Biography
Mathé Altéry is a French singer, born in Paris. She started singing at a young age in Cherbourg, where she quickly acquired the nickname “Nightingale of Cherbourg”. After classical studies she sang as a choir member at the “Theater du Chatelet” in Paris in the operetta “Annie du Far-West”. She won the song contest in Deauville in 1953.
Three years later she represented France at the very first Eurovision Song Contest where she sang the song “Le temps perdu”. Her first album was entitled “Les belles de nuit” and was taken from the film with the same name.
Mathé was successful in the 1950s and 1960s, especially with the series “La série de 13”, thirteen classic melodies from the so-called “Belle Époque”. Also in the 1960s, Altéry was the voice in French dubbing of musical films. She was the French voice of Julie Andrews in “The Sound of Music” and that of Audrey Hepburn in “My fair lady”. She missed a chance to go to Las Vegas and to continue her success there because she wanted to concentrate on her family life.
With the rise of pop music, Mathé Altéry’s success faded somewhat into the background. However, she continued to perform, among others in Canada, South Africa and the Scandinavian countries. In 1970 she sang in the operetta “Bon week-end Conchita” by Roland Arday. In 1988 she performed with Francis Lopez in a show called “Reves de Vienne”. That was also her farewell to the stage.
However, Mathé did not completely disappear from the scene: in the 1990s and early this century she performed extensively in the shows “La chance aux chansons” and “Chanter la vie” by television channel France2.
In 2006 she was knighted as “chevalier de la légion d’honneur” for 57 years of activities for the arts.
