Nicknamed the "Tragédienne de la chanson", Louise-Marie Damien, known as Damia, was born in Paris on December 5, 1889. A street child, she ran away from home to escape reform school and applied for roles at the Théâtre du Châtelet and La Cigale. She took acting lessons and replaced Mistinguett in the revue La Valse chaloupée with Max Dearly, at the Savoy in London in 1909. Noticed by Fréhel's husband, Robert Hollard dit Roberty, Damia toured Parisian venues, dressed in black, at La Gaîté-Montparnasse, Casino de Paris, Bobino and L'Européen. After the First World War, when she sang for the soldiers, she made the acquaintance of the dancer Loïe Fuller, with whom she toured and starred in her film Le Lys de la vie (1920), before embarking on a love affair with the architect Eileen Gray. Late in 1927, the singer recorded her first 78-tours for Odéon, then Pathé and Columbia, where she scored a number of hits, including Lucien Boyer's "Les Goélands" (1929), "C'est mon gigolo " and "Le Grand frisé " (1930), "Mon matelot " (1932) and "Sombre dimanche" (1936), the French adaptation of a Hungarian lament that was banned as suicidal, and later covered by Billie Holiday under the title "Gloomy Monday". The "Tragédienne de la chanson", as she was already known, continued her film career and, after playing the Marseillaise in Abel Gance's Napoléon in 1927, went on to star in Henri Diamant-Berger's Tu m'oublieras (1930) and Sola (1931), Julien Duvivier's La Tête d'un homme (1933), Sacha Guitry's Les Perles de la couronne (1937) and, in 1956, as a gypsy in Jean Delannoy's Notre-Dame de Paris. Her popularity declined after the Second World War. After a recital at Pleyel in 1949, the singer known for her posture, with arms crossed or resting against her chest, went on tour in Japan. In 1954, she performed at the Olympia after a debutante named Jacques Brel, before retiring from the stage. In 1963, the Académie Charles-Cros awarded her the compilation Les Belles Années du Music-Hall. Rejected at the end of her career, then admired by the intelligentsia, Damia died after an accidental fall in the Paris metro on January 30, 1978, at the age of 88.
