Françoise Cactus
The stereo total singer dies at the age of 57
Françoise Cactus has died
© imago images / POP-EYE
Stereo-Total singer Françoise Cactus died on Wednesday in her long-standing adopted home of Berlin. She was 57 years old.
The French-German singer, author and illustrator Françoise Cactus (1964-2020) died on Wednesday in her adopted home Berlin. "We are devastated to announce the death of our beloved friend, singer and drummer Françoise Cactus. She died peacefully at home of cancer this morning on February 17, 2021. Rest in peace, our friend," it says German and English on the website of the Berlin cult duo Stereo Total ("Schön von hinter"), which she founded in 1993 together with her partner Brezel Göring (* 1967). Françoise van Hove, as she was originally called, was 57 years old.
Music broadcast as a legacy
She moderated her music program "Die Sendung" on Radioeins until the very end, as can be read in the Berlin broadcaster's obituary for Françoise Cactus. "She was an incredibly friendly person, life-affirming, witty, despite all her talents, very modest," writes music director Anja Caspary. "She knew that she would not live much longer, but still did her show for radioeins, even when she felt bad. Sometimes she drove from the hospital to the home studio especially for this – to do these two hours", so Caspary continues.
Brezel Göring will host "Die Sendung" alone on February 23rd. It should be "a kind of legacy", as the broadcaster announced. He'll play and hang up all the tracks she'd already picked out for her next show.
The multicultural star
Françoise Cactus, born in 1964 in Villeneuve-l'Archeveque, Burgundy, France, came to Berlin at the age of 22, where she founded the band Lolitas in 1986. For decades she made music on all five continents. In an interview with spot on news a few years ago she drew a positive balance: "We are very satisfied. We have achieved our goal of performing all over the world. To make it work, I have always tried to sing in different languages : German, French, English, Spanish, Japanese, … "