AccuRadio Song Of The Day-Jiji

Artist:Jiji
Song:Le Chevalier
Album:Ultra Chicks Volume 6: Vous Dansez Mademoiselle




Here's an example of how goofy the record business can be. The year is 1967. The place is France. Yeye is very popular. I think Yeye is the lost music of the 60s. Record companies were constantly looking for pretty girls that they could turn into pop stars. In this case, Decca Records found a girl. They spent a lot of time and money turning her into Jiji. And then she only recorded one EP. Her real name was Nadia Voyevoda. She was brought to Decca Records by her boyfriend Robert Gretch. Gretch was unknown at the time but in the 70s he recorded some jazz guitar albums. Veteran composer Raymond Legrand was brought in to produce. Fans may be familiar with his son Michel Legrand. Raymond Legrand led his own orchestra and worked with Maurice Chevalier. He called her Jiji. Decca took her to famed hairdressers and dress designers to remake her image. They did photo shoots. They had her appear with race car drivers. They sent her to Brussels to record. She recorded three songs including Le Chevalier which was written by Gretch. The EP was released and I guess when it wasn't an immediate success, Decca lost interest on Jiji and that was it. You can get Le Chevalier on this Ultra Chicks various artists CD. So what happened to Nadia. She joined the group Blue Grass Flingou 37 1/2. They recorded an EP in 1968. I think Nadia joined the group after that. It looks like she moved to the US and she may have worked briefly with The Bee Gees. It doesn't look like anything came of that. Jiji looks and sounds OK. I don't know why Decca lost interest in her. Here's a video of Le Chavalier by Jiji. Most of the info about Jiji is from the French blog La Scala Retrouvee.