If Véronique Sanson (b. 1949-) were a painting, her life could be captured with broad, dramatic brushstrokes. She is a rare French female singer-songwriter (in the tradition of Barbara and Françoise Hardy) who composes, writes, sings, and accompanies her own songs as well as covering others. The longevity of her musical career sprawls across a broad canvas from the late 1960s to the mid-2020s, populated by countless albums, songs, tours, festivals, performances and collaborations. Her high-pitched vibrato voice dances across the canvas accompanied by ivory riffs, intense concentration and boundless energy. Explosive musical spillovers from both the sparks and the embers of amorous engagements trail across the surface. Long draughts from wellsprings of French “chanson,” Anglo-American blues and rock, and Latin rhythms flow throughout. Colors of gold and platinum from numerous awards nestle among the brushstrokes, sprinkled with memories and revivals from prior years plus recent accompaniments with her son Christopher Stills. If our painting were a collage, the titles of songs and albums would tell much of the tale: “Amoureuse” (Woman In Love), 1972; “De l'autre côté de mon rêve” (On The Other Side of My Dream) 1972; “Besoin de personne” (I Need Nobody), 1972; "Ma drôle de vie” (My Quirky Life), 1973; “Le maudit” (The Cursed), 1974; “Je serai là” (I Will Be There), 1976; “Laisse la vivre” (Let Her Live), 1981; “Moi, le venin” (Me, The Venom), 1988; “Sans regrets” (No Regrets), 1992; “Indéstructible” (Indestructible), 1998; and “D'un papillon à une étoile” (From a Butterfly to a Star), 1999. It’s a lot to wrap your arms, eyes, and ears around, so a few highlights and signature songs must suffice.
Véronique Sanson was born in 1949 in Boulogne-Billancourt, west of Paris. Sanson’s father René was a French diplomat prior to WWII, and then a government minister (Labor) and parliamentary deputy. Her mother Colette was a lawyer. Both parents were members of the French Resistance during WWII. Victory over Nazi Germany led them to celebrate by naming their two daughters with the letter “V” for “Victoire.” Both parents were music lovers and Véronique’s instruments became piano and guitar.
Berger & Sanson
Véronique and Michel Berger met while young children and their parents were friends. Over the years, they fell madly in love and enjoyed a spell as the French music world's “ideal couple.” Berger’s job at Pathé-Marconi Studio’s “Young Talents” division, was to identify and promote promising young French artists. In 1967, he and Claude Michel Schönberg (later a collaborator with Alain Boublil on Les Misérables, Miss Saigon and other works) helped foster a musical group Les Roche Martin that included Véronique, her sister Violaine and François Berhheim. Bernheim later evolved into a composer, singer and artistic director at Barclay. Les Roche Martin released one single and two EPs in 1967 before Véronique struck off on her own in 1969.
When Berger went to work at WEA (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic)-Filipacchi (later Warner Music) in 1971 as artistic director, Véronique became the first French artist signed by the Elektra label. During her breakout year of 1972, Berger produced her first 2 albums that held 5 hit songs (“tubes”). Her first album “Amoureuse” in March 1972 included three songs that became major hits (“Amoureuse,” “Besoin de personne,” “Bahia”) and her second album “De l'autre côté de mon rêve” in December 1972 carried another two hits (“Comme j’imagine,” “Chanson sur ma drole de vie”). Four are featured below. It was a quick start for a 23-year old artist.
When Berger went to work at WEA (Warner-Elektra-Atlantic)-Filipacchi (later Warner Music) in 1971 as artistic director, Véronique became the first French artist signed by the Elektra label. During her breakout year of 1972, Berger produced her first 2 albums that held 5 hit songs (“tubes”). Her first album “Amoureuse” in March 1972 included three songs that became major hits (“Amoureuse,” “Besoin de personne,” “Bahia”) and her second album “De l'autre côté de mon rêve” in December 1972 carried another two hits (“Comme j’imagine,” “Chanson sur ma drole de vie”). Four are featured below. It was a quick start for a 23-year old artist.
Stills & Sanson
Véronique succumbed to a “coup de foudre” (lightning strike love at first sight) in March 1972 when she and Berger attended a concert by American guitarist Stephen Stills (b. 1945) at the Olympia music hall in Paris. Stills was touring with his blues rock musical supergroup Manassas. He had been a principal in Buffalo Springfield between 1966-68 and then in 1968 with Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young after 1969).
Less than a year later in Feb 1973, Sanson abruptly left a meeting with Berger on the pretext of buying cigarettes and never returned. She bought a one-way ticket to NY with money borrowed from a friend and joined Stills, who was rebounding from an inconclusive relationship with Judy Collins. Stills left a trail of musical mementos of that relationship in songs like “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “So Begins the Task.” Sanson and Stills were married in England in March and settled in the mountains of Colorado. Their son, Christopher Stills, was born in 1974.
One might have predicted that this was not a match made in heaven, although Sanson later expressed chagrin only for the way she had done it but not for what she had done. The union joined a Parisian woman with classical music training coming off her first successes with a Texan raised in a peripatetic military family with an early interest in blues and folk music. Stills was 5 years older and riding high in his career with some of the most famous American bands in history. While the Sanson/Stills marriage lasted formally 6 years from 1973 until divorce finalized in 1979, it was a rocky road. Stills acknowledged about himself: “I can be an absolute bastard. I have a bad habit of stating things pretty bluntly.” Their functioning relationship ended after 1976 and she began to apportion her time between the US and France.
Less than a year later in Feb 1973, Sanson abruptly left a meeting with Berger on the pretext of buying cigarettes and never returned. She bought a one-way ticket to NY with money borrowed from a friend and joined Stills, who was rebounding from an inconclusive relationship with Judy Collins. Stills left a trail of musical mementos of that relationship in songs like “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes,” “Helplessly Hoping,” and “So Begins the Task.” Sanson and Stills were married in England in March and settled in the mountains of Colorado. Their son, Christopher Stills, was born in 1974.
One might have predicted that this was not a match made in heaven, although Sanson later expressed chagrin only for the way she had done it but not for what she had done. The union joined a Parisian woman with classical music training coming off her first successes with a Texan raised in a peripatetic military family with an early interest in blues and folk music. Stills was 5 years older and riding high in his career with some of the most famous American bands in history. While the Sanson/Stills marriage lasted formally 6 years from 1973 until divorce finalized in 1979, it was a rocky road. Stills acknowledged about himself: “I can be an absolute bastard. I have a bad habit of stating things pretty bluntly.” Their functioning relationship ended after 1976 and she began to apportion her time between the US and France.
In 1974, Sanson released her third album “Le Maudit” (“The Cursed One”), widely perceived as an expression of regret to Michel Berger, to France and her fans. In naming the album, Sanson drew on a meme of French artistic culture at least 100 years old, crystalized in Paul Verlaine’s 1874 anthology of outcast poets named “Les poètes maudits.”
Despite the turmoil of a failed marriage and custody battle, the reputational fallout from the Berger episode, and collateral damage from the endemic drugs and lifestyle of the US music industry, her time in the US was not without a positive imprint on Sanson’s artistic profile. Her “American years” immersed her in prevailing trends of American music genres and exposed her to new levels of orchestration, organization and production that became evident in subsequent decades of recording, and touring.
Over the years that followed Sanson's abrupt departure from France, she and Berger engaged in an indirect musical dialogue by slipping subtle messages into their songs. An inventive contemporary recreation of this musical conversation played at various venues throughout France in 2024-2025. It is called "Toute une vie sans se voir," featuring Julie Rousseau and Bastien Lucas and directed by Stéphane Olivié-Bisson. The title is borrowed from Sanson's song "Toute une vie sans te voir" from her sixth studio album in 1979. The performers interlace segments from the artists' songs over the years from 1973 to 1990. The show implies a loose analogy of their relationship with the classical Greek myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, two lovers condemned to life without seeing each other.
Berger released his own first studio album named simply “Michel Berger” in 1973 with song titles that reflected his state of mind: “Donne-moi du courage,” “Si tu t'en vas,” “Attends-moi,” and “Pour me comprendre.” The album cover pictured a red broken heart that knowing fans christened informally as “Cœur brisé.” One can intuit Sanson's state of mind from the titles and lyrics of her albums and songs as early as mid-1974, just over a year since the marriage to Stills. Her third studio album in September 1974 carried the title "Le Maudit" ("The Damned") and included songs titled "Le Maudit (mais ta douleur efface ta faute") ("The damned_but your pain erases your error") and "On m'attend la bas" ("They are waiting for me there").
Perhaps most salient among these "billets doux" was Berger’s melodic query in the song "Seras tu là?" in 1975 on his third studio album “Que l'amour est bizarre.” Sanson’s hastily articulated response in 1976 occurred at the Olympia music hall in a live concert where she improvised "Je serai là," a song that appeared the same year on her album “Live at the Olympia” and again in 1981on her studio album “Laisse-la vivre.” Other exchanges lasted for many years and on many levels.
As time went on, Berger developed a professional relationship with singer France Gall and they married in 1976. Afterwards, Berger applied his pygmalian skills to developing her career, working on film projects and fathering the musicals Starmania, La légende de Jimmy (that would be James Dean), and the still-born “Dreams in Stone.” His first actual stage experience came only in 1980 at the Champs-Elysée Theater, followed by performances at the Palais des Sports in 1984 and the Zenith in 1986.
Following Berger’s death in 1992, Sanson sang and recorded many of his songs in homage. In 1999, it was seven years since Berger’s untimely death in 1992 at the age of 44. That year, Sanson featured Berger written-and-composed songs exclusively on her 12th studio album “D'un papillon à une étoile” (From a Butterfly to a Star). Words from Berger’s 1980 song “Quelques mots d’amour” provided the title of that album: “je t’envoie comme un papillon à une étoile quelques mots d’amour.”
Sanson’s musical style never really settled into the conventional “chemin de la chanson,” but rather migrated with high acceleration onto the “rock & roll highway.” Her high-pitched singing voice is strong and melodic, with distinctive harmonies and high precision. The strong vibrato and rapid-fire delivery can challenge comprehension and brings occasional, if carefully chosen and well-executed, high-register “whooping” sounds in live performances. Like many jazz singers, she often employs her versatile voice more as a supplemental musical instrument than a vehicle for narrative. In lyrical choices, Sanson’s affinity for the sound (“sonorité”) of words brings word choices that advance rhyme but can obscure meaning. As an accomplished pianist, the piano has been her preferred instrument while singing. Over time, and particularly with her 1992 album "Sans regrets," her musical accompaniment grew from solo piano in her early years to a full complement of instruments and musicians, with a resulting shift in primacy from lyrics to sound. She leaned heavily into American music styles and incorporated many American musicians on her team with heavy percussive effect. During this time, she sang a number of songs composed by Bernard Swell and worked closely with producer Bernard Saint-Paul. Despite, or perhaps because of these changes, she has maintained a status as “grande dame” within the framework of French music.
While the songs selected below are mostly products of her early years, they retain vibrancy today and make reliable appearances on her contemporary setlists.
While the songs selected below are mostly products of her early years, they retain vibrancy today and make reliable appearances on her contemporary setlists.
Véronique Sanson Songs
Amoureuse (Woman in Love), 1972
Besoin de personne (I Needed Nobody), 1972
Ma drôle de vie (My Quirky Life), 1972
Bahia (Bahia), 1972
Rien que de l'eau (Nothing But Water), 1992
Amoureuse (Woman in Love), 1972
Besoin de personne (I Needed Nobody), 1972
Ma drôle de vie (My Quirky Life), 1972
Bahia (Bahia), 1972
Rien que de l'eau (Nothing But Water), 1992