Francesca Solleville

Francesca Solleville (born 2 March 1932, Périgueux) is a French singer. She lives in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine). She is the granddaughter of the founder of the Italian League for the Rights of Man. She is married to the painter Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison.

Francesca Solleville was born in Périgueux (Dordogne) to a Gascon father and Italian mother. At home, her mother played piano but Francesca was passionate for French literature while learning traditional songs (Schubert, Debussy...). In Paris, she studied humanities at the Sorbonne where she obtained a licentiate, and studied under the singer Marya Freud. She sang in the choirs of Radio France.

From 1958 Solleville gave up lyrical songs to perform her preferred composers in the cabarets of the Rive-Gauche of Paris. Influenced by Germaine Montéro and encouraged by Léo Ferré, she was directed by Jacques Douai to the record company Boîte à musique. There she recorded her first 45 rpm single in 1959: Francesca Solleville chante Aragon and Mac Orlan.

She sang in numerous cabarets: at l'Écluse, where she sang with Barbara, at La Contrescarpe where Elsa Triolet and Louis Aragon came to hear her sing, at La Colombe where she met Pierre Perret and at Port du Salut (cabaret) where Christine Sèvres, Jacques Debronckart, Maurice Fanon, Pia Colombo and Pierre Louki also sang. In 1959, at la Mutualité, she sang two songs by Louis Aragon (La rose du premier de l'an and Un homme passe sous la fenêtre et chante). Also in 1959, she took part in collective recordings (chansons enfantines as a 45 rpm, chansons d'enfants as a 33⅓ rpm 10"), and she dedicated her first 45rpm to Aragon and Pierre Mac Orlan.

In 1960, for her second 45 rpm, she sang the works of Luc Bérimont, Aragon et Ferré. In 1961, she sang Mac Orlan for a new 45rpm.