Catherine Ringer’s death on September 14, 2026, at age 68, marks the end of one of the most distinctive voices in French music. The singer and co-founder of the French pop-rock-punk duo Les Rita Mitsouko, has died after the onset of a sudden, aggressive form of cancer. (Sadly, we know what the likely cause was.) Her passing closes more than four decades of music that continually reinvented itself.

Ringer was one of the most fearless artists in France and always a performer. She began her career on stage in the late 1970s and performed in various musical and dance productions. She got introduced to the Argentine dancer and choreographer Marcia Moretto, who influenced many of her performances.

Everything changed in 1979 when she met guitarist Frédéric Chichin, and their artistic and personal partnership produced one of the most original duos French music has ever seen. Together they built Les Rita Mitsouko into a world of its own, weaving together rock, pop, funk, electro, and chanson into something that belonged to no single genre.

The band’s breakthrough moment came in the mid-1980s with “Marcia Baïla,” a song that became emblematic of the entire French music scene. It was written as a tribute to Marcia Moretto after her death in 1981 (aged 32) and became one of the most enduring hits of French pop.

Hits like “Andy,” “C’est comme ça,” and “Les Histoires d’A” followed, and the duo’s later cooperation with Iggy Pop became iconic. When Fred Chichin died of cancer in 2007, aged 53, Ringer kept their repertoire alive in a solo career that continued to define the soundtrack of the teenage years of at least two generations of French youth. In 2020, she produced a stunning live album of Les Rita Mitsouko’s best songs at la Philharmonie de Paris. Ringer stayed active until the very end—her most recent performance was in February 2026.

Ringer didn’t just have a voice that lasted over four decades; she also had a tangible, theatrical on-stage presence. She never fit into any category, and in fact, actively refused categorization.

For this Music of the Week, we have chosen a beautiful chanson performed with Angélique Kidjo from 2018, but are also listing several of her songs in historical sequence to highlight the versatility and longevity of this fascinating woman.

As one German YouTube commentator says: “Thank you so much for the trippy, extravagant, unequalled French music. Bon Voyage, Catherine.”