Camille (French singer)

Early life and education

Camille grew up in Paris, where her father, Hervé Dalmais, worked as a musician and her mother taught English. As a teen, she took ballet lessons and fell for bossa nova and American musicals. After earning a literature baccalaureate at the Lycée International de Saint Germain-en-Laye, she studied at Sciences Po Paris. At sixteen, she sang her first original piece, "Un Homme Déserté," at a wedding. In the early 2000s, while singing in Paris jazz clubs, she made her film debut in Les Morsures de l'aube and also worked on its soundtrack, contributing the song "La Vie la Nuit." Thanks to her mother, she speaks fluent English alongside French.

Career

In early 2002, Camille signed with Virgin Records and released her debut album Le Sac des Filles. In 2004, she began collaborating with Marc Collin's band Nouvelle Vague, providing vocals on songs including "Too Drunk to Fuck", "In a Manner of Speaking", "The Guns of Brixton", and "Making Plans for Nigel" for their first album. Her 2005 album Le Fil, produced with English producer MaJiKer, featured a continuous drone throughout and used only voice and a limited set of instruments; it achieved gold certification.

The single "Ta Douleur" placed 26th in Australia's Triple J Hottest 100 in 2006. In June 2007, she performed Benjamin Britten's A Ceremony of Carols and the a cappella work God is sound (The 12 World Prayers) at L'église Saint-Eustache in Paris. Also in 2007, she contributed the song "Le Festin" to the Pixar film Ratatouille and provided the European French dub voice for the character Colette. Her album Music Hole, released on 7 April 2008 and again produced with MaJiKer, was recorded and mixed by Valgeir Sigurðsson; the first single "Gospel with No Lord" was released for download on 11 February 2008 alongside "Money Note".

"Ta douleur" was featured on Saturday Night Live in an October 2010 sketch. She contributed to Nouvelle Vague's 2010 album Couleurs sur Paris on the track "Putain putain" and appeared on Jérôme Van Den Hole's self-titled album on "Debout". Her song "Pour que l'amour me quitte" was covered by Italian singer Elisa on her 2010 acoustic album Ivy with Giorgia.