Philippe Normand.

A first major song competition in Deauville

“It’s the first festival organized in Deauville », insists Philippe Normand. Of 1948 to 1956the Deauville casino organized the main and first major song competition. An event that will experience nine editionswith a competition which aims to present a song created by a performer. “It was Eurovision which, in 1956, took up the idea… in a European dimension,” notes the song enthusiast.

This competition which will “embrace all trends and all registers of song” will reveal and reward future big names, launching for example the careers of Juliette Gréco, Annie Cordy, Dario Moreno, Marcel Amont and Nicole Louvier. “It’s a singer that we have forgotten and who is nevertheless very important in the song, Nicole Louvier. When we questioned Anne Sylvestre or Barbara, they said that it was Nicole Louvier who opened the way for them,” adds Philippe Normand who insists:

The Grand Contest of French Song of Deauville remains the precursor of the major song festivals which will develop and internationalize from the 1950s in the seaside resorts.

A competition, but also galasin the Deauville tradition, notably that of July 14 who animated the station from 1947 to 1971, in the heart of summer. At the Salon des Ambassadeurs, the Tricolor Gala will see Édith Piaf, Charles Trenet, the Compagnons de la chanson and Mireille Mathieu.

Singing in Deauville, a must

Whether it be during the “ Summer tours ”, during “ Youth evenings » or throughout the year… the casino has seen big names in French songjuggling between popular songs and author songs. “In the 1950s and 1960s, it was impressive,” insists Philippe Normand, taking the example of summer 1955 where will follow one another at the Hall of Song: Mouloudji, the Compagnons de la chanson, Charles Trenet, Charles Aznavour or even Dalida and Gilbert Bécaud. The latter would return a few years later, notably in 1962, the same summer as Jacques Brel, and Juliette Gréco.

“I delved into the archives of the regional press and what is fascinating is that each concert was chronicled at the time, enthuses Philippe Normand. We learn awesome things. For example, the day when Sylvie Vartan sings in Deauville, in 1964we had to strengthen the sound system in the room and a shadow crept in at the start of the concert, when the lights went out. It was Johnny Hallydayhe had taken advantage of a leave during his military service to find Sylvie in Deauville.

The former cultural director also recounts the arrival of Léo Ferré in 1963 who interprets Canes the fly. “He castigates a little the bourgeois who parade at the gala dinners… which are the same as in Deauville, that had offended some spectators who had left,” smiles Philippe Normand. The latter also tells how the youth evening, where the audience was impatiently waiting for the end of the concert to go and twist, was able to play on the words of Jean Ferrata few months later, when he recorded Night and fog and writes: “The shadow has become human, today it’s summer, I would twist the words if I had to twist them.” “I can’t help but think that it’s not a coincidence,” considers Philippe Normand, who sums up:

In my research, I found articles full of anecdotes. They show that Deauville was an obligatory stop for these singers, and that a concert in Deauville was not the same as a concert elsewhere.

An obligatory passage, but also a vacation spot where singers and lyricists like to hang out. “Some have become true ambassadors of Deauville », insists the song enthusiast, listing the names of Maurice Chevalier, Mistinguett, Suzy Solidor and even Charles Trenet. “He came for the first time in 1939… and then he kept coming back. We see it in the caricatures of the Tourist Office with the figures of the Deauville summer.”

And today?

This great epic of French song in Deauville came to a halt at the end of the 1980s. 1986we authorize installing slot machines at the Deauville casino. Then in 1987the casino closes for work,” says Philippe Normand.

In 1988, the new casino transformed the Hall of Song in the large slot machine room. “It’s another era that’s dawning.”

The song will survive on the stage of the Salon des Ambassadeurs and on the stage of the casino theater. But quickly, reviews will be scheduled, then comedy shows.

A pillar of Deauville for 75 years, the song remains, in fits and starts. THE festival musical Swing in Deauville will allow for 20 years, during a week in the summer, to bring together singers nourished by jazz and swing. “When this festival stopped in 2008, it was a bit of a desert for songs at the casino.”

The programming of the city’s cultural seasonthen Franciscanstook over, revealing a new generation of singers and songwriters like Vincent Delerm, Renan Luce, Camélia Jordana, Florent Marchet and Maissiat. The song also makes Deauville vibrate during the Books & music festival or from United Music Of Deauville.

And the history of song in Deauville continues to be told in music, during evenings organized in homage to singers or great lyricists who frequented Deauville in the past, such as Pierre Delanoë and Eddy Marnay. With fervor, Philippe Normand concludes: “Song in Deauville is living heritage ».

Athena on Touques, n°243. Price: €8.

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