MARIANNE FAITHFULL

Marianne Evelyn Gabriel Faithfull (29 December 1946 – 30 January 2025) was an English singer and actress. She achieved popularity in the 1960s with the release of her UK top 5 single “As Tears Go By”, and became one of the leading female artists of the British Invasion in the United States.

Born in Hampstead, London, Faithfull began her career in 1964 after attending a party for the Rolling Stones, where she was discovered by Andrew Loog Oldham. Her 1965 debut studio album Marianne Faithfull, released simultaneously with her studio album Come My Way, was a huge success and was followed by further albums on Decca Records. From 1966 to 1970 she had a highly publicised romantic relationship with Mick Jagger. Her popularity was enhanced by film roles such as those in I’ll Never Forget What’s’isname (1967), The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) and Hamlet (1969). Her popularity was overshadowed by personal problems in the 1970s, when she became anorexic, homeless and addicted to heroin.

Faithfull was noted for her distinctive melodic, high-register vocals during her 1960s musical career. Her voice was altered by severe laryngitis and persistent drug abuse during the 1970s, which left her sounding permanently raspy, cracked and lower in pitch. The new sound was praised as “whisky soaked” by some critics and was seen as having helped to capture the raw emotions expressed in her music.

After a long absence, Faithfull made a musical comeback in 1979 with the release of a critically acclaimed seventh studio album, Broken English. The album was a commercial success and marked a resurgence of her musical career. Broken English earned Faithfull a nomination for a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance and is regarded as her “definitive recording”. She followed this with a series of studio albums including Dangerous Acquaintances (1981), A Child’s Adventure (1983) and Strange Weather (1987). Faithfull wrote three books about her life: Faithfull: An Autobiography (1994), Memories, Dreams & Reflections (2007) and Marianne Faithfull: A Life on Record (2014).

Faithfull received the World Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2009 Women’s World Awards, and in 2011 she was made a Commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France.