Vanessa was born in Paris on December 22nd 1972. Her parents, both directors of the same mirror production business, brought their daughter up in a peaceful and happy environment and the young girl developed a passion for singing and dancing at an early age. Vanessa's uncle, the French actor Didier Pain, soon recognised his niece's vocal talent and encouraged Vanessa's parents to let her perform on the television show "L'Ecole des fans". This famous children's talent contest, hosted by Jacques Martin, involved contestants performing a well-known French song and then receiving votes phoned in by TV viewers.

On May 3rd 1980 7-year-old Vanessa got her first taste of showbiz when she appeared on the show, singing Philippe Chatel's hit "Emilie Jolie". Vanessa proved a great success, but her parents were not keen on their daughter becoming a child prodigy, preferring that she should continue leading a tranquil existence in their new home on the banks of the river Marne. However, the following year they did allow Vanessa to travel to Italy take part in the Children's Eurovision Song Contest held in Turin. Vanessa was not among that year's winners but taking part in the contest did give her useful musical experience for her later career.

In 1985 Vanessa's uncle, Didier Pain, managed to persuade her parents to let her record a début single, entitled "La magie des surprises-parties". (This single was never actually released commercially, however). Around this time Didier Pain also invited his niece along to a Paris studio, where his song-writing friends Etienne Roda-Gil and Franck Langolff were working on the musical arrangements for the actress Sophie Marceau's forthcoming single. When the pair heard young Vanessa's voice, they were so impressed that they offered to write a song for her. Thus it was that Roda-Gil (famous for his work with French singing star Julien Clerc) and Langolff (who wrote a great deal of material for Renaud) teamed up to write the smash hit single "Joe le taxi".

"Joe le taxi", released on April 27th 1987, proved incredibly popular with the French public. Indeed, by August 1st the single had soared to the top of the French Top 50 and by the end of that summer it had already sold over 1 million copies.

15-year-old Vanessa Paradis was catapulted to the forefront of the French music scene almost overnight and the young teenager soon found herself with a fully-fledged career on her hands. Her uncle Didier Pain became her manager and Vanessa's parents kept a close eye on her career to protect the young teenager from exploitation, blocking all her earnings in a bank account until she was 18.

Yet the teenage singer's lightning rise to fame was not appreciated by everyone. In spite of Vanessa Paradis's phenomenal record sales, the French music press judged the singer harshly, criticising her pouting Lolita image and portraying her as an empty-headed bimbo. Vanessa was not proving too popular with teenage music fans either - her contemporaries found her irritating and made fun of her frail voice.

Anti-Vanessa Paradis feelings reached new heights when the singer was invited to perform at the 1988 edition of MIDEM (the annual record industry fair held in Cannes). When Vanessa appeared on stage at the closing award ceremony and launched into her set the audience erupted in a series of loud boos and shouts of "Get off stage !" Greatly to her credit, the young singer bravely faced the jeering crowd and carried on right to the end of her song. Ironically, when Vanessa re-appeared on stage at the end of the award ceremony to perform a second song the audience erupted into applause.

Dismayed at the amount of hostile criticism directed towards her, Vanessa considered stopping her singing career altogether. Her manager and her parents suggested she should take a short break from the music scene and reflect as to whether she wished to continue in this difficult profession. But, fortunately, it was right at this very moment that Vanessa’s single "Joe le taxi" rocketed straight to the top of the British charts. The young French singer immediately headed off to London where she received an extremely enthusiastic welcome from both the British media and music fans. This was a rare feat for a French singer. Indeed since the late great Serge Gainsbourg had rocketed to the top of the British charts 20 years earlier, no French singer had proved themselves capable of equalling his cross-Channel popularity. Encouraged by her new-found success, Vanessa Paradis vowed to carry on her career and prove herself in her homeland.

Following the international success of "Joe le taxi", Etienne Roda-Gil and Frank Langolff set to work writing material for Vanessa’s début album "M & J". The album, released in 1988, spawned a whole string of hit singles which remained at the top of the French charts for several months. (The song "Marilyn et John" even went on to become a smash hit in Brazil). However, Vanessa Paradis’s album sales failed to equal those of two new up-and-coming French female stars, Elsa and Patricia Kaas, who both released albums that year.

In September 1988 Vanessa took a short break from the music scene to return to school. In spite of her new-found success as a pop star the young singer wished to pass her ‘baccalauréat’ just like her classmates.

In November 1989 Vanessa Paradis launched her acting career, landing a lead role in Jean-Claude Brisseau’s film "Noce Blanche". Vanessa played the part of a young pupil whose teacher, 30 years her senior, falls madly in love with her. Despite problems during the film shoot, Vanessa turned in a good performance, determined to prove to her detractors that she was more than a pretty face. Much to the young actress’s satisfaction, critics praised her film début when "Noce Blanche" appeared on general release and the public turned out in force, eager to see how the young singer would fare on the big screen.

The following year Vanessa Paradis won two prestigious awards for her performance in "Noce Blanche". On February 21st 1990 the young actress was presented with the "Prix Romy Schneider" and less than a month later, on March 3rd, she was hailed as the "Best New French Actress" at the "César" awards (the equivalent of the French Oscars). In the course of the award ceremony the young star took to the stage amidst general applause to perform Serge Gainsbourg’s classic "La javanaise" with several other singers. Gainsbourg, present in the audience that night, was greatly impressed by the young singer’s talent.

Indeed, the legendary singer/songwriter soon contacted Vanessa Paradis, offering to write a series of songs for her. Vanessa, more than eager to move away from sugary little pop songs and try her hand at something completely different, jumped at the chance of meeting Gainsbourg. Accompanied by her manager Didier Pain and songwriter Franck Langolff, Vanessa visited Gainsbourg in his famous home in la rue de Verneuil in Paris. Vanessa Paradis and Serge Gainsbourg hit it off immediately, Gainsbourg nicknaming the young singer "Lolycéenne" ("Lolita schoolgirl"). Gainsbourg and Langolff soon set to work writing new material for Vanessa.

This material was to provide the base for Vanessa Paradis's second album, "Variations sur le même T'aime", which was released on May 14th 1990. This second album proved to be a much more mature work than "M & J", Vanessa shedding her naive Lolita image for a much more modern approach. Indeed, the first single release, "Tandem", was accompanied by a trendy video shot by director Jean Baptiste Mondino who was very much in vogue in the music and fashion world at the time. On her second album Vanessa also performed in English for the very first time, recording an innovative cover of Lou Reed's classic "Walk on the Wild Side".

The album "Variations sur le même T'aime" surprised both the singer's fans and her harshest critics. Many of Vanessa Paradis's detractors were forced to revise their opinion of her and, largely thanks to this album, Vanessa went on to triumph at the "Victoires de la Musique" awards where she was hailed as "Best Female Artist of 1990".

In 1991 the singer branched out in a new direction, replacing the top model Inès de la Fressange as the face of Chanel's perfume "Coco". Jean-Paul Goude made a memorable advert for the perfume, filming Vanessa as a bird of paradise hanging upside down from a trapeze in a gilded cage.

From the very beginning of her career Vanessa had dreamt of working with an American producer, and later that year the singer's dream finally came true. She flew out to the States with her manager/uncle Didier Pain, moved into a flat in New York and lived there for the next six months. It was during her stay in New York that Vanessa met the American singer Lenny Kravitz who went on to write an entire album for her in English. Vanessa Paradis's third album, entitled simply "Vanessa", was released in October 1992. Heavily influenced by the sound of the late 60's and 70's, "Vanessa" marked another radical change of image for the young singer who adopted a new 70's look.

When the album "Vanessa" was released in France, however, it met with a fairly hostile reception from music critics. The French press had never given Vanessa Paradis a particularly easy time - and an album entirely recorded in English was not about to change their minds !

Following the release of her third album, 20-year-old Vanessa Paradis embarked upon her first major concert tour in the spring of 93. The tour, which would include no less than 70 dates, kicked off on March 3rd in Deauville where the young singer performed to an audience of 15,000 teenage fans.

After several other dates in the French provinces Vanessa Paradis arrived in the capital where she performed at L'Olympia, the legendary Paris music-hall (between March 30th and April 11th). Later that month the singer was invited to appear at the Printemps de Bourges Festival.

In 1994 Vanessa's first live album hit French record stores. Recorded during the singer's run at L'Olympia, the album featured Vanessa's cover version of Jacques Dutronc's hit "Les cactus", which was chosen as the first single release.

Later that year Vanessa took part in a fund-raising concert for the "Restos du coeur" (a charity set up by the late French comedian Coluche to provide a meals-on-wheels service for the homeless). Vanessa had in fact been involved with the "Restos du coeur" since 1993 when she began performing concerts with a number of other French stars and donating all the proceeds to the charity.

At the end of 94 Vanessa turned her attention to acting once more, starring in the second film of her career. In Jean Backer's "Elisa" she played the role of a young girl who sets out on a quest for her missing father (Gérard Depardieu). "Elisa" met with general acclaim when it went on general release on February 15th 1995.

The highlight of Vanessa's career in 95, apart from the release of Elisa was the special acoustic concert the singer recorded for the French pay-TV channel Canal +. Performing in front of a small audience in an intimate studio atmosphere, Vanessa performed 16 tracks from her own albums and numerous cover versions of other international stars' hits (including The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Serge Gainsbourg, Lou Reed, Lenny Kravitz and the French group Les Rita Mitsouko). The concert, originally broadcast on Canal + in May, was given a second airing on the national channel France 2 in September 96. (Vanessa Paradis had long been patron of the children's charity "Rêve", which had been set up by the French journalist Patrick Chêne, and she generously donated all the proceeds from the concert broadcast - 750,000 francs in total - to the charity).  

1996 would also prove to be a memorable year in Vanessa Paradis's career. Indeed, the young singer was invited to perform at the opening ceremony of the legendary Cannes Film Festival in May. Vanessa performed a special tribute to actress Jeanne Moreau (who was the president of that year's jury) singing "Le tourbillon", taken from François Truffaut's film "Jules et Jim". The young singer's performance brought tears to Jeanne Moreau's eyes and the actress, greatly moved, joined in and performed "Le Tourbillon" as a duet with Vanessa.

Jeanne Moreau and Vanessa Paradis were to partner each other again several months later when they co-starred in the film "Un amour de sorcière". The film (made by René Manzor, brother of French singing star Francis Lalanne) would go on general release in the spring of 97.

When shooting finished Vanessa went back into the studio with singer Maxime Le Forestier, who had invited her to record the duet "Chienne d'idée" with him. (Vanessa has always proved a popular choice when it comes to duets - in 1989 the young singer even recorded a duet with Johnny Hallyday, performing Etienne Roda-Gil's song "Si j'étais moi" with the French star).

Vanessa returned to the silver screen in 1998, starring opposite Jean-Paul Belmondo and Alain Delon in Patrice Leconte's film "Une chance sur deux". After a few months' break Vanessa was back on the set with Leconte, playing the part of a knife-thrower's assistant in "La fille sur le pont", a film in which she co-starred with Daniel Auteuil (released in 1999).

Meanwhile, Vanessa was rather less present on the music front, choosing to take time off after the birth of her daughter, Lily Rose Melody (born on May 27th 1999). Lily Rose has a celebrity father as well as a famous mother, her father being none other than American movie star Johnny Depp. (In fact, Vanessa and Johnny - one of the show-biz world's best-known couples - are currently preparing a series of film projects together).

Vanessa has not completely abandoned her music career, however. In September 2000 fans rushed out to buy a new single - "Commando" - released as a foretaste of Ms. Paradis's album "Bliss". Released in France on October 17th, "Bliss" was hailed as a major event in the French music world – which was hardly surprising given that France's favourite pop diva had not released a new album since 1994! Vanessa proved she had considerably matured since her 'pop Lolita' days and insisted on exerting complete artistic control over her new album. She wrote the majority of the songs on "Bliss" and surrounded herself with an impressive team of composers and musicians, working with the likes of M, Franck Monnet, Didier Golemanas and Alain Bashung.

Vanessa rocketed back into the French music news at the beginning of 2001, announcing she would soon be embarking on a new tour. This was hailed as a major event in the music calendar - and rightly so, this was only the second tour in the singer's fifteen-year career! After a series of intensive rehearsals in Cannes, Vanessa kicked off her tour with a concert in the Paris suburbs, bringing the house down in Rueil-Malmaison on March 15th. The singer went on to play some 30 concerts between then and the end of June. The highlights of the Parisian leg of the tour included Vanessa's appearance at the Olympia (March 20th - 25th) and Le Zénith (May 30th).

On 9 April 2002 Vanessa announced a new addition to her family, after giving birth to a second child named Jack.

Vanessa re-emerged as an actress in 2004, starring in the Poiraud brothers’ movie "Atomik Circus, le retour de James Bataille". The following year, she appeared in Serge Frydman’s film "Mon ange."

In 2006, Vanessa got involved in Louis Chédid and Pierre-Dominique Burgaud’s musical project, "Le Soldat rose." Chédid and Burgaud’s musical fairytale for "kids and those who remain kids at heart" resulted in an album and two stage shows at Le Grand Rex in November of that year.

Vanessa made a comeback on the French music scene as a solo artist in September 2007 with the release of a new album entitled "Divinidylle". The album, produced by her friend, Matthieu Chédid (better known as M), came a full twenty years after her debut as a pop Lolita. Matthieu Chédid wrote a number of songs for Vanessa’s new album and also joined her for a duet on "Les Piles" (a track written and composed by Thomas Fersen).

Vanessa’s new album featured contributions from some of the best-known names on the French music scene, Jean Fauque writing the lyrics for "Chet Baker", Brigitte Fontaine penning "Irrésistiblement" and Franck Monnet writing the words for "La mélodie", "La Bataille" and "Les Revenants." Alain Chamfort stepped in to compose the music for "Junior suite" and Vanessa herself wrote "Jackadi." The title track, "Divine idylle" (written by Marcel Kanche, Georges Kretek and M) was chosen as the first single release. The album received a warm welcome from Paradis fans and, with her childlike vocals and sweet, angelic face, the former French pop Lolita, now well into her thirties, continues to exert a powerful fascination on the French nation.

September 2007