Born on 12 July: Christine McVie, the voice of wisdom in Fleetwood Mac

She was born in Bouth (England) in 1943 under the name Christine Anne Perfect and passed away on 30 November 2022.

Best known for her central role in Fleetwood Mac, she was a singer, keyboardist and composer. Born into a musical family, she began studying piano at the age of four and turned to rock music in her teens. After a thunderous debut in the group Chicken Shack in the late 60s, she joined Fleetwood Mac in 1970, where she was reunited with her husband, bassist John McVie!

As part of the group, Christine McVie composed and performed some of their biggest hits, such as ‘Don't Stop’ and ‘You Make Loving Fun’. Her melodic, soulful style became one of the band's signatures, alongside Stevie Nicks' rocky voice and Lindsey Buckingham's inventive guitar playing. She remained a member of Fleetwood Mac until 1998, then distanced herself from the music for a while before rejoining them again in 2014. Although Lindsey Buckingham was banned and replaced by Tim Finn (Crowded House), Fleetwood Mac's last tour was in 2019, leaving room for tribute bands like Rumours Of Fleetwood Mac or Fleetwood Macked. Despite the undeniable qualities of some of them, they have a hard time matching the original...

Alongside Fleetwood Mac, she released three solo albums, including ‘Christine McVie’ (1984) and ‘In the Meantime’ (2004), as well as a duet album with Lindsey Buckingham in 2017.

Fleetwood Mac is as famous for its worldwide hits as for its sometimes explosive internal tensions, often linked to the personal relationships between its members. Christine McVie, renowned for her calm and diplomacy, was often a point of balance in the band. ‘Their dynamic was passionate in every sense of the word, but that tension shaped our sound,’ she says of the Stevie Nicks/Lindsey Buckingham pairing. "It definitely gave some of our songs that sharp, incisive edge. She also reminded us that these conflicts, though difficult to live with, were also one of the band's creative driving forces. Rumours", Fleetwood Mac's most emblematic album, was released in 1978 when Nicks and Buckingham almost wanted to fight!

(MH with Stéphane Soupart - Photo : © Etienne Tordoir)

Photo: Christine McVie (right) with Fabienne Van De Meersche, presenter of the Génération 80 TV show in Brussels (Belgium) in March 1982.