Eugénie Buffet, born November 26, 1866, in Tlemcen, French Algeria, was a French singer and one of the earliest figures associated with the chanson réaliste tradition. Rising to fame in Parisian cafés-concerts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, she became known for dramatic performances portraying the lives of ordinary and marginalized people. Her signature song, "La Sérénade du Pavé" (1895), became closely identified with her career. Buffet also performed in the streets and poorer districts of Paris to raise funds for charity, earning recognition with the Légion d'honneur. She later toured internationally and appeared in Abel Gance’s silent film Napoléon (1927). She died in 1934 in Paris, France.
