A few days ago, French newspaper La Dépêche met singer Jacqueline Boyer, who won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1960 in London with the evergreen Tom Pillibi, in Saint-Gaudens, near Toulouse, where she now lives. Grande dame de la chanson, Jacqueline Boyer is very present on the international scene since her Eurovision victory and revealed she is currently working on a new album.

Daughter of popular French singers Lucienne Boyer and Jacques Pills (the latter represented Monaco at the 1959 Eurovision Song Contest held in Cannes), her Eurovision win brought her international recognition at the mere age of 17.

Since Tom Pillibi, the singer has been travelling the world from New York City to Japan, singing as the opening act at various concerts of famous international artists such as Marlène Dietrich, Charles Aznavour or Jacques Brel in Paris, London or Montréal and has reached the top of the German music charts.

When asked whether winning the Eurovision Song Contest has not been too much of a burden to bare for the young singer she used to be, Jacqueline Boyer admits that though she did reach international stardom thanks to her victory, especially in Germany and Japan where she regularly tours, it did not make things easier for her music career in France. Nevertheless, she still enjoys singing Tom Pillibi, and now performs it as a grand-mother would do to her grand-daughter.

A fan of the 2009 French Eurovision representative’s voice and stage presence, Patricia Kaas, Jacqueline Boyer revealed she is currently working on a new double-CD album which consists in a tribute to the worldwide famous French singer Edith Piaf, who died 50 years ago, and to her mother Lucienne Boyer, who passed away 30 years ago. The album will mix anecdotes about Edith Piaf, Lucienne Boyer and her father Jacques Pills, who married both women, and her own renditions of some of the songs they created.

Jacqueline Boyer is indeed the President of the Friends of Edith Piaf society, besides being involved, together with the 1971 French Eurovision representative Serge Lama and the 1962 French Eurovision winner and 1968 representative Isabelle Aubret, in an association which deals with the difficulties encountered by artists who have suffered from an accident.