Song of the Day 11/30: Josephine Baker, “J’ai Deux Amours”

Though you’ll find no mention of it in American media, a famous American-born entertainer today received one of the highest honors France can bestow — Josephine Baker was interred at the Panthéon in Paris, the first Black woman to join the ranks of the country’s most distinguished citizens in the famous mausoleum.

Born in St. Louis, Baker was a chorus girl in New York before she visited Paris in 1925 at age 19. She was an instant sensation for her “Danse Sauvage,” for which she wore a “skirt” of artificial bananas and little else. She was befriended by Hemingway, Picasso and Jean Cocteau, triumphantly toured Europe and soon added singing to her act.

“J’ai Deux Amours” was written specifically for her — the two loves of the title are “Paris and my country.” By the late ’30s, after a commercially unsuccessful trip to America, where she was savaged by the critics, she began to sing the lyrics as “Paris and your country.” She married a French composer and subsequently renounced her American citizenship to became a citizen of France. Her reputation as a national hero was cemented during World War II by her efforts for the French Underground — her work as an entertainer allowed her to travel throughout Nazi-occupied Europe and mingle with important officials.

In 1951 she returned to perform in America, where she refused to appear before segregated audiences, a stance that helped integrate the casinos in Las Vegas. She became involved in the Civil Rights Movement and was branded a Communist sympathizer by Walter Winchell. She was the only official female speaker at the 1963 March on Washington, and was at his side when Martin Luther King Jr. gave his “I Have a Dream” speech. In her own speech that day, she told the crowd, “I have walked into the palaces of kings and queens and into the houses of presidents. And much more. But I could not walk into a hotel in America and get a cup of coffee.” After King’s assassination in 1968, Coretta Scott King asked her to return to America to lead the movement. She declined, saying her large family of adopted children needed their mother.

Despite this, she is remembered in the United States mainly by Black entertainers, especially Beyonce, who often cites her as an important influence. No matter — she is a national hero in France.

If you recognize the tune, it’s probably from the English version. It’s not a translation — “Two Loves Have I” was rewritten as a love song that makes no reference at all to Paris. It was recorded by a number of artists, but I know it because of Nat King Cole’s version.