"J'ai Deux Amours," which translates to “I have two loves,” was performed by Josephine Baker in the 1930s. The 1930 piece was written by Géo Koger and Henri Varna with music by Vincent Scotto. Entirely in French, the song was first performed in the Casino de Paris. The song describes her two loves, “Mon pays et Paris,” which translates into my country and Paris. However, there is some disagreement as to whether the country she refers to is America or France. Help us transcribe the lyrics to this song to discover the music of the 1930s.
Josephine Baker (June 3, 1906 – April 12, 1975) was the first African American female to star in a major motion picture, to integrate an American concert hall, and to become a world-famous entertainer. She is also noted for her contributions to the Civil Rights Movement in the United States, for assisting the French Resistance during World War II and for being the first American-born woman to receive the French military honor, the Croix de Guerre.
Josephine Baker entered show business at a young age, first performing on the streets of St. Louis with the Jones Family Band and then traveling the southern vaudeville circuit with the Dixie Steppers. She attracted attention as a teenage chorus girl in the 1921 touring production of "Shuffle Along," where she entertained the crowd by embellishing the choreography with comedic steps and facial expressions. Her popularity in "Shuffle Along" led to a subsequent appearance in "Chocolate Dandies" (1924), where she was billed as "That Comedy Chorus Girl."
Baker was an influential figure in both American and French popular culture of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. Her costumes, some of the most well-known aspects of her performances—in particular her famous banana skirt, first introduced for a 1926 production of "La Folie du Jour" at the Folies Bergère—remain iconic.
Baker’s French debut as the star of "La Revue Nègre" turned her into an international sensation. After establishing herself as a performer in France, Baker opened her own nightclub and continued to perform as a dancer and singer in Paris and the United States. Although she performed less frequently in the last decades of her life, Baker remained a highly visible media figure through her infrequent returns to the stage and her high-profile adoption of 13 children of various nationalities that she called her “Rainbow Tribe.” She appeared on Broadway twice in the 1960s and 1970s and died four days after her last performance of "Joséphine à Bobino 1975" a retrospective of her 50 years in showbusiness.
