Born a pied-noir in Oran, Algeria, Marie-France feminized without taking external hormones.She was in Paris for the revolution of May 1968. She appeared at the Alcazar in Paris in 1969, first as a Marilyn Monroe impersonator, and performed there until 1987. She completed her transition in London in 1985.
She was active for gay rights in FHAR (front homosexuel d'action révolutionnaire) and Les Gazolines, as a member of which she was interviewed by the magazine Recherches for their “Trois Milliards de pervers” issue in 1973.
Alain Kan named a song for her in 1976. Her 1977 debut single was almost punk. She has acted or sung songs in 16 films, both arthouse and mainstream: she was with Johnny Halliday in La Gamine, 1991, and with Catherine Deneuve in Belle Maman, 1999. She also acted on stage. She worked with Marc Almond (with whom she sang Édith Piaf), Hélène Hazera and David Bowie.She published her autobiography in 2003. In an interview with Paris-Match she challenged the words 'travesti' and 'travelo', and also 'transsexuel'.
"je hais le mot de « transsexuel » : pour parler de quelqu’un, on n’a pas à préciser sa sexualité. On ne dit pas « l’hétérosexuel Untel », la « lesbienne Unetelle ». On n’a pas à dire « le transsexuel Marie France », sans même avoir la courtoisie de mettre le terme au féminin ». "(I hate the word 'transsexuel'. To talk about someone, you need not specify their sexuality. One does not say 'the heterosexual So-and-so; the lesbian So-and-so. One doesn't say 'the transsexual Marie-France' without even the courtesy of using the feminine 'transsexuelle".)In 2008 she put out a garage-rock album, and in 2009 she did a show and an album in tribute to Brigitte Bardot.
Film-maker and writer, Marguerite Duras, said of Marie-France: “It is impossible to not be troubled by her. Everyone. Women as well as men”.
- Marie-France Garcia. Elle était une fois. Paris: Denoël, 356 pp 2003.
- Jérôme Reybaud. "Le « travesti égérie des années Palace », ou comment, en évoquant la chanteuse Marie France, le quotidien Libération révèle les contours réels de sa propre pensée.". Lalala, Avril 2004. www.lalalala.org/letravestiegerie.html.
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