Your favorite French female voices

[schlaraffenland]

Which French-speaking women do you consider to have particularly beautiful voices/prosody/elocution? Ideally, you'd have a public figure in mind, whether a politician, actress, poet, public intellectual, etc. -- just someone for whom there's a decent amount of recorded material out there in the form of interviews, book readings, or what have you. As for what constitutes "beautiful," à chacun son goût ! I'm interested in the range of suggestions and will check out whomever you throw my way.

This comes about because I have been listening to a lot of French news radio only very recently, and I was quite surprised to realize that I was hearing the voice of A Certain French Female Politician Who Has Been in the News a Lot in the Last Several Months, and that I found her voice really quite beautiful. But I'd rather not listen to the sorts of things she has to say. I'm sure there are lots more lovely voices out there that I can find to imitate that are, ahem, more content-neutral. I'll leave it at that.

When I begin to engage seriously with another language, I try pretty early on to find a person after whom I can attempt to model my own speech patterns as I develop my voice in the language. It helps when the target's vocal range is like mine, but it's not imperative. (The women in my family tend to be altos, if that helps.) I know I'll never turn out anything as buttery as a professional voice actor, but it's nice to have good examples!

[Whodathunkitz]

When I begin to engage seriously with another language, I try pretty early on to find a person after whom I can attempt to model my own speech patterns as I develop my voice in the language. It helps when the target's vocal range is like mine, but it's not imperative. (The women in my family tend to be altos, if that helps.) I know I'll never turn out anything as buttery as a professional voice actor, but it's nice to have good examples!

What an interesting thought!

I don't have any suggestions for French. A quick web search found some weird pages!

For English? John Gielgud? Jonathan Ive (don't know). Probably better to use a neutral American accent as England has so many ways to classify people according to accent, principally "class", a particularly loathsome aspect of British/English culture.

I'm finding it hard to think of people to emulate in my own language. Any English accent instantly means things to other English. Things that get in the way of communication rather than helping.

Harry Potter actor might be a reasonable choice for a younger/higher sounding male?

Any suggestions for Spanish (Iberian/Castillian/Spain/dialect and accent neutral) male voices? I'm probably towards the deeper, slower end of vocal ranges in English.

Especially someone who does a lot of historical videos which I can access on YouTube, TED or otherwise free? Yeah, not asking much!

schlaraffenland - good luck on finding the right person to inspire/emulate.

[DaveBee]

Which French-speaking women do you consider to have particularly beautiful voices/prosody/elocution? Ideally, you'd have a public figure in mind, whether a politician, actress, poet, public intellectual, etc. -- just someone for whom there's a decent amount of recorded material out there in the form of interviews, book readings, or what have you. As for what constitutes "beautiful," à chacun son goût ! I'm interested in the range of suggestions and will check out whomever you throw my way.

A lady called Nadine Eckert-Boulet did some recordings for Librivox, and another called 'Victoria' who did some for Litteratureaudio.

[Carmody]

Yes, I agree! I have listened to Nadine Eckert-Boule read MIRBEAU, Octave – Le Journal d’une femme de chambre and found her really good.

Actually my wife and I have found that very often female voices in higher octaves or registers are easier to understand than male speakers. Truly; strange but true.

[Ani]

My personal preference is for Swiss French. I use the book-tuber Margaud Liseuse. You might start your search by observing the regions different speakers are from and seeing if you notice any aspects you like or dislike.

You will have to find your voice models using live speech. Audio books are too stilted in rhythm to turn into a true speech model. I suggest cruising youtube until you find someone. When I was searching for someone suitable, I paid attention to age, attitude/register of available material, and mouth shape. Sounds weird but having a similar mouth shape can make imitation easier.

[DangerDave2010]

Eva Almassy
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22eva+almassy%22
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eva_Almassy
https://www.franceculture.fr/emissions/des-papous-dans-la-tete

[Carmody]

Merci.
Et aussi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xuAxcuvLhk

[leosmith]

Talking - Audrey Tautou
Singing - Edith Piaf

[DaveBee]

Singing - Edith Piaf

Stacey Kent recorded an album of french language songs - Raconte moi, and has scattered a few french covers across her other recordings, Ces petits riens being my fave.

[Bao]

This comes about because I have been listening to a lot of French news radio only very recently, and I was quite surprised to realize that I was hearing the voice of A Certain French Female Politician Who Has Been in the News a Lot in the Last Several Months, and that I found her voice really quite beautiful. But I'd rather not listen to the sorts of things she has to say. I'm sure there are lots more lovely voices out there that I can find to imitate that are, ahem, more content-neutral. I'll leave it at that.

I am not willing to look for old video clips exactly for that reason, but I swear that when I started learning French in 2010, she sounded much more like somebody who had studied with Goebbels' recordings, and the way she currently speaks makes me think she's had voice lessons as part of the whole overhauling the FN thing.

Either way, I remember that I really liked Claudie Haigneré in an interview she did last year with Science Publique (France Inter) - her voice is a bit higher, but she has the whole 'competent' thing going for her. Like, actually being competent in the things she talks about.