France Gall, a French pop singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest and sold millions of albums over a four-decade career, died Jan. 7 near Paris. She was 70.

The cause was cancer, said her agent Genevieve Salama.

Ms. Gall's collaboration with French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg — one of the top pop-song creators in France — led to a first series of hits. One of them, the song "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" ("Wax Doll, Rag Doll"), propelled the singer to international celebrity at 17 when she won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest for Luxembourg with it.

Gainsbourg later wrote another of Ms. Gall's early hits, "Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops"), whose ambiguous lyrics with a hidden erotic meaning shocked some in France.

After a dry period, Ms. Gall saw renewed success thanks to composer Michel Berger in 1973. The two-decade collaboration with the composer she married in 1976 provided the singer with her biggest hits and best-selling albums such as "Paris, France," "Tout pour la musique," "Débranche!," "Babacar" and "Double Jeu."

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Among the songs that hit the charts was "Ella, elle l'a" ("Ella, She's Got It"), which was a tribute to jazz singer Ella Fitzgerald. It was one of Ms. Gall's biggest commercial hits, with 1.5 million copies sold.

Berger died in 1992 of a heart attack at 44. Five years later, another personal blow would spell the end of her career when their daughter, Pauline, died of cystic fibrosis in 1997 at 19.

Notable deaths in 2017

Remembering those who died in 2017.

Isabelle Geneviève Marie Anne Gall was born in Paris on Oct. 9, 1947. Her father, lyricist Robert Gall, wrote songs for noted entertainers such as Edith Piaf and Charles Aznavour. Her mother, Cécile Berthier, was a singer whose father, Paul, helped start the children's choir Les Petits Chanteurs à la Croix de Bois.

Ms. Gall, who was awarded the French Legion of Honor in 2013, is survived by her companion, musician and producer Bruck Dawit, and by a son from her marriage to Berger, Raphael.

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