MAURANE - starts her comeback and dies at 57

There’s more rain…tears in the eyes of all fans of the great Maurane.  She performed over the weekend for the FIRST TIME in two years…and then was found dead. 

Maurane, qui avait interrompu sa carrière en 2016 à cause de problèmes aux cordes vocales….oh, pardon MOI. Sapristi! Maurane, the Belgian singing star whose career came to a halt in 2016 due to vocal cord issues, only recently returned to the stage. She told her Facebook faithful that she was planning a new album covering the music of Jacque Brel (another Belgie) and planned on a tour in 2019. Over the weekend, she performed her first concert, posting to her fans, “Today, I officially set foot on a stage after more than two years of absence. I will not tell you in what state I am …” 

She was found dead on Monday evening, May 7th, at her home in Schaerbeek, which is outside of Brussels. There was nothing to suggest anything but natural causes, but an autopsy will be performed.

Born Claudine Luypaerts, she appeared in “Starmania” and had her first hit single, ‘Danser’ in 1986. She sang in French, rather than brutal German or repulsive Dutch, which had many thinking she was actually from France.

She did share the stage with many of the great French singers of the era, including Michel Berger and France Gall, and sang a duet with Canada's beautiful Lara Fabian in 2003. Lara wrote: "I'm sitting here in my little white office in Montreal, I do not want to realize you're gone, I can not. I tell myself that you are going to call and shout at me, because we do not see enough…” 

Maurane made about a dozen albums, and was part of the jury of the television show "Nouvelle Star"  in 2012 and 2013. In 2014 she released (the current word would be “dropped”) the album “Overture.” Some time after that, the vocal cord problem kicked in. And after she solved it, she kicked off. As Ringo would tell you, “tomorrow never knows.”

Below is one of Maurane’s most beloved hits, which translates as “On a Bach Prelude.” You’ll instantly recognize the opening notes, which have echoed in so many concert halls, and bounced off the walls of so many elevators when converted into “easy listening” pap. The notes were even copped by Mr. Fisher, for a glittering surprise appearance on “Repent Walpurgis,” an instrumental on the first album by Boko Harum, the rock group that has turned rogue. 

We can see Maurane on YouTube, and we can enjoy her albums. But there could have been so much more, and she could have been thrilling audiences for another dozen years. This star who began in the 80’s, could have lived into her 80’s enjoying life and the benefits befitting someone who shared her talent with the world. Instead, we can only say the recordings are immortal. Maurane: November 12, 1960-May 7, 2018.

Tish, that's FRENCH! "Sur un prélude de Bach" - no Zinfart password, no wheedling parasitic request for a "tip" via Paypal