Fall of French county singer (7)

I believe the answer is:

decline

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'fall' is the definition.
(I know that fall can be written as decline)

'of french county singer' is the wordplay.
'of french' becomes 'de' ('of' in French).
'county singer' becomes 'cline' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'de'+'cline'='DECLINE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for decline that I've seen before include "Diminution" , "Say no or lose strength" , "Dwindle" , "increasing weakness" , "The Latin scholar must" .)

I've seen this clue in The Daily Express.

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