Article Contributed by IVPR
Published on 2026-09-13
“These song lyrics came straight out of Yvette and Roger’s letters,” says New Orleans-based songwriter and recording artist Sarah Quintana of her latest project, Love Letters.
Given to Quintana and production company Piment Rouge courtesy of the Cuquemelle family, the letters document the relationship between Yvette and Roger, a young French couple separated by the German occupation of France during World War II.
“When we first read them, we wept,” Quintana says.
The couple’s wartime correspondence not only kept their love alive but, almost a century later, inspired Quintana to tell their story through song. The project is a natural fit for the bilingual singer, who was born into a Cajun French family in Louisiana before moving to Marseille, France, after Hurricane Katrina devastated her hometown in 2005. Since then, her heart—and the rest of her—has been stretched between the two cities.
Quintana released “C’est l’Amour Qui Tourne dans l’Air,” which translates roughly to “It’s love that’s in the air.” Sung in French alongside accordion and guitar, the song is composed from some of the earliest and most longing correspondence between Yvette and Roger, written while they were separated and their homes and families were being devastated by war.
In one letter from 1944, Roger tells Yvette, “All this for two or three fat-heads trying to rule the world,” referring to Hitler and Mussolini. In another, he writes, “The heart in bloom is more powerful than a bomb.”
“‘C’est l’Amour’ features some of their most passionate and hopeful words,” says Quintana. “And their simplest desire for an end to war.”
The Love Letters project also became the basis for the dance theater production Love Letters of WWII, choreographed by Monica Ordoñez of Mélange Dance Theatre. Accompanied by Quintana performing the songs live, the production was presented at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on September 10 following a three-night run at The Josephine in New Orleans at the end of August.
Listen to “C’est l’Amour Qui Tourne dans l’Air” on Spotify, watch the official video on YouTube and follow the continuing Love Letters project at SarahQuintana.com.
Sarah Quintana is a singer, songwriter and guitarist from New Orleans who writes and performs in English and French. A CODOFIL scholar sent to France as a teenager, she comes from a Cajun French family and moved to Marseille after Hurricane Katrina in 2005. She has been moving between Louisiana and France ever since.
Her music draws on her hometown’s deep traditions of jazz, folk and rhythm and blues while playfully testing their edges. Her catalog includes three self-released studio albums, a live concert recording and two EPs. The Love Letters project began as an archival residency in Marseille, setting love letters from World War II to music, and became the basis for the dance theater production Love Letters of WWII.
Quintana is known regionally for her work with Louisiana musicians including GRAMMY winners Michael Doucet of BeauSoleil and Kevin Clark of The Nightcrawlers, as well as Leyla McCalla and her own New Orleans-based band. She has earned recognition from the GRAMMY Foundation, The Voice Foundation, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival Foundation and the Big Easy Awards, among others.
Offstage, Quintana is a fellowship-trained voice pathologist whose research champions vocal health care pathways for Louisiana’s culture bearers and oral traditions, helping others preserve their culture and protect their unique voices.
