Background
Mireille Mathieu was born and raised in Avignon, Vaucluse département, France, the eldest daughter of a family of fourteen children. The youngest brother born after she had moved to Paris. Her father Roger (French pronunciation: [ʁɔ.ʒe]) was from Avignon, and her mother Marcelle-Sophie Poirier came to Avignon from Dunkirk in 1944, as a refugee from World War II. Roger, with his father Arcade, ran a stonemason shop outside the Saint-Véran Cemetery in Avignon,
which is still in business today. The family lived in poverty, and were dependent on government housing.
Roger had once dreamed of becoming a singer, but his father Arcade disapproved, inspiring him to have one of his children learn to sing with him in church. Mireille's first paid performance before an audience, at age four, was rewarded with a lollipop. Another defining moment was seeing Édith Piaf sing on television.
Education
Mireille performed poorly in elementary school due to dyslexia, requiring an extra year to graduate. Born left handed, her teachers used a ruler to strike her hand each time she was caught writing with it. She became right handed, although her left hand remains quite animated while singing. She has a fantastic memory, and never uses a prompter on stage.
Career
Abandoning higher education, she began work in a local factory in Montfavet at age fourteen (1960), where she helped with the family income and paid for singing lessons. Very popular at work, she often sang songs at lunch, or while working. Like her parents, she is a short woman at five-feet in height. Her sister Monique (French pronunciation: [mo.nikə]) began work at the same factory a few months later, both given bicycles on credit to commute with, making for very long days. The factory went out of business, so Mireille and her two oldest sisters became youth
counselors for the summer before her rise to fame. A summer where she had her fortune told by Tarot cards by an old Gypsy woman, saying she would soon mingle with Kings and Queens.
Mireille is Roman Catholic, and her patron Saint is Saint Rita. Saint Rita is the Saint for the Impossible. Mireille's paternal grandmother Germaine assured her that Saint Rita was the one to pray to for hopeless cases. Beyond religion, like many artists, she is unabashed about superstition and luck. She has a terrible stage fright, and can be seen making the sign of the cross before moving out on stage.