Louise Verneuil

Verneuil was born in Corsica.[1] She has one sister.[2] Her father, a pharmacist, enjoyed English-speaking artists including Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Beatles and David Bowie,[2] and taught Verneuil how to play guitar.[3] Her Spanish mother,[4] who died in 2018,[5][3] listened to Gilbert Bécaud, Marie Laforêt, Barbara,[6] Jean Ferrat, Serge Reggiani, Serge Gainsbourg, and Véronique Sanson.[2] Verneuil's family moved to La Bastide-sur-l'Hers, Ariège when she was 18 months old, and owned a restaurant there.[7] They moved to Golfe-Juan when Verneuil was eleven and she was educated at Lycée du Mont Saint-Jean (1998-2002) in nearby Antibes.[5] After studying journalism at university,[3] Verneuil spent time in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic[8] before working in Paris as a publicist for a contemporary art gallery.[9]

After moving to Paris at the age of 22, Verneuil chose a stage name inspired by the name of her mother, grandmother and great-grandmother (Louise) and the street where Gainsbourg once lived (Rue de Verneuil).[3] In 2012, when Verneuil was 23, she was a finalist on France's The Voice.[9] She had never sung in front of an audience before and described Gainsbourg and Alain Bashung as her main influences.[7] Her Voice mentor was Louis Bertignac, guitarist for the rock band Téléphone. Following her elimination in the quarter-finals, she recorded an album with Bertignac but did not release it.[10] In 2013, she worked as a backstage reporter for The Voice.[11] Verneuil then began performing live[12] and co-wrote a song for Isabelle Boulay.[13][14] In June 2019, she released a self-titled EP, produced by Samy Osta.

She cites Serge Gainsbourg, Joni Mitchell,[4] Karen Dalton, Françoise Hardy, Nico, Marianne Faithfull, and Billie Holiday[5] as influences.

Verneuil has been dating English rock musician Alex Turner since mid-2018. She lives between Paris and London.[15]