Sheila (singer)
Sheila is the
stage name of a
French pop singer whose real name is
Annie (Any) 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 song.
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.
In 1977 she came back as
Sheila and B. Devotion (in some countries records were released under the name "Sheila B. Devotion") and changed her style to
disco. She also started singing in
English. She again enjoyed considerable success, with hits like "Spacer", "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's music albums
