Ketty began singing in 1934 in the Lapin Agile cabaret with songs by Paul Delmet, Gaston Couté, Théodore Botrel, and Yvette Guilbert.

The text of the song, written in French by Louis Poterat, expresses the longing of many women anxiously awaiting the safe return of their sons and husbands from war.

Several composers wrote songs for Ketty with her charming Italian accent in mind, including Paul Mirsaki (with his "Rendez-moi mon coeur," which was actually a reprise of "Sombreros et mantilles," but this time the text remained much closer to the Spanish original) and Jean Tranchant (with "Pourvu qu'on chante").

In 1939, Ketty ventured into classical music with the song "Mon coeur soupire," an adaptation of "Voi Che sapete" from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro.

More than 75 years after its creation, the song of "J'attendrai" still brings fame to its performer, mostly for its appearance in Das Boot, a now legendary German film directed by Wolfgang Petersen.