Chantal Goya

Goya started her career as a yé-yé singer, singing a mid-1960s hybrid of girl-group pop and French chanson. She also enjoyed a career as a French New Wave actress; she had a starring role as Madeleine in the 1966 Jean-Luc Godard film Masculin, féminin and in Jean-Daniel Pollet's L'amour c'est gai, l'amour c'est triste (Love is joy, love is sad).

Since 1975, she has become mostly known as a singer for children. Together with her husband, songwriter and composer Jean-Jacques Debout, and with a team of designers and costume people, she does shows for and with children. The main themes are dreams and traveling. Her usual character is called Marie-Rose.

Chantal was born in French Indochina in 1942 to French parents. During the Indochina war she moved to France with her family in 1954 and lived in the Vosges mountains, and at the beginning of the 1960s, she moved to Paris with her family. She met singer/composer Jean Jacques Debout when she was 18. The couple remain married.

After having received her baccalaureat, Chantal started studying journalism in England. During this period in Paris, one of her friends took her to the reception of Eddie Barclay's wedding. Jean-Jacques Debout was one of the artists invited to this reception. At that time, he had been recording 45 rpm records since 1957, and had received some success, like "Les boutons dorés" (The golden buttons). He was a friend of the ye-ye girl Sylvie Vartan for whom he wrote and composed the hit "Tous mes copains" (All my friends). In 1963, Vartan was in a relationship with the ye-ye and rock-n-roll singer Johnny Hallyday and she would marry him in 1965. Debout, who was in love with Vartan, remained single in his personal life. At this reception, he saw Chantal who was sitting at the back of the living room, and he fell in love at first sight with her. He went to tell her that she would be famous by the age of 30, have two children, and singing at the Opera. Chantal didn't believe him and went to London to finish her studies.

Upon her return in France, Debout was waiting for her at the station and sang to her a song he had written and composed when she was in England, called "Nos doigts se sont croisés" (Our fingers had been crossed), and Chantal fell in love with him. With this song, Debout participated in and won the Festival de la Rose d'Or d'Antibes (Music Festival of Antibes's golden rose).

In 1964, Chantal first became a model for fashion photographers in the teenage girls' magazine "Mademoiselle Âge Tendre" (Little Miss Tender Age). That year, Debout decided to rename her Chantal Goya because he thought that she looked like a little boy painted by the Spanish painter Francisco Goya. Daniel Filipacchi was the owner of the magazine and also the record producer of the French division of RCA Records. He suggested that Debout write and compose songs in return for a record contract for her. The first 45 EP record of Chantal Goya released at the end of 1964 and it includes the song "C'est bien Bernard" (It's Bernard himself) which became her first hit success. ...

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