Yvonne de Knops (1896 in

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

– 1930 in

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

), better known by her stage name Yvonne George, was a Belgian singer,

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

and actress.

Biography

George started her artistic career on the stage, where she befriended

Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the su ...

, but gravitated especially toward a repertoire of old songs with realist themes. Paul Franck, director of the

Paris Olympia The Olympia (; commonly known as L'Olympia or in the English-speaking world as Olympia Hall) is a concert venue in the 9th arrondissement of Paris, France, located at 28 Boulevard des Capucines, equally distancing Madeleine church and Opéra ...

, discovered George in the 1920s in a Brussels

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining o ...

. George debuted at the Olympia in 1922, singer her famous '' Nous irons à Valparaiso (We will go to Valparaiso)'' and ''Good bye Farewell''. A certain high-minded section of the public did not appreciate the refrain of this song; George already achieved a polemical success, criticised by this section of the public which would be hostile to her intellectualism and emancipation throughout her career. Yvonne George moved into a ground-floor apartment in

Neuilly Neuilly (, ) is a common place name in France, deriving from the male given name A given name (also known as a forename or first name) is the part of a personal name quoted in that identifies a person, potentially with a middle name as we ...

with desirable decor, where she received many artists and men of letters. In 1924, well known in Parisian intellectual circles as a charming singer, George became the subject of a passionate love affair with the French poet

Robert Desnos Robert Desnos (; 4 July 1900 – 8 June 1945) was a French poet who played a key role in the Surrealist movement of his day. Biography Robert Desnos was born in Paris on 4 July 1900, the son of a licensed dealer in game and poultry at the '' H ...

, who wrote her numerous poems including the famous ''J'ai tant rêvé de toi (I have dreamed so much about you)''. Desnos initiated her into taking

opium Opium (or poppy tears, scientific name: ''Lachryma papaveris'') is dried latex obtained from the seed capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which i ...

. It was in this period that Desnos also wrote his novel ''La Liberté ou l'Amour (Freedom or Love)'', a work which would be condemned for

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be use ...

by the ''tribunal de la Seine''. George's performance style is considered as embodying the principles of the French realist song. She left a very small posterity to the public at large. Her musical repertoire contained some 200 songs, but she recorded very few. 21 recordings were made, of which only 16 survive, some of which are repeats of each other. The themes of the songs, however, and her manner of interpretation with a troubled, broken voice, were to influence other singing and speaking performers such as the French singer Barbara. Yvonne George participated in the progress of female emancipation in the

inter-war period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the First World War to the beginning of the Second World War. The interwar period was relative ...

. Weakened by the excesses of her lifestyle and especially her drug habits, George fell ill with

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, in ...

. Following ineffective treatments, she died in a hotel room near the port of Genoa on 22 April 1930, aged 33.

Partial discography

* ''J'ai pas su y faire'' (Cartoux – Costil – Yvain) – 1925 * ''C'est pour ça qu'on s'aime'' (Telly – Borel-Clerc) – 1925 * ''Le petit bossu'' (inconnu) – 1925 * '' Je te veux'' ( Erik Satie) 1925 * ''J'ai pas su y faire'' (deuxième version) – 1926 * ''You Know You Belong to Somebody Else'' – 1926 * ''Pars'' (Lenoir) – 1926 * ''Chanson de marin'' (Auric) – 1926 * ''Toute une histoire'' (Jeanson) – 1926 * ''La mort du bossu'' – 1926 * ''Adieu chers camarades'' – 1926 * ''Ô Marseille (Wiener)'' – 1927 * ''Chanson de route'' (Wiener) – 1927 * ''C'est pour ça qu'on s'aime'' (deuxième version) – 1928 * ''Si je ne t'avais pas connu'' (Boyer – Boyer – Verdun) – 1928 * ''J'ai pas su y faire'' (troisième version) – 1928 * ''Le bossu'' (deuxième version) – 1928 * '' Les cloches de Nantes'' – 1928 * ''L'autre'' (Lenoir) – 1928

External links

The French song from the end of the second empire through to the 1950s (French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:George, Yvonne 1896 births 1930 deaths Belgian feminists Musicians from Brussels 20th-century Belgian women singers 20th-century Belgian singers Feminist musicians