France's first rock singer, Gélou was born Geneviève Cognet in Lille on August 10, 1937. Attracted to acting as a teenager, she took drama classes at the Lille Conservatoire, where she won first prize, and then at the Cours Simon in Paris. In a bet with friends, she entered and won the Numbers of Tomorrow singing competition organized by Europe No. 1 radio. Signed to the Barclay label, she recorded her first successful EP with the title "Œil de verre, jambe de bois" (1957), followed two years later by "Java partout". Although she wanted to change her repertoire and move into rock, the label refused, forcing her to find another label, BAM, which released her next five EPs. The first woman to sing rock at the Parisian cabaret Le Tabarin in 1961 went on to record a series of originals and adaptations. The former included "Salomé" (1961), Boris Vian and Henri Salvador's "Donne, donne, donne" on Rockin' Gélou (1961) and "Viens twister!" (1962), while the latter included "Délivre-moi" (based on Otis Williams' "Unchain My Heart" ) and "Baby It's You " by the Shirelles. After appearing at the Olympia with Dany Logan's Les Pirates and touring with Gilbert Bécaud and Vince Taylor, Gélou returned to her first love, theater, and appeared in the films Les Livreurs (Jean Girault, 1961) and C'est pas moi, c'est l'autre (Jean Boyer, 1962), where, credited to Gelot, she played the twister Miss Betty. In 1966, she returned to song under her real name, Geneviève Cognet, for a few recordings with Vogue, then with Epic, where her song "Mer du Nord " (1967) won the Paul Fort poetry prize at the Paris brasserie La Closerie des Lilas. She went on to write for other artists. Aged 76, Gélou died following heart surgery in Neuilly-sur-Seine on November 23, 2014.
