Eugénie Buffet

Eugénie Buffet
Eugénie Buffet in 1933
Background information
Born	1866 Tlemcen, French Algeria
Origin	Paris, France
Died	1934 (aged 67–68)
Genres	chanson réaliste torch songs
Occupation(s)	singer, actress
Associated acts	Aristide Bruant

Eugénie Buffet (1866–1934) was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first, if not the first, performer of the chanson réaliste (realist song) genre. She became a national sensation in France, performing in the fashionable cafés-concerts of Paris as well as embarking on both national and international tours. Her biggest success is said to be her performance of the song "La Sérénade du Pavé" (Sidewalk Serenade), written by Jean Varney in 1895. She was also known to perform in the street for charity in the poorer areas of Paris – work for which she was awarded the Légion d'honneur.

Born Marie Buffet in Tlemcen, Algeria in 1866 (in an area that was then known as French Algeria) Eugénie Buffet was the daughter of a seamstress and a soldier. At the age of only 6 months, her father died in a military hospital in Oran; as a result her family was quite poor.

At the age of 17, Buffet started acting. She struggled in her early years and was living in near poverty; she had moved to Marseilles in order to perform, but she was not very successful at first and was said to have been "booed and hissed off of the stage". She was worked mainly in the cafés-concerts of Marseilles, until 1886 when she became the mistress of comte Guillaume d'Oilliamson. The wealthy French count brought Buffet with him to Paris to show off to his friends. Buffet went from "near starvation" to living a fashionable Parisian life.

While in Paris, Buffet became involved in right-wing politics; she attended one of the founding rallies of the Ligue des Patriotes and sang "La Marseillaise" for the nationalists. As a result, she became the darling of such anti-Dreyfusards as Paul Déroulède.