Fréhel

Here is a great sad song from 1939 ("Sans Lendemain" - "No Tomorrow"), about love with no tomorrow, performed by one of France's most legendary singers, the sublime Fréhel, the French Bessie Smith.
Fréhel (born Marguerite Boulc'h, 1891 – 1951) was a French singer and actress. Born in Paris, France, to a poor family, she was a child left to a life on the streets in the dark side of Paris. In her teens she got a break when she met one of the female music-hall performers who heard her sing and introduced her to show business promoters. She began performing under the stage name "Pervenche". Fréhel had a relationship with Maurice Chevalier but it did not last long and after he left her for the much older megastar Mistinguett. Marguerite Boulc'h tried to escape her pain and travelled to Bucharest, Turkey and then to Russia where she remained for more than ten years. She returned to Paris in 1923 to a shocked public that saw the wasted shadow of the singer they had known and loved. She then signalled a new beginning by switching to the stage name "Fréhel", taking the name from Cap Fréhel in Brittany where her parents had been born. Singing as Fréhel, at the Paris Olympia in 1924 she recaptured the former magic with a powerful performance and was soon headlining at the most popular venues in the country. Part of what is now referred to as the bal musette, Fréhel often sang accompanied by pipes and/or an accordion player. In the 1930's, she appeared in several motion pictures, almost always portraying a singer in a minor or supporting role. The most notable films in which she performed were 1931's "Coeur des Lilas" and "Pépé le Moko" that starred Jean Gabin. She was a major show business force of 1930's France. Of all her songs, her 1939 "La Java Bleue", with music by Vincent Scotto, proved her most popular. Despite being one of Europe's most sought after performers, her destructive addictions led to her dropping out of sight for years. She never found the love she had sought for so long and died in 1951, alone in a hotel in Pigalle. She was interred in the Cimetière de Pantin, in Paris.
Enjoy Fréhel's remarkable performance and voice!

Another classic song by the great Fréhel:
Tel qu'il est, il me plaît (I love him as he is)