Séverine is the stage name of French singer Josiane Grizeau (October 10, 1948), who began performing as Céline in 1967. After releasing a handful of singles under that name, she changed her alias to Robbie Lorr and joined the band Les Murators, where she played alongside Alain Chamfort. Her first brush with fame arrived in 1970 when she recorded the theme song for René Clément’s Le Passager de la pluie. Only a year later, Séverine achieved a historical triumph by earning Monaco their first Eurovision win with the song “Un Banc, un arbre, une rue.” Even though the track was later released in English, Italian, and German, the original French version proved the most popular by far, reaching Number 9 on the UK Singles Chart, Number 3 in France, and reaching the top of the charts in Canada. In the years that followed, she became a chart mainstay through hits like “Vivre pour moi” (1971), “Comme un appel” (1971), and “Olala l’amour” (1972). During the 1980s, she successfully crossed over into the German market and even made two failed attempts to represent the country at the 1975 and 1982 Eurovision Song Contest. Upon her return to the French capital in the late 90s, Séverine began giving singing lessons and released the live album Retour à Paris in 2002. Intégrale, a sprawling 46-track collection of her biggest hits, saw the light in 2012, followed by Espérance in 2015. In 2021, she released the album Un Banc, un Arbre, une Rue in order to celebrate the 50th anniversary of her Eurovision victory.
