French singer, songwriter and performer, whose songs encompass a large range of subjects. Her love songs are often in a nostalgic mode (“Le Pêcheur de perles”, The Pearl Fisher, 1967; “La Chambre d’or”, Golden Room, 1969). Some of her songs could not be broadcast because of their strong engagement, and others contain profanity, for instance “Les Gens qui doutent” (Doubting People, 1977). Some songs deal with difficult subjects such as poverty (“Porteuse d’eau”, Waterbearer, 1961), homelessness (“Pas difficile”, Not difficult, 1986), education in a consumer society (“Abel Caïn, mon fils”, Abel Cain, my son, 1971), war (“Berceuse de Bagdad”, Lullaby from Baghdad, 2003). Numerous songs give a feminist take on women’s life: “Non, tu n’as pas de nom” (You have no name, 1973) about abortion, “La Vache engagée” (Engaged Cow, 1975), “Une sorcière comme les autres” (A Witch like any other one, 1975) about maternity, “La Faute à Ève” (Eve’s Fault, 1978) about women’s rights, “Rose” (1981) about teen pregnancy, or “Juste une femme” (Only a woman, 2013) about sexism. She also supported same-sex marriage (“Gay marions-nous”, 2007).
The daughter of Albert Beugras, she was the sister of writer Marie Chaix, who married Harry Mathews in 1992, making Sylvestre his sister-in-law. Anne Sylvestre died on 30 November 2020 at age 86 in Paris.
Link to Wikipedia biography