Linda de Suza was a successful variety singer, but her 1984 autobiography La Valise en Carton ("The Cardboard Suitcase"), a testimony like few others on Portuguese migration to France, became her greatest success with more than 2 million copies sold. De Suza died at the age of 74 on Wednesday, December 28. Her agent, Fabien Lecœuvre, and her son, Joao Lança, reported that that morning, she had been transferred to Gisors (Normandy) for respiratory failure and that she was positive for Covid-19.
Teolinda Joaquina de Sousa Lança was born on February 22, 1948, in Beringel, in the southern region of Alentejo, Portugal. The story of her life touched hearts with its miserable beginnings (in a soup kitchen) with a tyrannical family (alcoholic father, ruthless mother) of eight children, before being sent to a boarding school run by nuns in Lisbon. In those days, the country was governed by António de Oliveira Salazar's moral order, the Estado Novo. In July 1968, when she became a mother at the age of 20, no kindness was shown to her. "My girlfriends were forbidden from talking to me. I was the shame of the hamlet," she explained.
Her son and this "cardboard suitcase" were all she brought with her when she immigrated illegally to France in 1969 and settled in the Paris region in 1973. Besides the shantytown of Ivry-sur-Seine (southeastern Paris suburbs) that awaited her, there was a job at a canning factory in Kremlin-Bicêtre (also outside of the city) and then housekeeping in hotels in the capital. But there was also the hope of another life when she began singing at Chez Louisette, the guinguette (popular drinking and dancing establishments) at the flea market in Saint-Ouen (Seine-Saint-Denis), for "a bowl of soup," as she described it. She sang fados by Amalia Rodrigues (1920-1999). Her role model was Dalida (1933-1987).
De Suza was discovered there by composer Alex Alstone, a collaborator of Tino Rossi and Maurice Chevalier, and then by lyricist Vline Buggy, who contributed to her first songs. She signed a recording contract with the producer Claude Carrère, the man who launched French pop singer Sheila. Jean-Claude Petit arranged her first bilingual 45 rpm single titled, "Un Portugais/Um Português," in 1978. The lyrics laid out her shared experience: "Two cardboard suitcases on the land of France/A Portuguese man has just left his Portugal/Like so many others he has come to try his luck." She got an invitation to popular French host Michel Drucker's television show as a result of the song's success.
Declining popularity
Her rising star persisted and allowed her, according to an expression of hers, to go "from the vacuum cleaner to the microphone" and from "chambermaid to woman of the world." A series of successes followed in both languages: "Uma Moça Chorava" ("A Girl Was Crying"), "Tiroli-Tirola," "Un Enfant Peut Faire Chanter le Monde" ("A Child Can Make the World Sing"), "Toi, Mon Amour Caché" ("You, My Hidden Love") and "Chuvinha (Petite pluie)." Not to mention, in 1979, the double tribute homage that is "Amália (Ne Laisse pas Mourir le Fado)" ("Amalia (Don't let the Fado Die))," along with the B-side "Les Œillets Rouges" ("The Red Carnations") dedicated to those who overthrew the dictatorship in 1974.
In 1983, she appeared at Olympia music venue in Paris for the first time and promoted La Valise en Carton on Michel Drucker's set the following year. Responding to the inevitable backlash, she said, "Of course, some critics have written that my book isn’t a masterpiece. But my life isn’t a masterpiece!"
"Of course, some critics have written that my book isn’t a masterpiece. But my life isn’t a masterpiece!" Linda de Suza
La Valise en Carton even became troublesome for her after a while. First, it was adapted as a comedic musical at the Casino de Paris in 1986 with a libretto by Françoise Dorin and starring de Suza and actor Jean-Pierre Cassel. It only remained on stage for three months. Then it became a television series (script by editor Françoise Verny) in 1988, with Souad Amidou playing the role of the heroine and Irène Papas as her mother. By this time, in spite of Drucker's efforts, her popularity was declining and the changes in her inner circle after her split with Claude Carrère in 1987 did nothing to help. Bitter over the situation, de Suza then published a second book, Je Vide ma Valise ("I Empty My Suitcase," 1988), as a way of settling accounts with the show business world. This went on to be the theme of her future appearances, portraying herself as a victim of scams that left her in dire straights.
De Suza did not release an album of original songs after 1991's Simplement Vivre ("Simply Living"), the prelude to the semi-retirement she broke from 2015 to 2017 to join a nostalgic tour gathering former stars of the variety music days.
The announcement of her death has caused emotional reactions in Portugal and France. "Linda de Suza remains in our memories as an example of determination and loyalty. She was a French icon of Portuguese immigration and therefore an icon of Portugal," said Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa in a statement.
His French counterpart Emmanuel Macron saluted the memory of a "talented singer who built bridges between the country where she began her life and the one where she ended it." He recalled that she "sponsored Portugal when it joined the European Union in 1986." French Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak praised "a unique journey." "She left with her cardboard suitcase to gain her freedom, rising to the height of glory. She had gone through many trials," she tweeted.