Luxembourg's second winner France Gall, who will celebrate her 60th birthday October 9th, is the subject of a new biography published in her native France. Two big weekly magazines “Gala” and “Nous Deux“) already feature stories on the lady and her public and private story.

Born Isabelle Gall in 1947, the story goes that her father (a famous musician himself) gave her the pseudonym "France Gall" because he was a fan of rugby. It happened a few days before a match between the French and Welsh teams (in French "Wales" is "Galles")! This is one of the details to be found in a new biography published by Grégoire Collard and Alain Morel (éditions Flammarion) titled "France Gall, Le Destin D'Une Star Courage".

Back to Naples 1965, the authors write that the Italian Eurovision Song Contest orchestra didn't appreciate the orchestration for Gall's entry at all (too speedy for them). After the last rehearsal they made noise on purpose to let the Luxembourg team know they didn't like the song. After France Gall won with the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son", the new book claims, the United Kingdom's representative Kathy Kirby came to her and said, "You should'nt have won! This afternoon, you got zero." (She was referring to the rehearsals of the voting procedure.) A last – and not the least – detail about the 1965 Song Contest experience: the writers report that France Gall's lover, Claude François, phoned her after she won and said, "OK, you won. Bravo… but our love story is over". Claude François (one of the most successful French singers in the 60's and the 70's) was known to be very hard with people, and he is supposed to have been jealous of her victory. Still, this report is a bit hard to believe as most reports are that the relationship between Gall and François ended around 1967. Something sure is that "Comme d'habitude" (My Way), composed and sung by Claude François in 1967 deals with the end of their love story.