On the occasion of UNESCO's celebration of the World Day for Audiovisual Heritage 2026, the United Music Foundation pays tribute to French icon Nicole Croisille (9 October 1936 – 4 June 2025) by preserving the original multitrack tapes from her first headline engagement at the Paris Olympia Theatre, which opened on 3 September 1976.
A singer, actress and dancer with a passion for jazz and musical theatre, Nicole Croisille left her mark on several generations with an extraordinarily diverse career and an instantly recognisable voice.
In 2015, the United Music Foundation, in collaboration with Budde Music France, had already undertaken a major project devoted to the artist, bringing together nearly all of her recordings made for Productions Claude Pascal / Claude Dejacques between 1973 and 1981, with the original tapes preserved in Geneva.
In 2026, this collaboration continues with the preservation of the original 16-track tapes from Olympia 1976, Nicole Croisille’s first headline engagement at the celebrated Paris theatre. The recovered tapes comprise three complete performances and a rehearsal session, offering an exceptional record of this landmark engagement.
ENDANGERED TAPES
These recordings were made on Ampex 407 and Ampex 406 tapes, now affected by Sticky Shed Syndrome, a form of deterioration that affects several types of magnetic tape manufactured in the 1970s and 1980s. This degradation causes the tape surface to become sticky and leaves oxide deposits on the tape machine’s heads and guides during playback, interfering with signal reproduction to the point of making playback impossible and potentially causing irreversible damage to the tapes.
Before playback, the tapes therefore had to undergo heat treatment in a laboratory incubator to temporarily stabilise their magnetic layer and allow them to be preserved in high resolution.
UNRELEASED RECORDINGS UNCOVERED
The preservation of these multitrack tapes also uncovered several parts of the show that were omitted from the Olympia 76 album and have never been released:
- Les Belles Années,
a number featuring Nicole Croisille and American dancer and choreographer Lario Ekson, which they would also perform together on French television in 1977; - Medley: I’ll Never Leave You and Quand nous n’aurons que la tendresse,
two major hits from the late 1960s; - Medley: Aujourd’hui c’est toi, Vivre pour vivre and Un homme et une femme,
revisiting some iconic songs from her collaborations with composer Francis Lai and film director Claude Lelouch.
Beyond her exceptional voice, these recordings allow us to rediscover Nicole Croisille as a complete performer, bringing together chanson, jazz, dance and musical theatre on a single stage.
Fifty years after these performances at the Olympia Theatre, the preservation of these tapes goes far beyond the sound they captured, bringing back to life an exceptional show and a legendary artist in all the richness of her artistic expression.
