Dec. 5: French singer, Patricia Kass is 44 today.

Patricia Kaas was born in 1966 in Forbach, Moselle, France. She is a very successful French and English speaking singer and actress with an International following. Stylistically her music is a mixture of pop music, jazz and chanson (in general any lyric-driven French song.)

Since the release of her debut album Mademoiselle chante... in 1988, Kaas has sold over 16 million records worldwide. Her greatest success has occurred in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Russia, Finland, and Korea with her third album Je te dis vous.

With Jeremy Irons

Kaas seems to be perpetually on tour internationally. In 2002 Kaas had her film debut in And now... Ladies and Gentlemen beside Jeremy Irons. Kaas is currently on "Kabaret" world tour since the end of 2008. Also, Kaas represented France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2009 in Moscow, Russia and finished in 8th place.

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Her mother encouraged Patricia to become a singer at a very young age. Her first step into the professional music business csme when she was 13, when, with the help of her brother Egon, she signed a contract with the Saarbrücken Club Rumpelkammer. Kaas took the name Pady Pax, after the brass band Pax Majorettes from Stiring-Wendel, of which she and her sister Carine were members, and for seven years appeared with the band Dob's Lady Killers.

Kaas' first attempts to break into the music business initially failed, when a producer rejected her on the grounds that the world did not need a second Mireille Mathieu. When she was 19, Kaas met and impressed the French actor Gérard Depardieu.

Depardieu produced Kaas' first single "Jalouse" ("Jealous,") written by François Bernheim and Depardieu's wife Elisabeth. The single flopped, but  her encounter with Depardieu was one of the most important events in the beginning of Kaas' artistic career.

After hearing "Jalouse," the French songwriter Didier Barbelivien became aware of Kaas, and offered her his song "Mademoiselle chante le blues" (Lady sings the blues.) It was Kass' first big hit. The record reached 7th place in the French singles chart. The next year Kaas' second single "D'Allemagne" ("From Germany") was recorded, written by Barbelivien and Bernheim.

Shortly afterwards Kaas' first album Mademoiselle chante... was produced. It reached 2nd place in the French album charts and stayed there for two months, remaining in the Top 10 for 64 weeks and 118 weeks in the top 100. Shortly after its appearance the album went gold in France with over 100,000 sold, and after three months went platinum (over 350,000 sold).

The album also went platinum in Belgium and Switzerland, and gold in Canada. In the same year Kaas won Victoires de la Musique in the category of "Discovery of the Year," one of the most important French music awards.

In December 2003, Kass received the First Class Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for her contribution to friendship between France and Germany, an honor that until then had been awarded to only a few international artists.

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