Marly, Anna

▪ 2007

Anna Yuryevna Betulinskaya 

      Russian-born singer-songwriter (b. Oct. 30, 1917, Petrograd [now St. Petersburg], Russia—d. Feb. 15, 2006, Palmer, Alaska), composed more than 300 songs, most notably “Song of the Partisans” (“Chant des partisans”), which became an unofficial anthem of the French Resistance during World War II. Marly, whose aristocratic family fled Russia for France after her father was killed during the Revolution, escaped from France to London in 1941. She regularly performed on BBC radio's French Service and began the BBC's daily broadcasts to Nazi-occupied France by crisply whistling the opening bars of “Chant des partisans” to break through static caused by Nazi jamming of radio signals. (The song's original Russian lyrics were rewritten for the English and French versions.) Marly's songs, including another wartime composition, “La Complainte du partisan” (“The Partisan”), and “Une Chanson à trois temps,” were recorded by artists who included Edith Piaf, Yves Montand, Leonard Cohen, and Joan Baez.

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