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 45 rpm 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 45 rpm. In May 1962, Solleville released her first 10" album, intitulé
Récital n°1, where she sange the poets
Paul Fort (
La Marine, set to music by
Georges Brassens),
Charles Baudelaire, Louis Aragon and
Jean Ferrat (''J'entends, j'entends''). In the 1960s, she recorded the songs of
Hélène Martin,
Georges Coulonges,
Yani Spanos,
Philippe-Gérard,
Serge Rezvani, and the poems of
Guillaume Apollinaire and
Jean Genet. She sang in the film
Dragées au poivre (1963). In 1964, she received the Grand Prix of the
Académie Charles-Cros for her
Récital n°2 of 1963. She confirmed her role as a singer of activist songs against
Nazism,
Francoism and the
Vietnam War. Equally, she supported the workers' cause (
Le Chant des ouvriers). In 1971, she recorded with
Marcel Mouloudji and
Armand Mestral La Commune en chantant, a homage to 100 years of the
Paris Commune. In 1975, she released ''Chants d'exil et de lutte
based on the texts of Pablo Neruda. In 1988, she celebrated the bicentenary of the French Revolution with Musique, citoyennes !
. Allain Leprest wrote the words of her album Al Dente
(1994). In 2004, she published her autobiography, A piena voce'', written with the collaboration of
Marc Legras. In 2009, she celebrated 50 years as a singer. Véronique Sauger's book,
Portraits croisés, Francesca Solleville, Allain Leprest (Ed. Les points sur les i) was published in December 2009. ==Discography==