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Debbie de Coudreaux is an American multi dimensional artist of world class. Her talent encompassed every single facet and aspect of showbiz performances. She is an international singer, a headliner and a super star at the legendary Moulin Rouge in Paris, a Broadway sparkling star, a most innovative and visionary recording artist, a model, a spokeswoman, a writer, a mesmerizing dancer, a story teller, and social celebrity. There are only two American stars in the history of Parisian music-hall and variety shows who have been called “La Reine du Music Hall” (The Queen of the Music Hall) and “La Reine Des Nuits Parisiennes” (Queen of the Nights of Paris): Josephine Baker in 1928 when she performed at “Le Casino de Paris” side by side of Mistinguett and Maurice Chevalier, and Debbie de Coudreaux during her 8 year performance at “Le Moulin Rouge”.

Debbie de Coudreaux’s career is rich with experience, individual creativity, avant-garde artistic approach and a personal style. This was evidenced in her performances and leading roles in “Grand Hotel” which was produced in London and on Broadway, in the Broadway production of “Show Boat”, and most certainly in her recent CD “Have a Little Paris on Me”.

Photo caption: Debbie said:” Patrick Kelly was one of my favorite designers. I wore this dress during an appearance on Irish television.”

Debbie just released a most unique CD titled” "Have a Little Paris on Me". This CD is unique for many reasons, for it reflects the personal experiences Debbie had in Paris and sheds light on an American woman who encountered and lived the various facets and aspects of the ever exciting, evolving, tumultuous, romantic, sentimental, tragicomic, melodramatic, satiric, cynical, intellectual, sensual, sensuous, existentialist artistic, professional and esthetical life, days and nights of the City of Lights. And this American woman was Debbie who lived and worked 9 years in Paris. In addition to the human touch and personal warmth, Debbie added to her CD, the style in which the songs were arranged, composed and delivered is most innovative and artistically daring. Debbie selected tunes which perfectly depict the Parisian experience and blended them with an astonishing variety of sounds, a sultry Jazz quasi Bluesy humanistic evocations, an up beat tempo moderated by lyricism and a Broadway flair.

So, what we got here is a superb American artist singing in French her personal emotions and intimate feelings in unison with American standards nostalgia, a New Orleans Bourbon Street soaring and an earthy sensuality Debbie nourished within her flesh, her body, her bones, her mind and her visions. The CD is a carousel of music in light, rhythmic souvenirs, elegant musicality and a silky voice belonging to a woman who flirted with destiny and captured the thoughts and wishes of all those who met her or listen to her voice on the roads of life. The CD “Have a Little Paris on Me” is more than a collection of recorded tunes. It is a musical journey…an escapade for those who quest for fantasies and dare to confront life absurdity, surprises, joy, expectation, tenderness, nonchalance and tragic-comedy.

de Coudreaux’s “Have a Little Paris on Me” is absolutely different from all and any contemporary French Cabaret recordings. It is one hundred per cent Parisian, One hundred per cent pure musical. One hundred percent pure musical gold. Debbie de Coudreaux is clever. She is a visionary, for she knew that while preserving the originality and authenticity of the French ballads and the song of “Les Annees Folles de Paris”, the spirit and the charm of the cozy “Boites de Nuits” of old Paris, its poets, adventurers, gigolos, musicians, artists, troubadours, “canailles” and existentialists, she had to embrace the needs and changes of new treatments and tempos of modern music.

Thus, she kept the original cache of the Parisian ballad and incorporated a New Orleans-1940 Blues up beat blended with sultry Louis Armstrong-Duke Ellington jazzy touch. And this added magic to the magic of her voice. You will tremendously enjoy her songs…beautiful songs like “Bonjour, Paris”, “I Love Paris” or “April in Paris”. What a delight! What a beauty! What a style! What you get in this CD is a trilogy of absolutely magnificent musical arrangements, superb orchestrations and sparkling voice.”

“Debbie de Coudreaux’s valentine to a city she obviously adores, Have a Little Paris on Me, exudes a joie de vivre that won’t quit. Through songs, de Coudreaux tells the story of her love affair with Paris and she has the theatre chops to do it with élan and authority. Showcasing her stage background with chatty tunes like Speaking French and Feathers, de Coudreaux infuses her song lyrics with dramatic fire, unwrapping the romance, joy, humor and angst so identified with the City of Love. Notable is her pairing of Paris Blues and Paris Is a Lonely Town, plumbing the depths of loneliness, while Not Exactly Paris reveals most charmingly that even if it’s not exactly Paris, a special love affair has a similar intoxication. Le Temps is a lilting yet relentless drive to savor life, and the aching love song, La Chanson des Vieux Amants, brims with heartbreak. Using different collaborators for orchestrations and arrangements provides de Coudreaux with an intoxicating cocktail of old and new standards and theatre songs, all with the French twist.

It’s a smooth and varied flow from start to finish, evidenced early with a quick shot of An American in Paris bubbling into the heady delight of Bonjour Paris! I Love Paris mixes and mingles with April in Paris, turning on a dime from nostalgia to swing, and back again, an intriguing arrangement by Shelly Markham. Have a Little Paris on Me by Francesca Blumenthal could have inspired the title of de Coudreaux’s CD. It’s an irresistible tune reflecting the seductiveness of this most beguiling of cities, and Debbie de Coudreaux’s debut CD is a sparkling way to pay a visit.”

And the funny David Finkle of the Village Voice suggested that: “Because she spent eight years exhibiting her talents (singing talents, that is) at Paris' Moulin Rouge, she think's it's a nice idea to "Have a Little Paris on Me." Perhaps with this show, she'll help repair current French-American relations. She has the pizzazz to do so.”

Music and Magic…