Vanessa Paradis & Johnny depp

With the news that Vanessa Paradis and Johnny Depp have split, I though a look at her musical career was in order.

Most of the focus in news coverage on their split is in on Johnny Depp, without her career getting much of a mention. Depp and Paradis were together for 14 years, and have two children together.

Despite being a huge star in France, with a music and film career, she remains best known in the UK for a single released in 1987 when she was 14.

It reached number one in France, and number three in the UK, and remains one of the best known French language songs in recent years.

While none of her other work made such a mark outside France, her music career has continued there with some considerable success.

Following her 1988 debut album M & J that featured Joe le Taxi, her 1990 Variations sur le même t'aime album saw her collaborating with Serge Gainsbourg. The song Dis-lui toi que je t'aime probably being the best known from the collection.

Her third, self-titled album, was released in 1992. It saw her working with her then-partner Lenny Kravitz, leading to songs like Be My Baby, a top ten hit in the UK and another of her best-known works.

She didn't release a studio album again until 2000's Bliss, which included input from Matthieu Chedid (best known as -M- ) Chedid would go on to win two Victoires de la Musique awards that same year for his own work.

Johnny Depp also made a musical contribution to the album. Depp's musical ventures included playing with Oasis and in the band P, which he formed with Gibby Haynes of the Butthole Surfers.

Bliss went on to be  a number one album in France, despite not having a hit single on a par with her previous albums.

Her next studio album came in 2007, with Divinidylle, her most recent studio work. The cover, a stylised portrait of her was pained by Johnny Depp. It again featured collaborations with Matthieu Chedid. It too was a number one in France.

Over and above her studio albums, there have been live albums, mostly coming out following a tour in support of her studio work, including Live in 1994, Au Zénith in 2001 and Divinidylle Tour in 2008. The most recent of these Une Nuit à Versailles came out in 2010 and featured acoustic interpretations of her work.

Most recently she recorded much of the soundtrack for the animation film A Monster in Paris, in which she also starred. The track La Seine - a collaboration with -M- a hit single for her in France.

Meanwhile, her acting career has seen her win a César Award for her part in Noce Blanche in '89 and a Genie Award and a Juntra Award for her part in 2011's Canadian film Café de Flore, with memorable parts along the way including The Girl on the Bridge (La Fille sur le pont) and the animation A Monster in Paris.

Rétro: Black Sabbath in Paris, 1970

With news that Black Sabbath have reformed and are to record a new album with their original line up, I though it worth reflecting on a great piece of archive video of the band in France from 1970 which makes it clear just why the band are so special.

The announcement was made at 11.11, local time in LA on Friday 11/11/11, this clip goes further back - to 1970.

Bearing in mind this was, of course, recorded at a time when most of the rock counterculture was still in a hippy daze following the late 60s.

The clip Was recorded at L'Olympia in December 1970 long before Ozzy was best known as a reality TV star and the band were fresh from the success of Paranoid as a hit single.

It's astonishing to realise that their debut album Black Sabbath was released less than a year before (On Friday the 13th of Feb), and the follow-up Paranoid coming out in October.

The Paranoid album was a number one in the UK and number 12 in the US, Paranoid reaching number four as a single in the UK. Not bad for a song that was essentially written and recorded at the last minute in a period of 25 minutes to make up the running time of the album.

Both albums have been recognised in the decades since as bona fide classics of rock music, inspiring generations of musicians and fans, and establishing the artistic merit of the heavy rock genre.

With Black Sabbath being feted so frequently the sheer quality of their early work is often overlooked

So we have probably the most influential heavy rock band of all time at probably their most creative point of their career, recorded live in Paris.

Enjoy it!

Vanessa Paradis and -M- sing La Seine in A Monster in Paris

If there is any contemporary French singer that is well known in the UK, it is Vanessa Paradis, on account of her late 80s/early 90s hits in the UK and her relationship with Johnny Depp.

She features in a new animated movie Un Monstre à Paris (A Monster in Paris), where she stars with Mathieu Chédid, better known as -M- , who also duets in this song, La Seine, from the soundtrack.

The 3D film, which is set in Paris in 1910 tells the story oa young film projectionist who along with inventor Raoul sets off to track down a monster that has been terrorising the city. They team up with Lucille, a cabaret singer, and an eccentric scientist and his monkey to save the monster from the local chief of police.

Others who lend their voices to the film include Matthew Géczy, Eric Judor and Ramzy Bedia.

The English language film also features Vanessa Paradis, but with other names including Catherine O'Hara, Danny Huston, and Adam Goldberg.

I'm not sure how they'll work songs into the English version, but if they miss them out it will be a pity. Be nice if they did an English audience version with the original singers, as it would give -M- a much- deserved higher profile outside the French-speaking (and French-singing) world.

It's a great song and if the English version of the film misses it out it will be much the poorer for it.

The film is directed by Bibo Bergeron, who has previously worked on films like Shark Tales and The Road to El Dorado, as well as Asterix in Britain and Asterix and the Big Fight.

The release of the film has been put back a couple of times, and was originally planned to have been released in April 2010, but is now expected to be released in October.