The singer and dancer Guesch Patti, who performed the sulphurous hit “Etienne” at the end of the 1980s, died at the age of 80 from a long illness, her representative announced on Monday.
“Mademoiselle Guesch Patti, dancer, singer, actress, left us on the night of June 21 to 22, 2026 in Paris, following a long illness. She leaves behind, to all the audiences who were able to see her on set, the memory of a woman full of life in her artistic expression,” writes Sébastien d’Assigny in a press release sent to AFP.
Former Opera rat, Guesch Patti, real name Patricia Porrasse, had achieved dazzling notoriety in France and abroad in 1987, with her song “Etienne” with very suggestive lyrics.
“Étienne, Étienne, Étienne Oh, hold it tight/Salty, dirty kiss, fallen along the bed/From the unpublished, he loves madly/In slow motion, I lift the taboos,” sang the artist in a black and white clip where she appeared in a bodice and fishnet stockings.
This success had eclipsed the rest of the work of this artist who defined herself as a “chameleon” and liked “working quietly with all the arts”.
In 2001, while she was performing in Paris in a contemporary dance show, her true passion, she confided to AFP how the success of “Etienne” had swallowed up her career even if it had allowed her to win a Victoire de la Musique.
“I don’t want to experience again what I experienced with +Etienne+. I want to protect myself from further media escalation. I’m done playing,” she declared then.
In 2002, on the set of France 3, she also recounted the weight of the fame that “Etienne” had brought her. “I think there was a kind of pressure that fell on me, which didn’t suit my character at all,” she said, offended that the music industry could then consider her “like a product.”
