Elaine Jill Paige OBE (née Bickerstaff; born 5 March 1948) is an English singer and actress, best known for her work in musical theatre. Raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, Paige attended the Aida Foster Theatre School, making her first professional appearance on stage in 1964, at the age of 16. Her appearance in the 1968 production of Hair marked her West End debut.

Following a number of roles over the next decade, Paige was selected to play Eva Perón in the first production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's Evita in 1978, which brought her to the attention of the broader public. For this role, she won the Laurence Olivier Award for Performance of the Year in a musical. She originated the role of Grizabella in Cats and had a Top 10 hit with "Memory", a song from the show.

In 1985, Paige released "I Know Him So Well" with Barbara Dickson from the musical Chess, which remains the biggest-selling record by a female duo. She then appeared in the original stage production of Chess, followed by a starring role in Anything Goes which she also co-produced. Paige made her Broadway debut in Sunset Boulevard in 1996, playing the lead role of Norma Desmond, to critical acclaim. She appeared in The King and I from 2000 to 2001, and six years later she returned to the West End stage in The Drowsy Chaperone. She has also worked sporadically in television.

In addition to being nominated for five Laurence Olivier Awards, Paige has won many other awards for her theatre roles and has been called the First Lady of British Musical Theatre due to her skill and longevity. She has released 22 solo albums, of which eight were consecutively certified gold and another four multi-platinum. Paige is also featured on seven cast albums and has sung in concerts across the world. Since 2004 she has hosted her own show on BBC Radio 2 called Elaine Paige on Sunday.

In 2014, Paige celebrated her 50 years in show business. Paige announced on her official website a "Farewell" concert tour and a new career-spanning album The Ultimate Collection to mark this milestone in her career. Outside of her work in musical theatre, Paige is a vice-president of The Children's Trust, a UK charity for children with brain injury.

Elaine Jill Bickerstaff was born and raised in Barnet, Hertfordshire, where her father Eric worked as an estate agent and her mother Irene was a milliner. Her mother had been a singer in her youth, and her father was an amateur drummer. Paige stands at just under 5 feet (1.5 m) tall, which she says has caused her to lose out on leading roles. Her original ambition was to become a professional tennis player, at which point her headmistress pointed out to her "they'd never see you over the net", but Paige continued to play tennis and has referred to the sport as one of her passions. ...

Source: Article "Elaine Paige" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Elaine Paige, née Elaine Bickerstaff le 5 mars 1948 à Barnet dans le Hertfordshire (Royaume-Uni), est une chanteuse, actrice, et animatrice de radio britannique. Au Royaume-Uni, Paige est considérée comme une des plus grandes chanteuses de l'après-guerre, surtout grâce à ses rôles principaux dans les comédies musicales Evita et Cats.

Paige est formée à l'Aida Foster stage school de Londres après sa passion pour la scène l'amène à étudier le théâtre. Elle fait son début professionnel à la scène dans The Roar of the Greasepaint—the Smell of the Crowd en 1964, et elle fait son début au West End de Londres en jouant un petit rôle dans Hair en 1968. Puis, parmi plus de petits rôles au théâtre, Paige apparaît dans la comédie musicale Grease en 1973 dans le rôle de Sandy.

En 1978, la comédie musicale coproduite par Tim Rice et Andrew Lloyd Webber, Evita, arrive sur scène dans le West End au Prince Edward Theatre, et le rôle principal d'Evita est tenu par Paige, qui a été choisie parmi un grand nombre de candidates après que Julie Covington n'ait pas été choisie pour reprendre le rôle. Grâce à ce rôle, Paige devient célèbre immédiatement et elle remporte un Laurence Olivier Award de Meilleure Actrice dans une Comédie Musicale.

La première de Cats a lieu dans le West End, au New London Theatre le 11 mai 1981, avec Paige dans le rôle principal de Grizabella. La chanson, «Memory», de la comédie musicale Cats, est sa chanson plus connue aujourd'hui.

Puis, Paige obtient les rôles principaux dans Abbacadabra et Chess. Chess est une comédie musicale dont les paroles sont de Tim Rice et la musique de Björn Ulvaeus et Benny Andersson, anciens membres d'ABBA. Le duo «I Know Him So Well» de Paige et Barbara Dickson (une chanson de Chess) garde 4 semaines la première place des ventes de singles au Royaume-Uni en février 1985 et gagne un Ivor Novello en tant que «meilleure vente de single».

En 1996, Paige fait son début au Broadway dans Sunset Boulevard dans le rôle principal de Norma Desmond. Son interprétation est saluée unanimement par les critiques.

En ce moment en Grande-Bretagne, elle a sa propre émission de radio à BBC Radio 2. Depuis 1995, elle est Officier de l'Ordre de l'Empire britannique.

Source: Article "Elaine Paige" de Wikipédia en français, soumis à la licence CC-BY-SA 3.0.