Between exteriorization and interiority, expression and inexpressible, voice shares something essential with intimacy. Our popular or erudite cultural traditions attest this relation and impute a central role to voice in the “intimate treatment” of social issues. This point is analyzed here for sung voice, with reference to the repertory of songs from the years 1900-1950, when singers like Fréhel, Berthe Sylva, Damia, Yvonne George, Germaine Lix, Lys Gauty, Andrée Turcy and Piaf mediated an “intimist realism” in rupture with emotional restraint that prevailed in popular classes.