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November 21, 1965. A small frail young girl appears on French television screens.
It wasn't even a year later that her name was known all over the entire country. Then the rest of world met her, and people started talking about her fairy tale...
Mireille Mathieu was born on 22 July 1946 in the city of Avignon, France. The eldest of the 14 children of Roger, who worked as a stonecutter for the cemetery and his wife Marcelle, Mireille always dreamed to become a singer. She debuted in 1962 in a local song contest of Avignon, but unsuccessfully. A year later, she tried again and… another failure. But she doesn’t give up and her performance in 1964 leads to an invitation to the TV show "Télé Dimanche" in Paris.
The day after her TV triumph her manager Johnny Stark signs a contract with her father and just 4 weeks later she appears at the Olympia, the most prestigious stage in France. A year later her first album, "Mon Crédo", comes out selling 1.7 million in Europe alone.
Mireille Mathieu becomes the "Ambassador of the french song". Selling over 100 million records worldwide and performing a repertoire of over 1000 songs in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Provencal, Catalan, Japanese, Chinese, Russian and Finnish, she has sung before every type of audience, in nearly every country and she is loved by the simple folk just as much as by the big names in this world. She is the first western singer to give concerts in China. "Where she feels the most at home", Johnny Stark used to say, "Is on stage".
Such is Mireille, a heart that sings, a heart that sheds tears... but above all, a heart that loves. Her father Roger, who died in 1985, and her manager Johnny Stark, who left this world in 1989, would both be so proud. Mireille continues to sing after 37 years, with the help of her sister Monique, who never leaves her side, her assistant Yvonne, and her faith in God.
After thirty-seven years, the heart of Mireille continues to enchant the globe.
Chapters from an autobiography.
Partly abridged English text by Anna Dorofeeva