"She had this rare gift of connecting people and cultures": defender of French song and Brazilian music, Niçoise Miran has died

" We have our whole life to amuse ourselves. We have our whole death to rest. " Throughout her thousand lives, Françoise Miran had only this Philosophy , sung so joyfully by her friend Georges Moustaki.

An essential figure in Nice's culture, the fire thief died at the age of 85.

Founder of the Nice Jazz Off, the Brazilian festival of Cimiez, Juan-les-Pins and Ollioules (Var), as well as the cultural association Les Alizés, she was at the same time employed in the pharmaceutical industry, singer, composer, dancer, actress ⁽¹⁾ , director, writer, journalist, programmer, traveler, activist... and mother of three children.

Not one of those ghosts roaming the world, as is often the case with artist parents. No, a very much alive, very present mother, carrying her children around to the rhythm of her temper, crisscrossing festivals and late-night bars populated by sacred monsters.

Friend of Moustaki, Ferré, Nougaro...

"My childhood evenings were jam sessions with Nougaro, Higelin, Moustaki, Ferré and Nilda Fernández. She was so deeply in love with French song. In Paris, it was also the Brazilian nocturnes of Gal Costa, Luiz Antonio and Rolando Faria" , from suave tunes to wild rumbas.

A perfume that Patrice Miran, the eldest, an opposition municipal councilor in Vence, carefully preserves.

Reached by telephone, it is with a trembling voice that he first describes this "wonderful, immense woman," to whom he owes his life and, more importantly, his taste for life.

So quickly, the fire dries the tears, chases away death, and the mother returns: "She was insatiably curious, overflowing with culture, boundless energy. She had a societal ideal. In Nice, she could have felt cramped, as culture was too often the poor child of municipal politics. But she always returned because she understood that it was a global city. Because she also had this rare gift of connecting people and cultures, building bridges between Nice, Havana, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro."

Bringing Brazil to the French Riviera

This is how in 1984, Françoise Miran transformed the Cimiez arenas into a little Brazil , just before the fall of the dictatorship, creating a space of saving emancipation, heralding a new era: " It was madness! " she confided to Nice-Matin in 2016. We had organized the arrival of 80 musicians [including the emblematic Gilberto Gil]. As many dancers from the samba school. Conferences, exhibitions, etc. The success was enormous ."

To the point of overshadowing the jazz festival, causing the premature end of the beautiful Latin interlude... which was exported all the better to Juan-les-Pins and then to Ollioules.

A fine legacy from a "stainless adventurer" (3), as her friends like the journalist Rémy Kolpa Kopoul for the adjective and Georges Moustaki for the noun nicknamed her.

In his twilight years, the octogenarian still danced every morning before going swimming. Then it was lunch with friends, always accompanied by a glass of red wine and a song.

Of these moments of life, only a sweet memory remains today, celebrated this Tuesday, July 15 at 3:30 p.m. at the crematorium in Colomars, chemin du Roguez. A musical tribute, imbued with nostalgia, tenderness, an untranslatable feeling so dear to Brazilians, transforming pain into beauty: saudade.

(1) She played modest roles; like in Les félins, alongside Alain Delon or even Est-ce bien sensible? by Georges Lautner.

(2) In many of her shows, she played Barbara, Kosma, Ferré, Bruant, Aragon, Prévert, Brassens.

(3) Title of his autobiography published by L'Harmattan.