Sixty years on, the indefatigable Gréco is back centre stage with Je me souviens de tout, an album many a 30-year-old star would be proud of. The album features new material written by the 'crème de la crème' of the French music scene - namely Abd Al Malik, Olivia Ruiz, Maxime Le Forestier, Brigitte Fontaine, Orly Chap, Christophe Miossec, Marie Nimier (with her usual sidekicks Thierry Illouz and Marc Estève), Adrienne Pauly and Valérie Véga. In other words, a brilliant and eclectic guest list combining youth, experience, neo-classical tradition and contemporary quirks.

Mention the word "youth" to Juliette Gréco and she bursts out laughing, "But I've always sung material penned by young songwriters," she insists. And she has a point. Gréco championed songs by Jacques Brel, Guy Béart, Georges Brassens, Léo Ferré and Serge Gainsbourg long before they rose to the dizzy heights of fame. And in Gainsbourg's case, Gréco gave the young songwriter's career a much-needed boost a few years before he wrote La Javanaise for her. Back in 2003, when she released Aimez-vous les uns les autres ou bien disparaissez (her first album on Polydor/Universal), Gréco opened her arms to the young generation and Je me souviens de tout is the proof she has not closed them since.

Gréco managed to record the entire album in just two sessions lasting two days apiece. After sixty years performing in front of banks of studio equipment, one presumes this might have wrought some sort of revolution in her world. But the 'grande dame' of French chanson lets out a little laugh, insisting "I'm always at home wherever I record!" As for the experience of recording in the comfort of her own home with a cast of musical A-listers, Gréco simply says "It was a completely natural way of working. We weren't just spare parts thrown together haphazardly. We functioned together like organs in a body. We were like one big family."

Gréco smiles at the idea that anyone should find it remarkable that a singer should be capable of recording a series of new songs with such speed and efficiency. "I get myself into a state of intense concentration very naturally and very quickly," she says, "A few seconds before I step out on stage, I turn into the other Juliette Gréco. I put myself at the service of what I'm doing - and it's impossible to distract me from the task at hand!"

Gréco brings her extraordinary concentration, fervour and grace to bear on her new album, touching in the first person on various episodes in a destiny that can truly be described as exceptional. Miossec, Olivia Ruiz, Orly Chap and Marie Nimier have put words into the singer's mouth that she might well have written for herself, their poignant lyrics expressing the fleetingness of time, the weight of memory, the joys of old age. "Getting older?" quips Gréco, "It sheds a different light on things - and there's so much more love!"

Love has been the overriding theme of Gréco's songs as well as her personal life, the singer having caused her fair share of scandal with love affairs in her day. At 82, Gréco remains a free spirit in every sense of the word, never more true to herself than when she sings Marie Nimier and Thierry Illouz's lyrics: "Je n’ai jamais été/Douée pour le passé (…) Je suis pour que tout change/Et pour tout renverser" ("I've never been good at the past… I'm all for everything changing/ turning everything upside down.")

When word got out that she was about to make a new album, Gréco was inundated with songs sent to her by songwriting celebrities as well as total newcomers to the profession. The singer relied entirely on her own instincts when making her choices, favouring neither well-known names or affiliations with record labels. "I know the moment I first set eyes on the lyrics," she says, "Before Gérard has even come up with the first note of a melody, I can already hear whether I'll be able to sing a song or not."   

Gréco is a woman who appears to function on gut feeling and personal affinity, establishing close ties with those she chooses to work with. She does not hide her admiration and affection for the French rap/slam star Abd Al Malik (whose last two albums Jouannest appeared on and composed for). Gréco refers to Abd Al Malik as a "writer" and he returns the favour, hailing her as a "true rappeuse." Gréco also admits to feeling "a sisterly bond" with the chanteuses of the new generation such as Olivia Ruiz, Adrienne Pauly and Orly Chap. And she says she feels a special affection for Marie Nimier, having known her father the late French novelist Roger Nimier. 

At the beginning of June, the 'grande dame' of French chanson is set to take to the stage at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, in Paris, for a limited series of concerts. Judging by the material on Je me souviens de tout, this is set to be a memorable occasion for all involved.