Press & EPK
Jenny Renard
Biographies, programme copy, selected facts and press photography for media, theatres, cultural presenters and professional partners.
Short biography
Jenny Renard is a French chanson concert artist. With a sound shaped by the great chansons of the 1950s, she preserves the music’s distinctive character and emotional candour. Her path to her own artistic voice led through a professional dance career on stages in Berlin, Vienna and internationally, predominantly classical vocal training from 2009 and, eventually, chanson. Since around 2016, she has developed this tradition into an artistic direction of her own. Her current programme, La Vie en Rose, traces Paris, love, memory, loss and joie de vivre.
Programme text: La Vie en Rose
In La Vie en Rose, Jenny Renard shapes French chanson into a concert evening with a dramatic arc of its own. Approximately 18 chansons in two parts move from Paris and love through passion, memory, longing and loss, before returning to resilience and joie de vivre. The repertoire includes Sous le ciel de Paris, L’Hymne à l’amour, La foule, Ne me quitte pas, Je ne regrette rien and C’est si bon. Jenny’s interpretation remains close to the distinctive character and emotional candour of the chanson tradition, brought to the stage with the presence of a contemporary concert artist. She currently performs the programme as a solo artist with professionally produced musical accompaniment.
Long biography
Singing was Jenny Renard’s first dream, even if dance became her first profession.
The first dream
She had wanted to become a singer since childhood. When that path did not open to her, dance became her way onto the stage. At eighteen, she committed to professional dance training and went on to work on stages in Berlin, Vienna and internationally.
Returning to the voice
The original ambition never disappeared. Jenny began formal vocal training in 2009, grounded chiefly in classical technique. During a six-month engagement in Reno in 2011, she sang in every show, and the voice assumed an increasingly important place in her professional life on stage. After returning to Vienna, the balance gradually shifted from dance towards singing. She worked with bands and took part in a range of musical projects.
A defining encounter
Marlene Dietrich’s German interpretation of Jacques Brel’s Ne me quitte pas gave that change a direction. Jenny returned to the song repeatedly, listening to it and singing it until the idea of pursuing her own path as a singer came into clearer focus.
Chanson
Later, her vocal teacher drew her further into French chanson and introduced her more deeply to artists including Édith Piaf. Around 2016, Jenny began performing chanson in concert. What stayed with her was not simply the repertoire, but the immediate response it created between the songs, the singer and the audience. That exchange became the reason to develop chanson into an artistic direction of her own.
Today, Jenny Renard presents chanson without sacrificing its distinctive sound or emotional directness, and without treating it as a period piece. Her current programme, La Vie en Rose, brings Paris, love, memory, loss and joie de vivre together in a concert evening with a dramatic life of its own.
Press photography
For press image enquiries, contact office@jennyrenard.com
