Monty python members who have died

Line Montywas born in Algiers in 1926 as “Éliane Serfati”—a striking last name that, in the Maghreb, means “French,” and in France, stereotypically refers to a Maghrebi Jew.

Monty was born into a family in love with both French and traditional Algerian music; she trained her ear on Edith Piaf, Umm Kulthum, and Mohammed Abdel Wahab. 

When she was still a young woman, Monty began performing in cabarets, and before long, she was singing in music halls across the world: Algeria, the Americas, Europe, the Middle East.

While she was performing in Egypt, the legendary musician Farid El Atrache invited her to sing one of his songs, and famously, Egyptian audiences would remember her as the French woman who sings Arabic so well.

Her skill with musical styles ranging from Chaabi to Francarabe, rumbas to French cabaret—combined with her warm timbre and talent for ornamentation—made her one of the great divas of her time. 

In the 1950s, José de Suza (whose given name was