While the post contains videos of Dorothée rapping and singing with Ray Charles, what really interests me is Dorothée au Pays des Chansons ("Dorothée in the Land of Songs"), a made-for-TV Wizard of Oz/Alice in Wonderland-style musical Dorothée starred in in 1981. Here is the French Wiki.
Came across this video of French personality Dorothée (real name: Frédérique Hoschedé), singing "Les Petits Ewoks" over footage from the 1984 Star Wars francise spin-off The Ewok Adventure (now called "Caravan of Courage").
Dorothée began her career in the 70s as a TV and film star, appearing in films by Truffaut, Resnais and Robert Enrico. She eventually moved away from film, concentrating on television and an successful singing career, hosting variety shows for children, including Club Dorothée, which ran for nearly a decade (roughly 87-97). While there are French fan sites for the show and for Dorothée herself, and clips on Youtube, there is little information availible in English. I assume that the video excerpts on Youtube are sourced from Club Dorothée, clips which seem obsessed with cartoon and comic media. Here is a music video from 1985 (before Club Dorothée, I think). It is illustrated, but I can't attribute an artist. There are several European pop videos from the 80s and early 90s where a similar format is employed, inserting video of the singer into comic panels. The story in Vive les vacances/"Gimme a Break" seems to concern some sort of traffic jam/ bad vacation-type situation:
Here's a song where Dorothée sings with The Smurfs (a Belgian creation turned American cartoon then translated into French?). One day I should write about a Czech (I need to make sure that's right, don't quote me) CD my friend bought at the flea market with Smurf parodies of The Fugees' cover of "Killing Me Softly" and other 90s hits). Anyway--this video employs a mix of comic panels and animation.
It looks like Dorothée actually recorded several Smurf/Schtroumpf-related songs, released as 7" records. Searches around the 'net and video sites will lead to more Dorothée content. She's still a presense in France, with a more conventional singing career. Many clips from Club Dorothée on Youtube link to French versions of many American Saturday morning cartoon shows, though it's hard to prove that she sang any of them, most feature several singers.
I haven't been particularly successful in finding many Dorothée songs/albums, despite her vast discography. I imagine that her fame in France keeps the Euro-pop mp3 blogs from posting her material, as many of the download links I've found are dead. Will update if I discover more.
