Since the appearance of her 1988 debut album Mademoiselle chante...,[1] Kaas won 6 Victoires de la Musique awards and has sold over 20 million records worldwide.
[2] She had her greatest success in Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Canada, Russia, Finland, Ukraine, and South Korea with her third album Je te dis vous.
In 1989, "Mon mec à moi" was voted "La chanson française" by radio listeners across France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada, highlighting its widespread appeal in the Francophone world.
Kaas also gave other successful concerts in New York and Washington D.C. in the U.S.A. At the end of the tour, Mademoiselle chante... had sold 1 million copies in France alone, achieving diamond status.
While on the Scène de vie tour, the singer performed 210 concerts before 650,000 spectators in 13 countries, among them Japan, Canada and the USSR, where she sang in Moscow and Leningrad.
At the end of 1991, her first live album Carnets de scène (Eng: Stage Notebooks) appeared, which achieved popularity beyond her dedicated fans.
During her Scène de vie tour, Patricia Kaas received critical acclaim for her ability to revitalize the classic French music-hall tradition.
A review in The New York Times described her as a "charismatic young performer" who effectively reinvented the legacy of Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour in a contemporary, yet respectful manner.
The review noted that despite performing primarily in French, Kaas's strong theatrical presence and sharp, cutting alto allowed her to connect with American audiences, showcasing her international appeal.
It was produced in Pete Townshend's Eel Pie Studio in London, England by Robin Millar, who had already worked for Sade and the Fine Young Cannibals.
The British rock musician Chris Rea accompanied Kaas on the tracks Out of the Rain and Ceux qui n'ont rien (Eng: Those who have nothing) on guitar.
The title track of the album is a cover version of the Billie Holiday song of the same name, and was likewise published by Kaas on the 1997 sampler Jazz à Saint-Germain (release by Virgin).
Other cover versions on the album include classics such as the Bill Withers number Ain't No Sunshine (which was taken for advertisement music for the Club Mediterranée) from 1971, and If You Leave Me Now by Chicago from 1976.
The track "Quand j'ai peur de tout" (Eng: When I'm afraid of everything), written by Diane Warren, was remade in 2003 by the band Sugababes under the name "Too Lost in You".
Among the tracks are L'aigle noir (Eng: The black eagle) by the French singer and songwriter Barbara, whom Kaas had admired for a long time.
In 1999 Le mot de passe (Eng: The password) was produced by Pascal Obispo, on which Kaas was accompanied by an orchestra on several tracks.
[11] Most pictures of Kaas from her last albums (from Dans ma chair to Sexe fort in 2003) show the singer in very figure-accentuating clothes and suitably daring poses, and her music videos are seldom restrained performances.
[12] On the Le mot de passe tour, Kaas was accompanied at some concerts in Germany and Switzerland by the Hannover Pops Orchestra of Norddeutscher Rundfunk under the conductor's baton of George Pehlivanian.
In April 2001 Kaas gave a concert before 50,000 spectators on the occasion of Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg's accession from his father Jean.
In the same year, Kaas began her acting career with And now... Ladies and Gentlemen with Jeremy Irons, directed by Claude Lelouch, and her record company published the greatest hits album Rien ne s'arrête (Eng: Nothing stops), where only the title track was new.
Piano Bar... was Kaas's first published album sung mainly in English, and is a homage to the great French chanson artists of history.
The title track Toute la musique que j'aime (Eng: All the music I love) was written by the French singer and songwriter Johnny Hallyday.
The album contains a bonus track, Herz eines Kämpfers (Eng: Heart of a Fighter), which Kaas had worked on with Peter Plate of German pop band Rosenstolz.
[1] To support her new album, Kaas gave concerts in France, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Romania and other countries during her "Kabaret" tour.
The song received positive reviews in several newspapers and polls, and a clear majority of 62% of voters in a questionnaire believed in her chances to win the competition.
[14] In 2011, Kaas's autobiography L’Ombre de ma Voix (The Shadow of My Voice), ghostwritten with Sophie Blandinières,[15][16] was published in March by Flammarion.
[17] In 1993, Kaas was offered a role in the Claude Berri film Germinal, but at the time she was working on her third album Je te dis vous.
Kaas needed no better model than the German-American singer and actress Marlene Dietrich, whose song Lili Marleen she had often sung as a child.
Her earlier hit, Il me dit que suis belle, from the 1993 album Je te dis vous, was also used by Bertrand Tavernier in his film L'appât (Eng: The bait).
Patricia Kaas played the role of a woman wounded by life for the television production "Assassinée" (Murdered), by Thierry Binisti, that aired May 2012.