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November 21, 1965. A small frail young girl appears on French television
screens.
It
wasn't even a year later that her name was known all over the entire
country. Then the rest of world met her, and people started talking
about her fairy tale without any exaggeration whatsoever. Born in
the noble papal city of Avignon, Mireille would see 13 little brothers
and sisters appear and grow up with her.
Monique,
Christiane, Marie-France, Réjane, Régis and Guy (twins), Roger,
Jean-Pierre, Rémy, Simone, Philippe, Béatrice, and least but not
least, Vincent.
 Her
father Roger was a stonecutter for the cemetery; he also had the
dream of becoming a singer, possessing an admirable tenor's voice.
The family lived in a wooden shack that leaked when it rained and
the wind blew through the door and the windows. It wasn't the gayest
of scenes!
When Mireille was 15 years old, they moved into a government subsidized
apartment with five rooms, and a new luxury: a bathroom.That was
the most beautiful day in my life, Mireille remembers, for the first
time, I took a bath!. It was such an extraordinary sensation.
Every morning, Madame Mathieu went to the market and very carefully
calculated her choices. Every franc counted, and Roger Mathieu earned
only 200 francs a week from his father, the boss of a modest family
business.
All in all, the Mathieu household saw no more than 1,800 francs
a month and 190 francs had to be subtracted for the monthly rent.
Quite often, there were moments when Marcelle Mathieu felt a migraine
coming on when managing the family finances, especially when she
had to buy a dress for one, underwear for another, shoes for everyone.
As Mireille was the eldest of the children, she learned very quickly
how heavy her responsibilities would be. Every room was neat and
orderly. At our house, you could have eaten off the floors!, says
Mireille with admiration.
Roger Mathieu was an excellent worker who wasn't afraid of sweat
and tears. Vacation? Diversions? These are words that the Mathieu
family hadn't had in their vocabulary. "I was four years old
when I sang in public for the very first time." It was for
Midnight Mass. After listening so often to the great singers on
radio and on television, Mireille dreamed of becoming a famous singer
like these men and women. She wanted to sing before an audience
other than her family or her school friends. Edith Piaf was her
idol, her model.
During her sewing classes at school, her friends would ask her to
sing La vie en rose. By accepting Mireille as a student, Laure Collière,
a voice instructor, couldn't help telling Mireille that the singing
profession had many more people who were called than actually chosen.
"You know" she would say,"to be a singer, you have
to be strong, both physically and morally. You have more of a chance
of ending up in a haystack than you do on the pillows of a Rolls
Royce!" "I'm sure you're right", Mireille would respond,
"but the one who doesn't take a risk never wins!".
Johnny Stark, professional manager, sees in Mireille an unbelievable
talent, but while he acknowledges it, he warns her: "Don't
forget that you're a beginner. Put it in your head that I'm going
to make you work like a horse, that I won't let you get away with
anything, and that I will be ruthless. Think about it, you still
can say no. If you want to listen to me, to work really hard, and
go at a levelheaded pace on the road to success, I will make you
really good, really great, a veritable star".
He knew that, whatever happened, she would hang on, since she's
a fighter who thinks singing is more important than anything. Johnny
placed Mireille in the hands of the orchestra leader Paul Mauriat
who teaches her not to "howl", as Stark would say.
And
then there are rehearsals, photo shoots, interviews that Stark would
never miss, music lessons, singing lessons, dancing lessons, French
and English lessons, and gymnastics. Stark still would say that
Mireille's extraordinary success, and the incredible speed at which
she would become so famous so quickly was hardly miraculous. She
likes work for work's sake.
 At
the peak of a heavy schedule, intensive and numerous recordings,
such as when she began doing promotions in the United States, Mireille
only slept four hours a night, and would make up for it later. Her
motto, the religious person that she is, became: "My God and
My work". Finally, on Saturday the 15th of March, she taped
the Ed Sullivan Show, the most popular television program in the
United States, with an audience of 50 million..
When the show is aired the following Sunday, the reaction is very
successful. All of America, struck by voice of the songbird from
Avignon, has the name Mireille Mathieu on it's lips. Then it's Las
Vegas, Hollywood, tons of interviews, phone calls, invitations...
In New York, where she is the guest star of the Merv Griffin Show,
Mireille is a big hit. She always sings about love. "Music
is the best way for me to say I love you", she admits. She
exteriorizes romance, which is in the heart of ever girl, and Mireille
is no exception.
"My songs always speak of love, that's the way I like them".
Mireille Mathieu has sung before every type of audience, in nearly
every country, she is loved by the simple folk just as much as by
the big names in this world. She has been received by heads of state
and has traveled the four corners of the world. "Where she
feels the most at home", Johnny Stark used to say, "is
on stage", adding, "There she is all by herself, and it's
there where she finds peace".
"In the life of a singer", she declares, "it's not
all triumphs and happy memories; there are days when you have to
go out there when it's the last thing you feel like doing. You also
have to smile when your heart is elsewhere due to some unhappy event,
and you just have to keep it to yourself. Then there's the fatigue
that you have to forget about because the red curtain still has
to rise. It doesn't matter if you have a desperate heart when you
have to sing about joy; it doesn't matter if you're scared to death
when the lights go on".
 Such
is Mireille, a heart that sings, a heart that sheds tears... but
above all, a heart that loves. Her father Roger, who died in 1985,
and her manager Johnny Stark, who left this world in 1989, would
both be so proud. Mireille continues to sing after 31 years, with
the help of her sister Monique, who never leaves her side, her assistant
Yvonne, and her faith in God.
After
thirty-one years, the heart of Mireille continues to enchant the
globe.
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