Acting

Corinne Hermès

Corinne Hermès (born Corinne Bondeaux; 16 November 1961) is a French singer. She represented Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest 1983 where she won with "Si la vie est cadeau" ("If life is a gift"), which brought the Grand Duchy its fifth and hitherto final victory. Corinne's career began in 1974 when she won a singing contest in Roquebrune-sur-Argens. Five years later, during the recording of her single La ville où je vis / Le blouson gris, the composer and producer Bernard Estardy heard her voice and offered her the leading female role in his upcoming musical comedy, 36 Front populaire, where she would have appeared alongside Julien Clerc. A double album of songs from the musical was released, but the musical was never staged for political considerations – the satirical jabs at a left-wing government were ill-timed given the centre-right government in France of the time. In 1983, Corinne was selected internally by RTL to represent Luxembourg in the 28th Eurovision Song Contest, held in Munich, Germany. Her song, Si la vie est cadeau, composed by Jean-Pierre Millers and with lyrics from Alain Garcia, was performed last on the night and received 142 points, with maximum points from 6 competitors. This was enough to bring Luxembourg their fifth and final victory to date, with a slender margin of only 6 points over the runner-up, Israel's Ofra Haza. This victory tied Luxembourg with France for the most number of wins, until Ireland overtook both in the mid-90s. It was the twelfth French language song in 28 editions to win, but since, only two Francophone entries have won. Her winning song spent nine weeks in the French top 10, peaking at No. 4 a week after the contest, but other than a short spell in the top 20 in Sweden and Switzerland, it was the first Eurovision winner since the early 1960s to not achieve notable commercial success in another country, despite also having recorded versions in both German and English.