BrusselsLife with Annie Cordy
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Who doesn't know of Tata Yoyo? And the Vicar's Maid? Those lively characters and many others, Annie Cordy recounts their adventures to us with verve and dynamism. A little, colourful woman, Annie Cordy is typical of Brussels.
She went into music from her salad days and, very quickly things followed after each other, radio links, contests and soon beginnings of the "boeuf sur le toit" in Brussels... Immediately noticed by the artistic director of the Lido who hired her as leader of the review, she decamped in Paris in 1950.
She was not to remain for long in that world of rhinestones and spangles and was to sign a contract with Pathé Marconi in 1952 that enabled her to record her first successes. In parallel with her career as a singer, Annie Cordy has always worn the sock and buskin. A path that was to cross that of Luis Mariano, Sacha Guitry, Bourvil, Jean Richard, René Clément, Darry Cowl, Charles Bronson and Jean Gabin. But Annie Cordy is also the theatre or roles for television. One also remembers her vivacity in "Hello Dolly" and her performance in the musical whose title seems to summarise her life, "Nini La Chance".
In 2005, King Albert II made her a Baroness but for her public she remains "Nini". Funny, tender and sometimes even moving, Annie Cordy incarnates a certain idea of Belgium like nobody else.
