“How pretty Marianne was”: when Michel Delpech sings about a certain idea of France… and of the Revolution

Written on the corner of a table in 1972, the hit still gets people dancing at Bastille Day balls.
By Anne Crignon
Michel Delpech sings “Marianne” ©AGIP/BRIDGEMAN - MONTAGE LE NOUVEL OBS
But who is this Marianne who has been turning heads for half a century? There are those who know, having listened attentively to the lyrics. Others remember a refrain, a woman's first name, and a walk in Paris. Enough to imagine that this is, in a very classic way, a tribute by Michel Delpech to his first love, unless it is to a passerby, as in Baudelaire ( "A Flash, Then the Night" ), in lacquer...
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