I earlier featured the Baracksdubs version of Get Lucky, with the American president performing (almost) his version of the Daft Punk hit, it's good to see some French creative people taking up the baton.
Marking July 14th this new version of the song emerged online
François Hollande's - unauthorised, I'm sure, version of the song featured the French president singing in English.
An English Language song by a French musical act, of course. Very much in the spirit of international co-operation.
I reckon it can only be a matter of time until his version of Call Me Maybe emerges. But I won't hold my breath.
A new video for Carla Bruni, with the song Le Pingouin from her recent album getting some attention.
Not that it's not had some attention in France already, with a 'row' (ie a few comments in the media) about the supposed political message of the song.
Some have taken the song to be a reference to François Hollande, but Bruni herself has denied this, saying that the song doesn't have any political thinking behind it. In in an interview with L'Express she said that the song's about disagreeable people in general, about no one and everyone.
If she wanted to make a political song, she's probably more entitled to do so than many others, having actually been involved in that world, but I have my doubts that she'd be interested. From what I've read, she's not all that bothered about getting involved in the mud-slinging of politics, leaving that to others - including those in the media - to deal with.
The video certainly doesn't take itself too seriously and is more of a nod towards Monty Python than towards any particular politician.
The song comes from her latest collection entitled Little French Songs, her first since her days as First Lady. the album came out on April the first.
It's been a successful release, despite her having to take a step back from music on account of her position over the last few years.
She's playing a series of live dates at the end of the year, including three shows at the Casino de Paris in November.
An absolutely massive weekend for France, and while the election result may have come as little surprise, its magnitude cannot be diminished.
It marks a turning point, and it will have implications on the French music scene as much as it will have an impact on every area of life in the Republic.
Things will settle, and it remains to be seen if change will be as radical as some expect or as fundamental as some fear. It should be remembered that the result was actually quite close, it was no landslide, and Hollande will face a huge amount of social and political inertia.
Although the same could be said for Sarkozy and his right-wing predecessors. Each came to office with a promise of shaking the country up in a similar way to Margaret Thatcher in the UK. All failed in this ambition, and although each did manage to pass many an unpopular piece of legislation, the core Republican values were not transformed into an Anglo-Saxon free-market free for all.
A couple of other thoughts about the campaign. It was possible for an outsider - non native French speaker located outside France as I am - to folllow it like never before. Twitter and Facebook brought comment and developments in a minute-by-minute basis, opinion came from blogs and news sites - special credit to France 24 - and video could be quickly caught up with on YouTube.
A real success in new media coverage of the election.
But this certainly wasn't the picture on the traditional broadcast media. Again, the UK media followed the usual line of ignoring it completely until the first round of the election, then focusing on the National Front's vote. Their scripts were already written, and the narrative would be about another chapter in the rise of the European right, missing the significance of a Socialist president
We are always better informed about the US elections than we ever are about the French elections.
I would guess that just about anyone in the UK asked to 'name the president' would answer 'Obama' before thinking to ask 'Which president?...'
And on the National Front vote, although disappointed to see them getting any popular support, it was heartening to see them completely collapse under any political pressure. Had Le Pen reciprocated to Sarkozy's disgusting overtures the political map of the country could be very different, with potentially a UMP president indebted to the FN. But the fascists fell apart under pressure due no doubt to a fatal combination of arrogance and stupidity.
But it's time for optimism and looking ahead at hopefully better times.
Apologies if this blog reads like one of the many political blogs that haunt the internet today. It's a music blog, but music doesn't exist in a vacuum and political circumstances shape music and the music of France is no different in that it is part of a wider political and cultural environment.
If nothing else, Carla Bruni will have more time to focus on her musical career.
Politics can be a tricky business, particularly for those who are not actually politicians.
Françoise Hardy says she will leave France if Socialist candidate François Hollande winds this month's presidential election.
It's over Hollande's proposal to tax millionaires 75% of their salaries.
Hardy told Le Point magazine that the policy would leave her 'living in the street' and that she would have to move to London or New York if Hollande gets in.
London's a pretty welcoming place to the non-domiciled super rich, where the tax breaks to foreigners who can say they have a 'residency' outside the UK while they are domiciled there are only a little behind places like Monaco, making it a friendly place for many a Greek shipping magnate, Russian oligarch and Arab oil heir.
She told the magazine that she only earns a meagre 150,000 euros a year, a fact certain to win her friends in the difficult economic times.
I'm reminded of the story about how Phil Collins would leave the UK if the Labour Party won the 1992 UK general election. He moved to Switzerland two years later even though Labour didn't win.
Whether his move to the tax haven was related - Collins said it was not - and the quote was misunderstood - he said he's never been a Conservative Party supporter - the story certainly stuck and Phil Collins has never enjoyed the widespread success he had in the UK in the 1980s since.
However, I'm sure Collins, worth apparently £115m and one of the richest people in the UK music industry and still residing in Switzerland, is not hugely troubled.
Hardy, incidentally, made her first TV appearance in 1962 during an interlude in a programme reporting the results of a presidential election referendum. Charles de Gaulle was president at the time, and the referendum helped secure the powerful position that the president currently has in France.
A track by rapper Alonzo reveals president Francois Hollande as an unlikely icon of street style, with his scooter and Daft Punk style helmet.
