| SHEILA (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Sheila is the stage name of a French pop singer whose
real name is Annie Chancel (she is not related to Jacques Chancel,
the TV host). She was born on August 16, 1945 in Créteil. “Sheila”
was the title of her first release, which was a French cover version
of the American hit by Tommy Roe.
Sheila started her musical career in 1962, after being noticed by
Claude Carrère, a French music producer and songwriter. This
collaboration would last actively for over 20 years. It ended
definitely in 1995 with a highly publicized lawsuit.
Sheila had numerous and well-remembered hits in the 1960s and 1970s,
playing the well-behaved young girl image. The first one was
“L’école est finie” (School is over), in 1962.
In the Eight Women movie, Ludivine Sagnier sang her 1963 “Papa t’es
plus dans l’coup” (Daddy, you are not in on it anymore) hit.
Sheila’s music also features prominently in the 1996 French film Une
robe d’été (A Summer Dress). The character Sébastien is a devoted
fan of Sheila, and Sheila’s version of the Sonny & Cher classic,
“Bang Bang,” is featured on the soundtrack.
In 1977 she came back as Sheila and B. Devotion (in some countries
records were released under the name “Sheila B. Devotion”; in others,
under the name “Sheila and Black Devotion”) and changed her style to
disco. She also started singing in English. She again enjoyed
considerable success, with hits like “Spacer” (produced by Chic),
which was later sampled for the song “Crying at the Discothèque” by
Swedish pop group Alcazar, “Love Me Baby” and a “Singin’ in the Rain”
cover.
She ended the collaboration with Carrère at the beginning of the
1980s, and since that time has had problems with keeping her musical
career afloat. Her 1985 show at the Zénith, a large concert hall in
northern Paris, was considered a failure. Although she is still very
popular, having met huge success in concerts held in 1998 and 2002
at the Olympia, she has difficulties releasing commercially viable
albums.
SHEILA (ARTIST BIOGRAPHY)
Anny Chancel (later known as Sheila) was born on
August 16, 1946 in Paris, France. She became a pop/rock star in
France in the 1960s, but her early songs have been denounced as
childish, vapid, fluffy bubblegum music. Although she sang with B.
Devotion (three African-American singers) in some earlier disco
songs in the late 1970s, her crowning achievement is regarded as her
song “Spacer”. This late-1979 song, as well as the other 7 songs on
her 1980 album “King of the World”, were produced by Nile Rodgers
and Bernard Edwards of the Chic Organisation. “Spacer” was popular
in Europe (including in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the
Netherlands) and South Africa, selling 5 million copies worldwide,
but was not a big success in the United States.
The back of the cover to the original “Spacer” single record (which
also included “Don’t Go”) shows Sheila and the Black Devotion on
rollerskates and in concert.
Sheila turned her attention to pop music in the 1980s. A remix of
Sheila’s “Spacer” came out in 1998. |
