Catherine Ribeiro, the boundary-pushing French singer-songwriter with a gale-force voice, died last night (August 22) at a retirement home in the French city of Martigues.
As reported by Le Monde, her representatives confirmed the news to Agence France-Presse. She was 82 years old.
Born to Portuguese parents in 1941, Ribeiro appeared in Jean-Luc Godard's 1963 film Les Carabiniers before entering the world of music. She recorded a handful of singles throughout the '60s, becoming a star in the yé-yé scene before releasing Catherine Ribeiro + 2Bis, the debut album from her group with multi-instrumentalist Patrice Moullet, in 1969.
The band eventually changed their name to Alpes, recording a stream of intense, fiery psychedelic prog albums through the '70s, featuring lyrics and earth-shaking from Ribeiro. Ribeiro + Alpes released their final studio album, La Déboussole, in 1980. Ribeiro went on to release several solo albums through the '80s and early '90s.
Listen to two personal favourites, 1972's "Jusqu'à ce que la force de t'aimer me manque" and 1979's "loana Mélodie," below.