Fétiche par Fétiche is not simply a memoir, nor is it a nostalgic tour of Parisian nightlife. It is the intimate reconstruction of a life that began in pain and uncertainty and grew into a luminous legend of cabaret, femininity, artistry, and resistance. Marie-Pierre Vancallement, known to the public as Fétiche, invites readers into a world where glamour was stitched together with courage, where the stage lights burned away fear, and where a child who once cried in the shadows of Northern France learned to dazzle the world with a serene, unforgettable presence.
The book begins with the story of a child who was not born Fétiche and not even born Marie-Pierre, but Serge. From the first pages, the reader is confronted with a portrait of a young boy subjected to physical abuse and emotional terror, who clung to a dream that seemed, at the time, impossible. That child longed to be a girl and longed to escape the narrow streets and suffocating rules of her hometown. Rather than dwell in tragedy, the book traces how this young person transformed hardship into a kind of burning determination. The early chapters follow Serge’s evolution into an enterprising young man who had little more than ambition and a stubborn refusal to remain trapped. He eventually gathered the courage to leave the North and join a touring group of singers, a bold act that opened the road to Paris and to her future self.
