American country legend Loretta Lynn dies at 90
Country music icon and pioneer, singer Loretta Lynn, here during a concert on March 17, 2016, in Austin, Texas, USA.
© Rich Fury/Invision/AP - Rich Fury
Text by: RFI Follow
2 mins
The death of a country music icon.
Loretta Lynn was 90 years old.
Over a decades-long career, she wrote and sang songs inspired by her own life.
That of a poor little girl who has reached the top.
A story like America adores them.
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"
Coal miner's daughter
"
, the coal miner's daughter.
This is the most famous song by Loretta Lynn, born Loretta Webb on April 14, 1932, and died on Tuesday October 4 at the age of 90.
She recounts her life as a little girl born during the Great Depression in a cabin clinging to a hill in Kentucky, reports our correspondent in Washington,
Guillaume Naudin
.
The icon of American country song had become famous for her lyrics relaying the problems encountered by women and long ignored by society.
She grew up without electricity before leaving school at 14, to marry at 15 to Oliver Vanetta, whose life she shared for 50 years, until his death in 1996. He is older, willingly fickle and carried on the illegal alcohol of which he is an occasional trafficker.
A first hit in 1960
At 19, she already had four children and it was hearing her sing for them that her husband bought her a guitar for 17 dollars and encouraged her to become a professional singer.
Shortly after, the couple also welcomes twins.
She has time to be a grandmother before really becoming famous at 30.
She formed her own band, called Loretta and the Trailblazers, and began performing in bars before recording her first hit, "
I'm a Honky Tonk Girl
," in 1960.
She is the first woman to be honored by the Academy of Country Music.
The self-taught singer draws inspiration for her lyrics from her own experiences as a young bride and the turmoil of her romantic relationship.
Defense of birth control
“
Most songwriters were writing about falling in love, breaking up and being alone
,” she told the
Wall Street Journal
in 2016. “
The female perspective I was describing was new.
»
She connects the albums and the tours and multiplies the appearances in popular television programs where she sometimes plays her own role.
Her autobiography is adapted for the cinema and wins the Oscar for best actress to Sissy Spacek, who plays her.
Decorated with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama, Loretta Lynn defended contraception in a song called "
The Pill
" while the middle of the country is largely conservative.
In 2005, she was again awarded a Grammy Award for a record produced by rocker Jack White.
His last studio album, the fiftieth, was released last year.
(With AFP)
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