French singer Catherine Ringer, the vocalist of the duo Rita Mitsouko, died on Monday at the age of 68, her children announced on Tuesday in a statement sent to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
According to the statement, Ringer was taken by a fulminant cancer on the night of 14 September 2026. The family said her death definitively closed the story of the duo she formed with her partner, Fred Chichin, who died in 2007.
AFP described her as a diva with a powerful, irreverent voice who founded Rita Mitsouko with Chichin in the early 1980s, quickly scoring hits such as "Andy," "C'est Comme Ça" and "Les Histoires d'Amour Finissent Mal."
A Career Built With Fred Chichin
"Marcia Baïla," released in 1984, was described by AFP as a moving tribute to the death of Argentine dancer Marcia Moretto and became one of the group's biggest hits, selling more than a million copies. Another song, "Singing in the Shower," from 1988, recorded with the American duo Sparks, opened doors for Rita Mitsouko, particularly in the United Kingdom and northern Europe.
The duo's self-titled debut album came out in 1984, followed by records including "The No Comprendo," "Marc et Robert," "Système D," "Cool Frénésie," "La Femme Trombone" and "Variéty." Over their career, Rita Mitsouko received the Victoires de la Musique and honours from the Charles Cros Academy, among other awards.
A Voice For Political Causes
One of Ringer's most recent public appearances came in 2024, when she performed the French national anthem, "La Marseillaise," to mark the inclusion of the right to abortion in the French Constitution, a moment that also underlined her outspoken opposition to the far right.
National Assembly President Yaël Braun-Pivet recalled that appearance in a post on X on Tuesday, saying it took only a few notes to recognise Ringer's voice and only a few seconds on stage to feel the energy that belonged to her alone. Braun-Pivet recalled that at the ceremony Ringer had said they would march and sing that pure law into the Constitution. Braun-Pivet added that from Rita Mitsouko to her solo career, free, daring and inimitable, Catherine Ringer had left her mark on French music.
French critic Michka Assayas told AFP on Tuesday that Rita Mitsouko had a connection to the artistic avant-garde, surrealism and Dadaism.
Early Life And a Defiant Past
Catherine Ringer was born on 18 October 1957 on the outskirts of Paris, the daughter of a Jewish painter, Sam Ringer, who was deported during the war and the Nazi occupation, and an architect mother.
She left school at 15 and built up a wide range of artistic experience that included appearing in pornographic films, a past she never disowned. AFP recalled on Tuesday how Ringer stood up to French composer Serge Gainsbourg on the Canal+ television channel in 1986 after he insulted her over her brief past in the pornography industry.
Life After Fred Chichin
After the death of Fred Chichin, who also died of cancer at the age of 53, Catherine Ringer withdrew from the stage but gradually returned to performing to keep the legacy of Rita Mitsouko alive, building a career largely outside the commercial mainstream.
In 2019, at the Philharmonie de Paris, she marked the 40th anniversary of meeting Chichin, the encounter that led to the formation of Rita Mitsouko.
In 2023, Ringer auctioned around a hundred works by her father, Sam Ringer, an artist who survived nine concentration camps. She told AFP at the time that he had passed on his life force to her.
