Alys Robi - Canadian french singer at 88
Martin
MONTREAL -- Quebec's first international superstar, Alys Robi, died
Saturday in Montreal. She was 88.
Robi was a 1940s nightclub diva renowned for her Latin rhythms (Besame
Mucho and Tico-Tico).
Nat King Cole, Jack Benny and Sammy Davis Jr. were among her admirers.
Robi's brilliant singing career was curtailed following a car accident
in Hollywood in the late 1940s, depression following a love affair and
subsequent mental illness.
She spent six years in a Quebec City mental hospital and survived the
treatment of the era -- electric shock therapy and a lobotomy in 1952.
Despite several comeback attempts, Robi, once known as Canada's
Shirley Temple, saw her career largely sidelined.
Her tumultuous life and singing career was the subject of a CBC
biography in 1999 called Let Me Sing Again, and then in 2005 in a
biopic called, Ma Vie en cinemascope, by Denise Filiatrault.
Robi had written two autobiographies, Ma Carriere, ma vie (1980) and
later Long Cri dans la nuit: Cinq Annees a l'Asile (1990), an account
of her mental illness.
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Jane Margaret Laight
> http://www.vancouversun.com/health/Quebec+singer+Alys+Robi+dead/48577...
She had a beautiful voice--you tube is your friend:
Comparison of Judy Garland's "Trolley Song" with Alys Robi's take on
it--"Le Tram":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gu9irirUgok&feature=fvst
enjoy
MWB
Weren't Quebec's first international superstars the Dionne sisters?
Nope... It was the Vachon family
GO RED SOX NATION
Mark