Edith Lefel (November 1963, in Cayenne, French Guiana - 20 January 2003, in… Read Full Bio ↴Edith Lefel (November 1963, in Cayenne, French Guiana - 20 January 2003, in Dreux, France) was a French-based singer

Lefel's mother was from French Guiana and her father from the island of Martinique. She moved with her parents to Martinique when she was three. It was there that she was exposed to the rich musical traditions of the Caribbean. During the 1970s, when Lefel was growing up, creative young artists with Haitian bands were just beginning to create the zouk sound. Groups such as Les Frères Déjean, Le Ska Shah Number One and Tabou Combo drew on a combination of traditional African, Caribbean and European rhythms, including belair, biguine and mazurka, to produce their unique music which became another global phenomenon in the decades following the death of Bob Marley.

In her 14th year, Lefel and her mother left for France, settling in the Saint-Denis suburb of Paris. There she continued her studies in law, occasionally singing with her brother's folk rock group, and, in 1984, launched her career as a professional singer. The turning point in her career came when she met the Maffia band leader Jean-Michel Cambrimol. He invited her to accompany the band on a tour of the French Antilles, and recorded the hit single "My doudou" with her. Lefel's success on that tour led to more offers, including one from Jean-Luc Lazair of Lazair, with whom she recorded the single "Ich Maman". In 1987, she accepted an offer from the famous Martinican group Malavoi, appearing as a chorus singer on their album La case à Lucie. She earned her nickname "la sirène" by singing a song of that title on Malavoi's 1993 album Matebis. During the same period she met the arranger and producer Ronald Rubinel, whom she later married and with whom she had twin sons.

The year after Lefel first appeared with Malavoi she recorded her first solo album, La klé (The Key), which won the Prix de la SACEM for its producer, Georges Debs, in 1988. The album included a duet between Lefel and "Latin Crooner" Ralph Thamar - one of many collaborations Lefel recorded during her career with famous musicians, including Gilles Voyer, Dominique Zorobabel, Jean-Philippe Marthély, Sylviane Cédia and Mario Canonge. She explained to an interviewer for the RFI Musique website that when she hosted a house party she invited the people she loved the most, and she felt there was no reason why a recording session should be any different.

By 1992, Lefel had become well-known throughout the Caribbean and her reputation had spread to Mozambique. In that year she released her second album,Mèci (Thanks), which was honored with the Sacem trophy for the best female singer of the year. Mèci broke records for Afro-Caribbean independent artists, selling in excess of 40,000 units. Her third album Rendez-vous, released in 1996, continued to build her reputation as one of the leading female interpreters of Afro-Caribbean genres.

But that same year Lefel took her career in quite a different direction, with a live recording made at the famed Olympia theater in Paris. In Edith Lefel a l'Olympia, the artist expanded her repertoire to include French and English language material, including some of the Parisian street songs that had been popularized by Edith Piaf. She explained that her parents had listened to Piaf when she was young (along with other classic French-language chanteurs like Jacques Brel and Charles Aznavour), and that she had often imitated Piaf at home for their entertainment. On the evening of the Olympia concert, May 11, 1996, Lefel impressed the audience with her immense talent, supported by her friends Ralph Thamar and Jean-Luc Alger, and her husband and children.

A very attractive woman whose likeness graced the covers of many prominent French magazines, Lefel died at the height of her powers and popularity[1] in January 2003, at only age 39. She died in her sleep. Autopsy results revealed a combination of smoking and birth control pills as the cause of her death. Edith Lefel is buried at Père Lachaise Cemetery.

Contents
[hide] 1 Discography 1.1 Albums

2 References
3 External links

Dites lui
Edith Lefel Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Il faudrait seulement lui dire
Lui dire sans ses bras
Ses baisers, sans son sourire
Je ne vois plus devant moi
De mon monde de silence
Je ressasse nos souvenirs
Bons mauvais, quelle importance
Au moins tu étais dans mes bras

{refrain:}
Comment croire que je l'oublierai
C'est ensemble qu'on devrait vieillir
Dire que l'on n'aura plus cette chance
Dites-lui que je l'aime encore
Encore plus fort

Seule au milieu de la route
Je ne peux plus faire un pas
Sans ta force rien n'est possible
Comment continuer sans toi
Dans ma prison de silence
Je la revois me sourire
Je souffre tant de son absence
Somment continuer sans toi

{au refrain, x4}

Comment croire que je l'oublierai
C'est ensemble qu'on devrait vieillir
Dire que l'on n'aura plus cette chance

Dites-lui que je l'aime encore
Encore plus fort.

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Edith Lefel's song "Dites lui" describe the pain and sadness of losing a loved one. The singer of the song is deeply grieving and struggling to move on from the loss of her lover. She reflects on the memories of their time together and realizes that without him, she is lost and cannot go on. She implores someone to tell him that she still loves him, and loves him even more intensely than before.

The first verse of the song sets the scene of the singer's world without her lover: she sees nothing ahead of her, and is surrounded by silence. The memories of their time together swirl around in her mind and she cannot escape them. The second verse adds to this feeling of desolation, as the singer cannot move forward without her lover's strength and support. She feels trapped in her silence, and longs to be reunited with him. The refrain of the song repeats the message that she wants to send to her lover through someone else. She cannot tell him herself, but she wants him to know that she will never forget him and will always love him.

Line by Line Meaning

Il faudrait seulement lui dire
It's just necessary to tell him

Lui dire sans ses bras
To tell him without his arms

Ses baisers, sans son sourire
His kisses, without his smile

Je ne vois plus devant moi
I no longer see ahead of me

De mon monde de silence
From my world of silence

Je ressasse nos souvenirs
I keep dwelling on our memories

Bons mauvais, quelle importance
Good or bad, what does it matter

Au moins tu étais dans mes bras
At least you were in my arms

Comment croire que je l'oublierai
How to believe that I will forget him

C'est ensemble qu'on devrait vieillir
We should grow old together

Dire que l'on n'aura plus cette chance
To say that we won't have this chance anymore