Patricia Kaas is now officially confirmed as the 2009 French representative in the Moscow Eurovision Song Contest. After many many years that the Big 4 didn’t bother to send a big name in the contest, France, surprises us with a name out of the blue. Patricia Kaas bids to bring the Eurovision glory back to France.

Patricia Kaas Eurovision Song Contest 2009

Here is her bio as posted in wikipedia.org

Kaas is one of the most successful French-speaking singers in the world. Stylistically her music is not classical chanson, but is closer to a mixture of pop music, jazz and chanson. Since the appearance of her debut album Mademoiselle chante… in 1988 Kaas has sold more than 17 million records worldwide. She had her greatest success in, e. g., Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Finland, and Korea with her third album Je te dis vous, which reached 11th and 2nd place in the German’s charts respectively. Kaas is almost constantly on tour internationally. In 2002 Kaas had her film debut in And now… Ladies and Gentlemen beside Jeremy Irons.

Patricia Kaas was born as the youngest of seven children (five boys and two girls) on 5 December 1966 in Forbach, Lorraine, France, near the border of Germany. Her father, Joseph (a miner), was French, and her mother, Irmgard, German. Kaas grew up in Stiring-Wendel, between Forbach and Saarbrücken on the French side of the border. Until the age of six she spoke only a German dialect. Her Franco-German heritage resulted in a constant interest in improving the relationship between the two countries. Her mother encouraged Kaas to become a singer from a very young age. At the age of eight Kaas was already singing songs by Sylvie Vartan, Dalida, Claude François and Mireille Mathieu, but also English-language songs such as New York, New York, at various small events; among others the marriage of her brother. Her first great success came when she received first place at a pop song contest. At her first appearances Kaas was already displaying the throaty, smoky voice that would lead to comparisons with Édith Piaf and Marlene Dietrich. Kaas took her first step into the professional music business at the age of 13, when, with the help of her brother Egon, she signed a contract with the Saarbrücken Club Rumpelkammer. Kaas took the name Pady Pax, after the brass band Pax Majorettes from Stiring-Wendel, of which she and her sister Carine were members, and for seven years appeared with the band Dob’s Lady Killers. At 16 she took a placement with a model agency in Metz. Kaas’ first attempts to break into the music business once and for all initially failed, however; a producer rejected her on the grounds that the world did not need a second Mireille Mathieu. Kaas’ producer at this time was the architect Bernard Schwartz, who would lead her to her first great success.

Source: www.oikotimes.com