Cosette

She was born Dominique Cozette in Canteleu, near Rouen, on 14 May 1946. She began performing from a very age. At 15, she bought a guitar and began writing songs. With a school friend, she became a frequent visitor to the studios Salut les copains, where she saw many of the big stars of the day. It was there that she got to know Eddie Vartan, who suggested that she should join singer Frankie Jordan on a duet, Panne d’essence. She accepted enthusiastically, but because she was underage, she needed her parents’ permission. Her father refused – telling her she should finish her baccalaureate first. After her baccalaureate, she spent her summer holidays in Cadaquès, where she was introduced to Salvador Dali. The artist invited her to parties at his home in Port Lligat and discovered that she sang songs she had written, and he encouraged her to perform them accompanied by her sister, a guitar and a harmonica. She enrolled to study law, though she later switched to psychology. She continued to pursue a more creative route in her spare time. As a result, in 1967, she appeared in Jacques Tati’s film Play time. That year, she also landed a contract with Vogue, where she was given the stage name Cosette. Cosette wrote all four songs on her EP, which led with Le grand chaperon noir, but is better known for two of its other songs, Les cheveux dans les yeux and Idéalisation. The recording session took place in Vogue’s studios, with backing provided by Jacques Dutronc’s musicians. But she hated the arrangement of the song intended as the lead track for the disc and she refused to let it be included on the release. Sadly, the EP wasn’t given much promotion by Vogue. “There was no launch,” she says. “And when I was invited to appear on live television, my producer didn’t give them my sheet music, so I couldn’t perform.” Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.