Barbara

There are famous singers, and then there are those rare artists who have Paris Metro stations named after them. Such is the distinguished legacy of Monique Andrée Serf, the iconic cabaret chanteuse better known as Barbara. With her intense facial features, striking proto-goth all-black attire and crestfallen vocal delivery, Barbara was the sound of melancholy incarnate. She came by that deep-seated sorrow honestly: Born in Paris in 1930 to a Jewish family, she endured abuse as a child at the hands of her father and spent her preteen years in hiding during World War II. In the ’50s, she began to pursue her passion for music, bouncing between Paris and Brussels and befriending the likes of Jacques Brel and Georges Brassens, whose material she often performed. But she became a French superstar in the ’60s on the strength of her own compositions, like the aching relationship requiem "Ma plus belle histoire d'amour" and her plea for post-war unity, "Göttingen',' a song many credit for rehabilitating French/German relations that decade. From the ’70s onward, Barbara’s musical pursuits were complemented by forays into film and theatre (including collaborations with Gérard Depardieu and Mikhail Baryshnikov) up until her death in 1997.