Barbara Weldens
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Barbara Weldens (born Barbara Jacquinot, 17 April 1982[1] – 19 July 2017) was a French singer-songwriter. After releasing her first studio album, Le grand H de l'homme (Man with a capital M), in February 2017, she died on stage the following July while performing at a festival.
Weldens was from Hérault and grew up in the circus,[2] where she learned juggling, acrobatics and trapeze.[3] She trained as a pianist at the conservatory in Sète, and earned a licence in musicology from the Paul Valéry University, Montpellier III in 2004.[4] In 2015 she won the Tremplin Découverte Chanson de Pause Guitare and in 2016 the Pic d'Or de la Chanson at Tarbes,[3][4] the young talent award at the 2016 Jacques Brel festival[2][5] and the prix révélation scène of the Académie Charles-Cros.[6][7]
Inspired by Jacques Brel, Weldens was a singer in the chanson réaliste tradition.[6] She often performed in a trio with Barbara Hammadi on piano and Marion Diaques on violin.[3] On 3 February 2017, with Hammadi and Diaques, she released her first studio album, Le grand H de l'homme (Man with a capital M);[2][5][7] one reviewer wrote of it as "a coherent, profound, [and] powerful whole",[8] and another spoke of the precision and balance of her lyrics.[3]
