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Josephine Baker
From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist
Josephine Baker (1906 to 1975) was an American-born French dancer, singer and actress, and a spy for the French Resistance. She was born as Freda Josephine McDonald in St. Louis, Missouri, the daughter of vaudeville performers. Her career took place mainly in Europe, for the most part in France. In 1927 she was the first Black woman to play the lead in a major film, the French silent film Siren of the Tropics.
Music and breakthrough
In Paris she was a star of the revues of the Folies Bergère. Her performance in Un vent de folie in 1927 caused an uproar. Her costume of a short skirt of artificial bananas and a pearl necklace became a symbol of the Jazz Age and the 1920s. Artists and intellectuals called her the Black Venus and the Creole Goddess. After her marriage to the French industrialist Jean Lion in 1937 she took French nationality. She sang J'ai deux amours, a song about her two loves, her country and Paris. Later came albums such as Encores Américaines from 1951 and Paris mes amours from 1959.
Influence
During the Second World War she helped the French Resistance and worked with British and American intelligence, which only became known in 2020, when French documents were made public. She received, among other honours, the Croix de Guerre and was made a knight of the Legion of Honour by Charles de Gaulle. She refused to perform for segregated audiences in the United States and played a role in the civil rights movement. She adopted twelve children, her Rainbow Tribe. In 2021 she became the first Black woman to be inducted into the Panthéon in Paris.
Listening
Discography
Studio albums
- 1951Encores Américaines
- 1953Joséphine Baker
- 1959Paris mes amours
- 1968Olympia - Palmarès des chansons
- 2007Odette Toulemonde (soundtrack)
In School of Rock
The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.
- After Hours: Session 1NL Reader