Yet Ophélie's childhood was no bed of roses - for, after rocketing to the top of the charts in the 70's with his hit single "Oh Lady Mary", Ophélie's father abandoned his wife and children to seek fame and fortune in America. 3-year-old Ophélie and her brother, Michael, were left to grew up fatherless in Paris. However, this would not deter young Ophélie from trying to follow in her father's footsteps.

Indeed, young Ophélie would go on to launch her own career at an extremely early age, recording her debut single (a duet entitled "Bob et Ophélie") at the tender age of 6. By the age of 12 Ophélie had already gone solo, returning to the studio to record a second single entitled "Poil de carotte. In 1990 the leggy blonde 16-year-old would also try her hand at modelling, but in spite of her success on the catwalk Ophélie stuck to her singing career, recording three more singles on the Carrère label between 1992 and 1994.  

Ophélie was due to return to the studio in 1994 to begin work on her debut album, but a chance encounter with the Artist Formerly Known As Prince would suddenly change her plans. The impetuous young singer promptly cancelled the release date of her album and jetted out to the States to join the American funk star in Minneapolis. Ophélie would return to France later that same year, however, when she landed a job as a television presenter with the M6 channel, fronting two chart music programmes, "Hit Machine" and "Dance Machine".

Encouraged by the enormous success of these two shows, the directors at M6 decided to give Ophélie her own show - the result was the launch of the programme "Coming Next", on which Ophélie gave viewers her personal style tips and predicted forthcoming trends. The young TV presenter's career continued to go from strength to strength and in 1996 she was given a new show, "Ophélie Street" - a programme on which she interviewed celebrities from the film and music world.

But Ophélie was not content to spend her evenings interviewing musicians about their forthcoming albums - she was itching to get her own singing career up and running. So in 1995 the young singer returned to the studio to record a new single, "Dieu m'a donné la foi" (God Gave me Faith). This sultry, white-soul number would prove to be a major hit, selling over 250,000 copies, and Ms. Winter soon looked set to achieve her ambition of becoming an international star.

A few months later Ophélie returned to the studio to begin work on her album "No Soucy", which would be recorded with a team of top producers in London, Brussels, Paris and Los Angeles. "No Soucy", infused with a moody soul and r'n'b feel, featured 12 dance-oriented tracks, 5 of which were recorded in English. Ophélie enlisted the aid of her brother, Michael, on her French numbers and hired an all-star recording Dream Team to produce the English songs (including Soulshok & Karlin, renowned for their work with Madonna and Toni Braxton, and Siedah Garret, who collaborated with Michael Jackson on his best-selling album "Bad"). Ophélie's album also featured a duet with the American rap star Coolio, who provided guest vocals on the track "Keep on the Red Light".

Following the success of "No Soucy", the team set to work on an all-English version of the album, entitled "Soon", which was aimed at the American market. 

In 1996 the multi-talented Ms. Winter went on to launch an acting career, landing a lead role in Claude Lelouch's film "Hommes femmes mode d'emploi" (in which she co-starred with the notorious ex-politician Bernard Tapie). In the spring of 97 Ophélie made another screen appearance, starring in Philippe Muyl's comic film "Tout doit disparaître". Then in May of that year she attended the Cannes film festival with French director Jerôme Cornuau to present his film "Bouge" (a film in which Ms. Winter got to play herself ).

During the summer of '97 Ophélie rocketed back into the charts with a new single, a sultry soul-inspired ballad entitled "Rien que pour lui". Three successful singles followed in quick succession, amassing a staggering 1 million copies in sales. By this stage of her career, Ophélie had become an idol for a whole generation of teenage music fans, her outspokenness and her trendy slang way of talking winning her a committed following of fans. Her romance with the well-known French rap star MC Solaar only served to increase her popularity (and his!)

In June '98 Ophélie turned her attention to her acting career once more, starring in Jérôme Cornau's film "Folle d'elle" opposite Jean-Marc Barr (the hero of Luc Besson's famous movie "Le Grand Bleu".

One month later Ophélie was back in the music news with a brand new single entitled "Je marche à l'envers" - the first release from her new album "Privacy" (released on August 28). As was the case with her first album, "Privacy" proved to be an instant hit with the French public and Ophélie regained her status as the most mediatised female French star of the 90s. Ophélie, who wrote all the lyrics on her new album herself, managed to put together a crack production team, uniting the skills of producer Anders "Bag" Bagge (Ace of Base), composers Shelly Peiken and Guy Roche (renowned for their work with Brandy and Aalyah) and Madonna's remixer Niven Garland. In general, the album tapped into the same musical vein that had catapulted Ophélie to fame - i.e. saccharine melodies, soul rhythms and bilingual lyrics!

An international version of the album was released in September and Ophélie went on to prove a big hit throughout Europe, winning new audiences in Quebec and Japan as well. Hogging the n°1 spot in the album charts in Switzerland, Belgium, Germany and Sweden, it was no wonder that a German music magazine dubbed her "the most exciting woman in the world in 1999"!

Boosted by an apparently endless supply of energy and exuberance, Ophélie keeps a firm control over all aspects of her career. It looks as if by sheer dint of professionalism and enthusiasm, this star will stay at the zenith of the French firmament for a long while to come!

April 99