Megumi Satsu

Biography

Megumi Satsu (Japanese: 薩 めぐみ, 14 February 1948, Sapporo, Japan – 18 October 2010, Paris) was a French-Japanese singer.

Life and career

Megumi Satsu released a few singles in Japan early in her career and then moved to France at the end of the seventies. She was discovered by Jacques Prévert who wrote an album of new songs especially for her. Some additional albums were recorded in the following years with the collaboration of some of the most famous French writers; Roland Topor, Jean Baudrillard, William Cliff and Frédéric Mitterrand (who was the Minister of Culture in France under Nicolas Sarkozy's presidency).
These recordings were known that they are released in collaboration with musicians like Serge Perathoner or Patrick Vasori. With her alternative repertoire, her expressionist interpretation and her charismatic personality, Mégumi became the icon of an alternative underground generation and the muse of modists who saw in her the new Marlène Dietrich with an Asian touch.
She had the opportunity to sing some French poems written by the famous writer and poet Jacques Prévert. Just a few years before dying, Prévert saw Satsu on TV; he was fascinated by her voice and her personality. He told his wife that Satsu would be perfect for interpreting some of his unedited texts. Prévert's wife contacted Megumi Satsu after her husband died and she took on the project.
Megumi Satsu was a friend of Jean Baudrillard, the famous French sociologist. He also wrote two songs for her, "Motel Suicide" and "Lifting Zodiacal".
Roland Topor was captivated too by this "lady in black" wearing strange hats. She knows how to use her mysterious look. He wrote two songs, "Monte dans mon Ambulance" et "Je m'aime".
Megumi Satsu mostly performed in French, though she did record some songs in Japanese and English. Megumi Satsu was also inspired by the 1930s, such as interpreting Bertold Brecht in French.