Almost 60 years of marriage for Chantal Goya and Jean-Jacques Debout! But their legendary love story began with love at first sight… one-sided, which ended with a famous rake given by the singer of “Bécassine”!
Love truly can last a lifetime. At 85, Jean-Jacques Debout has lost none of the affection he has for Chantal Goya. Together since the early 1960s, they form one of the most emblematic couples in French song. And yet, at first, love at first sight was not mutual, as Chantal Goya explained…
Chantal Goya impassive in the face of her husband’s love: “Nothing at all!“
On the airwaves ofEurope 1Jean-Jacques Debout delved into the memory of his first meeting with Chantal Goya, which occurred during an evening in 1963. The singer remembered this moment as a real love at first sight, occurring in the middle of a concert: “I didn’t think about the song anymore. I didn’t even know what I was saying in the song anymore, I was so polarized by (her) face“.
The nonagenarian even admitted to having been literally bewitched by her beauty: “As I left, I looked at her and said to myself: “But that’s not possible… it’s a creature”“. A still vibrant memory, which he described as a divine revelation: “I had the impression that it was the good Lord who had sent me a living angel, in front of me, while I was singing“, he said.
If Jean-Jacques Debout’s feelings for Chantal Goya were immediate, the reciprocal took a little longer to come. For her part, the singer spoke candidly about what she felt during their first meeting. “Nothing at all!“, she said with her usual frankness, causing a general burst of laughter in the studio.Europe 1.
Chantal Goya reframes her declaration of love: “He’s completely crazy”
Jean-Jacques Debout shared the fiery declaration he made that evening to the singer of Pandi Panda : “I feel like I’ve always known you. We will get married, we will have two children, you will be famous at 30 and you will sing in the opera“Faced with so much enthusiasm, Chantal Goya revealed that she remained completely impassive: “I said to myself: “He’s completely crazy.”“.
But Chantal Goya, clever as anything, took the opportunity to be accompanied by this stunned lover. However, the journey did not go as planned: “We spoke very little, he was so in love… I told myself he was weird“, she recalled. And, while her future husband expected to stay in contact with Chantal Goya, she released her stroke of genius: “I had a wrong number!“Result: he left empty-handed… but not for long, since they crossed paths again… and we know the rest!


