1957 - Luxembourg
Performed by: Danièle Dupré
Music by: Jean-Pierre Kemmer
Lyrics by: Jacques Taber
Conductor: Willy Berking
Language: French
Placing: 4th (8 points)
Danièle Dupré represented Luxembourg in the 1957 Eurovision Song Contest with her song Amours mortes (tant de peine) - Faded Love (So Much Pain) - where she finished in a tie for fourth.
A fairly minor star, her recordings occasionally appear on eBay and other places where EPs and 45 RPM singles are sold, and appear occasionally on compilations of 1950s French music.
She spent some time in Brazil as a child. After returning to France, she appeared in a movie, La Parisienne, and went on to receive operatic training. She apparently injured her voice during this training, turning to what was then considered light music.
She toured France, and was invited to perform in the Eurovision contest for Luxembourg. The contest had nowhere near the prestige it has today, and she was ambivalent about the song she was to perform. Like a few performers at the time, she only practiced her song once, at the pre-show rehearsal. At the competition, she met Paule Desjardins, the French contestant, with whom she maintained a long friendship.
Her recordings include several EPs for Polydor that include songs such as "Merci mon Dieu, La chanteuse de blues", "Mon vieux marin" (with the orchestra of Armand Migiani), "Paris-java", "Sarah", "Tu me donnes", "Une femme est jolie", "Mon coeur est un violin", "Marjolaine", "Patricia" and "La gommeuse de 1900".
She retired from the music business in 1958, realizing that rock and roll was eclipsing the music she performed. She turned to interior design, where her most notable work is in the terminal of the São Paulo airport. She turned her attention to interior design and died on 24 November 2013 at the age of 75, just eight days after celebrating her birthday.
Lyrics:
Amours mortes
Toi que j'aime
Tu m'as fait tant de peine
Comment effacer
Les jours passés?
Tant de peine
Au long des jours je traîne
Mendiant au souvenir
Un peu de toi
Ta voix dans un rêve
Je m'en souviens
Murmurait sans trêve
Ne demandait rien
Tu étais si tendre
Ce soir d'été
Comment se défendre
De t'écouter?
Plus personne
Et ma vie monotone
S'égrène au long des jours
Sans ton amour
Sans toi je frissonne
Cherchant ta main
Dans la nuit d'automne
J'espère en vain
Et pourtant quand même
Ma vie en moi
Me hurle: Je n'aime
N'aime que toi
Tant de peine
Tu m'as fait tant de peine
Mais comment effacer
Les jours passés?
Ta voix, tes lèvres
Emprisonnent ma fièvre
Mais comment effacer
Les jours passés?
ENGLISH:
Dead loves
You, that I love
You made me so much sad
How to erase
The passing days?
So much sadness
Whole days long I'm hanging around
Begging to my remembrance
A little bit from you
Your voice in a dream
I remember
Whispered unremittingly
Didn't ask nothing
You were so tender
This summer night
How to forbid myself
To not listen?
Nobody any more
And my monotonous life
Is marking out every days
Without your love
Without you I'm shivering
Looking for your hand
In the autumn night
I'm hoping, in vain
And nevertheless really
My life inside of me
Scream to me: I only love
Only love you
So much sadness
You made me so much sad
But how to erase
The passing days?
Your voice, your lips
Imprisoned my fever
But how to erase
The passing days?