Jeanne-Paule Marie " Jeannine " Deckers (October 17, 1933 - March 29, 1985), better known as Soeur Sourire ("Sister Smile", often credited as The Singing Nun in English-speaking countries), is a Belgian singer-songwriter and originally a member of the Dominican Order in Belgium as Sister Luc- Gabrielle . He gained world fame in 1963 with the release of the French-language song "Dominique", which topped the US Billboard Hot 100 and other charts.
Video The Singing Nun
Initial years
He was born Jeanne Paule Deckers in Laeken in 1933, the daughter of a tissue store owner, and educated at a Catholic school in Brussels. She is an attractive Girl Driver who bought her first guitar to play in the Driver Night event. Though she was thinking of becoming a nun even as a young woman, she trained and then worked as a teacher.
In September 1959 he entered the Dominican Sisters of Dominic of the Virgin Mary of Fichermont, headquartered in the city of Waterloo, where he took the name of Sister Luc-Gabrielle.
Maps The Singing Nun
Music career
While at the monastery, Deckers wrote, sang and sang his own songs, which were so well received by fellow nuns and visitors that his religious superiors encouraged him to record an album, which visitors could buy and retreat at the monastery.
In 1961, the album was recorded in Brussels at Philips; the single "Dominique" became an international hit, and in 1962 the album sold nearly two million copies. The Dominican Sister became an international celebrity, with the stage name Soeur Sourire ("Sister Smile"). She gave the concert and appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show on January 5, 1964. "Dominique" was the first, and remains the only, Belgian song to be the number one hit in the United States.
Deckers finds it difficult to meet his publicity as a "true Girl Scout", always happy and in a good mood. "I was never allowed to be depressed," Deckers recalled in 1979. "The superior mother used to censor my songs and picked up the verses I wrote when I felt sad."
In 1963, he was sent to study theology at the University of Louvain. She likes the life of the student, if not her college. She reconnected with a friend from her youth, Annie PÃÆ'Ã… © cher, with whom she slowly developed a very close relationship.
Fame effects and more music career
In 1965, Debbie Reynolds starred in The Singing Nun , a loose biographical film based on Deckers. Deckers reportedly rejected the film as "fictional".
Deckers did not get much of this international fame, and his second album, His Joys, Her Songs , did not receive much attention and disappeared almost immediately after it was released. Most of his earnings are actually taken by Philips and his producers, while others automatically go to his religious congregation, which earns at least $ 100,000 in royalties.
Drawn between two worlds and increasingly disagreeing with the Catholic Church, he abandoned the monastery in 1966, to pursue life as a lay Dominic. He then reports that his departure resulted from a clash of personalities with his superiors, that he had been forced out of the monastery and left no wish of his own. He still considers himself a nun, praying several times daily, and maintaining a simple and holy lifestyle.
After he left the monastery, his record company required him to submit the initial professional name of "Soeur Sourire" and "The Singing Nun". He attempted to continue his musical career under the name "Luc Dominique" and pursue social work.
Increasingly frustrated at what he regarded as the failure of the Catholic Church to fully implement the Vatican II reforms he released a song in 1967 defending the use of contraception called "Glory be to God for the Golden Pill." This led to intervention by the Catholic hierarchy in Montreal, Quebec , Canada, which resulted in one of his concerts being canceled.
Deckers released an album titled I'm Not a Star in Heaven . His repertoire consists of religious songs and songs for children. Despite his renewed musical emphasis, Deckers's career failed to prosper. He blamed the lack of album success for not being able to use the names he knew, saying that "no one knows who it is". He had a nervous breakdown followed by two years of psychotherapy.
Relationship with Annie PÃÆ'Â cher
He moved in with Annie PÃÆ'Ã… © cher (1944-1985), whom he first met while working as an advisor at a beach camp in his youth. Annie, who was 11 years younger than her, became very attached to her, a sentiment that Deckers did not reply to at the time. Nevertheless, PÃÆ'Ã… © cher visited Deckers regularly in the monastery, went to live near Deckers dwellings when sent to study at Leuven, and even fell into deep depression and tried to commit suicide when it seemed that Deckers would be sent to a state mission.
After leaving the monastery, Deckers and PÃÆ'Ã… © cher start sharing apartments; Deckers accuses him of telling 22-year-old Annie that she does not want a sexual relationship with him, saying she wants them to live together only as friends. However, Deckers' diary shows that, although she rejects her feelings of affinity with younger women, they fall in love and lesbian relationships between them come several years after they started living together.
Next year
In 1973, Deckers was involved with Catholic Charismatic Renewal. Cardinal Suenens requested that he write songs for the movement, and this led to a brief but successful return to the stage, including a visit to Pittsburgh, where he sang before several thousand people. Under the name "Sister Smile", he released another album in 1979, which he described as containing "honest religious songs" and commented that the album would help listeners "know who I really am." In the late 1970s, the Belgian government claimed that he owed a $ 63,000 tax. Deckers denied that royalties from his record were given to the convent and therefore he was not responsible for any personal income tax payments. He then visited the former monastery and former production house, Philips. If the sisters gave him what they considered his share (helping him to get his apartment in Wavre, provided he stopped defiling the congregation and signed the document for the balance of all accounts), Philips, who had received 95% of revenue, did nothing. Deckers is experiencing severe financial problems. In 1982, he tried, once again as Soeur Sourire, to score a hit with the disco synthesizer version "Dominique", but this last attempt to continue singing career failed. In addition to other financial worries, the autism center for children started by Annie PÃÆ'Ã… © cher had to close the door for financial reasons in 1982. After the Deckers were trying to earn a living by giving lessons in music and religion.
Death
Citing their financial difficulties in a note, he and Annie PÃÆ'Ã… © cher committed suicide by taking overdose of barbiturates and alcohol on March 29, 1985. In their suicide note, Deckers and PÃÆ'Ã… © cher stated that they did not give up their beliefs and hoped buried together after church funeral. They were buried together on April 4, 1985 at the Cheremont Cemetery in Wavre, Walloon Brabant, the city where they died. The inscription on their tombstone reads "J'ai vu voler son ÃÆ' Â ¢ I/A travers les nuages" (English: "I saw his soul fly through the clouds").
Theatrical description
In 1996, The Tragic and Horrible Life of the Singing Nun aired outside Broadway at Grove Street Playhouse. The drama, written and directed by Blair Fell, is loosely based on events in the lives of Deckers. Production features several music numbers and follows the life of a renamed Jeanine Fou character from entering the monastery until her death with PÃÆ'Ã… © cher. The New York Times review stated that the game "flooded much of its comic mileage from incompatibility, and deliberately did not taste, paired its holy arrangements and its jealous Jacardeline Susann dialogue... In a desperate dress in frivolity, Mr. Fell provides his own matching equivalent of the tragic catharsis. "The Catholic League speaks openly against production.
In 2006, the musical version of the Fell drama was staged during the New York Musical Theater Festival, produced by George DeMarco and David Gerard, both of which produced production in 1996. Laura Daniel plays Jeanine and receives the NYMF Award for Exceptional Individual Performance. Music features music and lyrics by Andy Monroe and a book by Fell (who also contributes additional lyrics); directed by Michael Schiralli.
Movies
The Singing Nun is a 1966 American semi-biography film about the life of Deckers. It stars Debbie Reynolds in the title role. The film also stars Ricardo MontalbÃÆ'¡n, Agnes Moorehead, Katharine Ross, Chad Everett, and Ed Sullivan as herself.
In 2009, Soeur Sourire , a French-Belgian biography film, starring CÃÆ'Â © cile de France as Deckers, was released.
References
Further reading
- Luc Maddelein & amp; Leen van den Berg, Soeur Sourire. Zie me graag , Leuven, Davidsfonds, 2005, ISBN 90-5826-330-4
- Chadwick, D.A.: "The Singing Nun Story: The Life and Death of Soeur Sourire" 2010, ISBNÃ, 1-4537-1096-5
- Florence Delaporte: Soeur Sourire: BrÃÆ' Â »lÃÆ' Â © e aux feux de la rampe (1996), ISBNÃ, 978-2259184120
External links
- Soeur Sourire on IMDb
- The Singing Nun on AllMusic
- Soeur Sourire discography in Discogs
- The Singing Nun in the Search of the Mausoleum
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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