Anna Marly

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Anna Jurjewna Marly ( Russian Анна Юрьевна Марли ; born October 30, 1917 in Petrograd , † February 15, 2006 in Palmer ) was a French singer and songwriter from Russia . Their fame is based on the song Chant des Partisans , which became the anthem of resistance during the German occupation of France .

Childhood and youth

Anna Marly was born as Anna Jurjewna Betulinskaja ( Russian Анна Юрьевна Бетулинская ) in Petrograd in 1917 . Her father was an aristocrat and was shot in the turmoil of the October Revolution . Her mother fled to Finland with her, her sister and a nanny before they settled on the French Riviera, where there were a large number of Russian emigrants .

As a teenager she received music lessons from Prokofiev , at the age of 16 she was a dancer of the Russian ballet in Monte Carlo . A year later Anna went to Paris .

Paris period (1934–1940)

At the age of almost 17, Anna got an engagement in the Shéhérazade cabaret on Rue Liége in Paris. There she celebrated her first successes, performing with a guitar to her own compositions. According to her own admission, she took her stage name Marly from the Paris telephone directory. In 1937 she was elected Vice- Miss Russia by the Russian émigré community in Paris and took part in the Miss Europe election at the end of the year under the name Anna Betoulinski . During a performance in the Netherlands , she met the Dutch diplomat Baron van Doorn, whom she married in 1938. After the occupation of France by German troops in June 1940, both fled to London via Spain and Portugal .

Time in exile in England

Anna Marly made contact with the representatives of free France in London. She became a member of the FFL , in whose cafeteria she worked and also performed. She also worked on the BBC's French radio program , which was broadcast to France. After the Kesselschlacht near Smolensk she sang a Russian song in 1942. The man of letters Joseph Kessel and his nephew Maurice Druon wrote a French text about it. This was the hour of birth of the Chant des Partisans , which - sent to France through the air - became the anthem of the Resistance . During her exile, her marriage to Baron van Doorn broke up.

Life after the war

In 1945 Anna Marly, meanwhile a celebrity, returned to France. As an ambassador for the chanson, she performed in South America and Africa. In Brazil she met her second husband, the Russian Yuri Smirnow. She wrote over 300 songs. The song La complainte du partisan was interpreted by Leonard Cohen , Yves Montand and Joan Baez and included in the music canon of French schools.

Marly received numerous honors, for example in 1985 she received the Order of the Legion of Honor from President François Mitterrand . In 1959 she settled in the United States with her second husband and was granted American citizenship in 1965. In 1980 she published her biography under the title Troubadour of the Resistance . After the death of her husband in 2000, she moved to Alaska, where she died six years later.

According to her own admission, she was most pleased that her song became known in Russia . So, she said, the song found its way back home.

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Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Douglas Martin: Anna Marly, 88, Dies; Inspired French Resistance in Song. In: The New York Times , March 13, 2006.
personal data
SURNAME Marly, Anna
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Marli, Anna Jurjewna; Betulinskaya, Anna Jurjewna
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Russian-French singer
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Petrograd
DATE OF DEATH February 15, 2006
Place of death Palmer (Alaska)