Who was Belgian singer Maurane?

While the Belgian singer Maurane has suddenly passed away last week, here is a picture of the woman, her life and career.

“Today, I am officially back on stage after more than two years of absence. I won’t tell you how I feel… you surely can guess it”. Claudine Luypaerts, alias Maurane, wrote those words on Twitter on 3 May, four days before she was found dead. For health reasons, the Belgian singer had to take a two-year break. She made a comeback last Sunday during the Irisfest, and passed away a day after. The reasons of her death are not clear yet, but it seems a heart attack could have caused it.

Maurane’s tweet about returning to the stage – the day before her death

Maurane was born in Ixelles on 12 November 1960. From the beginning of her life, music played a very important role in her life. Her father was indeed musician and her mother used to give piano lessons.

She started to sing and record some albums at the end of the 1970s and at the beginning of the 1980s. But Maurane wasn’t a very successful singer at that time, as she only had minor contracts.

Her career has completely changed in 1988. Michel Berger, who directed the musical Starmania, asked her to be part of the second edition of the show, for a six-month concert tour. That show has been a major success and made Maurane a famous singer across Europe.

Although she decided to leave Starmania after a couple of months, the reputation she had gained allowed her to record successful albums. Maurane, her second album, in which you can find the song Toutes les mamas, came out in 1989 and more than 150,000 copies were sold. Another disc came out in 1991, and was much more successful, with 450,000 sold copies. One of the major awards she got was the ‘French-speaking singer of the year’ in 1994, during the French ‘Victoires de la musique’.

Maurane was also a very conscious artist. As of 1993, she got involved in the fight against AIDS. For that purpose, she took part in concerts and, together with other artists, recorded new albums. She also got involved to support homeless people, as well as making a specific song for the hostages across the World.

When her singing career was becoming a little less active, the “golden voice” was hired to become a member of the Jury of Nouvelle Star, a French TV show which aims to make new singers famous.

Health problems then led her to stop the concerts. She was subject to surgery in 2016, as she suffered from an oedema of vocal chords. After two years, she finally had the opportunity to come back on stage. While she aimed at recording a disc in memory of Jacques Brel, she passed away in Schaerbeek, the area where Brel was born…