ZIZI was TOP -- talkin' about ZIZI JEANMAIRE and her Serge Gainsbourg song "MERDE A L'AMOUR"

Merde!

Zizi Jeanmaire has swooped the planet. She did lead a long and colorful life. Here's that Music Hall number that is so frisky and decadent about how LOVE can be SHIT.

Before he was boning Brigitte Bardot and Jane Birkin, Serge suited Zizi just fine. There's a compilation CD that features TWO full albums of Gainsbourg's songs. One might argue (go ahead) that it was Zizi who was Gainsbourg's most notable muse. While both Bardot and Birkin gasped that "Je T'aime: Non Plus" song with him, Zizi most certainly sang more of his songs. So perhaps, did the unlikely Serge fan Petula Clark. 

The French had a fondness for gamins of all ages -- short-haired fireballs from Edith Piaf to Leslie Caron. Probably the most versatile and talented was Zizi. She was a first-rate dancer as well as singer. Although not as well known in America, she did dance on stage in "Can-Can" and in such film as "Hans Christian Andersen" and "Anything Goes." Mostly she stayed in Europe and appeared in ballets.

Renée Marcelle Jeanmaire (April 29 1924 - July 17 2020 was her given name, but she noted, "“When I was little my mother called me ‘mon Jésus’ which transformed into ‘mon Zizi." OK. And maybe Zsa Zsa Gabor's mother thought of her little girl as "mon Moses?" (The Gabor sisters were allegedly Jewish, but I am TRYING not to digress). She became a top rated ballerina in the late 40's (thanks to the coaching of her husband Roland Petit) and gained international acclaim for her London performance in the title role of "Carmen." That's the ballet version, not the opera. The show even came to Broadway, where she would return via "The Girl in Pink Tights" (1954) and ultimately her own one-woman show "Zizi" (1964), which got her an appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" and "Hollywood Palace."   Here's ballet's greatest Carmen with her husband, who doesn't look too petit, does he?

She continued to perform through the 70's, and was a darling of the fashion world thanks to her use of Yves St. Laurent clothing and costumes. Though she sang so many Serge Gainsbourg songs, and made many albums, she still considered herself primarily a dancer ... ballet and in cabaret.  She worked through the decades, with her last TV role coming in 1991 in "La Bele au bois dormant." She appeared on French variety shows for another decade or so, including "Champs-Elysees" in 1989 and "The Ou Cafe" 2008. For more about her life, and assuming you can read French, consult her 2008 autobiography: 'Et le Souvenir Que Je Garde au Coeur."

The was Zsa Zsa and there was Zizi. What else competes? ZZ Top? Zzzzzzz.