page_title: Eugénie Buffet
section_title: Career in music
hierarchical_section_title: Eugénie Buffet / Career in music
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: Affiche pour le Concert des Ambassadeurs. Planche 22 du "Les Maîtres de l'Affiche&#160;: publication mensuelle contenant la reproduction des plus belles affiches illustrées des grands artistes, français et étrangers", éditée par L'Imprimerie Chaix, Premier Volume, Paris, 1896.
context_page_description: Eugénie Buffet was a French singer who rose to fame in France just prior to World War I. She has been called one of the first, if not the first, performer of the chanson réaliste genre. She became a national sensation in France, performing in the fashionable cafés-concerts of Paris as well as embarking on both national and international tours. Her biggest success is said to be her performance of the song "La Sérénade du Pavé", written by Jean Varney in 1895. She was also known to perform in the street for charity in the poorer areas of Paris – work for which she was awarded the Légion d'honneur.
context_section_description: While in Paris, Buffet became involved in right-wing politics; she attended one of the founding rallies of the Ligue des Patriotes and sang "La Marseillaise" for the nationalists. As a result, she became the darling of such anti-Dreyfusards as Paul Déroulède.
  In 1892 Buffet attended a performance at Le Chat Noir (the Black Cat) by the cabaret singer Aristide Bruant; Buffet found herself moved by his performance and approached him with the idea of her portraying one of the poor and unfortunate girls of whom Bruant would often sing. Buffet had spent a short time in the Prison Saint-Lazare which had put her into direct contact with women of such description, and she was also said to have followed prostitutes on their rounds at night in order to better emulate their dress and demeanor in her own performances.
  Buffet would combine these experiences to create her famous performances as la pierreuse (the streetwalker) and she debuted her character in an 1882 performance at La Cigale, a famous nightclub in the Quartier Pigalle of Paris. During performances Buffet wore a tattered apron and red scarf, a common costume of prostitutes at the time.
  Soon Buffet became a national celebrity – she performed at such famous cafés-concerts as the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Montparnasse, the Théâtre de la Gaîté-Rochechouart, and Les Ambassadeurs. She also sang in less conventional locations such as the streets of the poorer neighbourhoods of Paris, and even at coal mines, in order to raise money for the poor and homeless. Buffet also performed daily at the Exposition Universelle of 1900, a world's fair held in Paris.
  In the early 1900s Buffet tried her hand at managing her own cafés-concerts: From 1902–1903 Buffet ran a cabaret in Montmartre called the Cabaret de la Purée (Down-on-Your-Luck Cabaret) and later in 1903 she ran an establishment called Folies-Pigalle (Pigalle Follies) which was closed down that same year by the police because it was "a meeting-place for right-wing enemies of the regime."
  In addition to performing in Paris, Buffet toured and performed for soldiers during World War I, she performed at the Royal Palace of Brussels and in the early 1920s she toured the United States, Morocco and the Antilles.
  The film score of the 1931 Jean Renoir film La Chienne included a turn-of-the-century recording of Buffet singing "Sois bonne ô ma belle inconnue" (Be good oh my beautiful unknown).
caption: Eugénie Buffet at Les Ambassadeurs in 1896, by artist Lucien Métivet
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