2015 Grammy Awards

The Grammy Awards unfolded in Los Angeles last night, and while there was no repeat of Daft
Punk's sweeping victory last year for French artists, there was at least one French artist on the list, and a French flavour for another.

Alexandre Desplat picked up the award for Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media for the soundtrack of The Grand Budapest Hotel.

There was one award interesting award, with a Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella  award for Texas vocal group Pentatonix for a track entitled Daft Punk, a work that pays tribute to the French duo.

Meanwhile Daft Punk associate Pharrell Williams took home a prize for Best Pop Solo Performance for Happy and Best Urban Contemporary Album for his album Girl. He also took home the Best Music Video award for Happy.

Playlist: Paradis

I featured Paradis on the blog just over a week ago, with the track Sur Une Chanson En Français, and though that further investigation was called for.

Here's a playlist they put together for Brain magazine a couple of weeks ago, giving a pretty good picture of their outlook.

Some crate-digging undertaken by the pair has brought together some house, electronic and techno, perfect listening for a weekend afternoon.

Luce: Polka

A new single and clip by the singer Luce entitled Polka.

Luce, Lucie Brunet to give her full name,  was one of the artists who originally came from the Nouvelle Star TV show, winning  through the 2010 season of the programme

The Perpignan born singer , performed songs by France Gall, Dutronc and Édith Piaf in the rounds of the show, along with songs by Tina Turner, Christina Aguilera and The Mamas and the Papas.

She performed Brel's Ne me quitte pas and -M-'s Je dis aime in the final.

She released her first album, Première Phalange, in 2011, reaching number 11 in the French charts.

Polka is a quirky and likeable number, not a million miles away from the likes of Zaz, with an appropriately charming video.

The song features on her album, entitles Chaud, which is expected to be released on February 23.

Festival: Solidays 2015

Another summer festival unveils its line up, and today it's the turn of Solidays.

Solidays is a three-day  event on June 26 - 28 at the Longchamp Racecourse in the Bois de Boulogne in Paris.

For their 17th festival, organisers have announced the nine first  acts including Brigitte and The Avener.

Also there are  Franco-American folk act  Moriarty  and  Israeli s folk rocker Asaf Avidan, along with Damian Marley and Zoufris Maraca.

Solidays, while a massive music fesival welcoming over 150,000 fans, is also an event that focuses attention and funds to organisations fighting Aids.

Last year, the event was orgainsed under the theme The Fight Must Go On, in homage to Nelson Mandela, and featured the likes of Fauve,  Shaka Ponk,  Christine and The Queens, Vanessa Paradis and Woodkid.

Tickets for Solidays 2015 go on sale on Monday.

Carl Barât Culturethèque interview

Nice to see a brief interview with Libertines legend Carl Barât talking about his French favourites.

He namechecks Brel, Dumas and Méliès, and discussed his working with Vanessa Paradis and Benjamin Biolay.

Barât  featured on the title track of Biolay's 2012 Vengeance album and on the track The Dark, It Comes from Paradis's 2013 Love Song album.

The interview was done by the good people at the Culturethèque French cultural website, who also posted an interview with Barât's fellow Libertine Pete Doherty in September last year.

Dead: Nøthing 03

A track by Dead, the Rennes-based band I've featured a couple of times on this blog has emerged on a new compilation by music/art collective nøthing.

The 20 tracks feature Side Effects (FUTURE Remix) by Dead , alongside work by the likes of Soft Blonde,  Dead Horse One and Marble Arch.

Music from the more experimental end of the indie/rock spectrum dominates, from psychedelic to more noise influenced, there's quite a variety of styles and Dead sound in good company.

The other bands involved are French, so I'll be featuring a few more of them here in the future before too long I'm sure.

Dead, meanwhile, play Paris on February 20 and open for The Ex in Caen on March 19.



 

Editorial: February 2015

Another month older, and the Vive le Roq French music blog has embraced 2015 with a vengeance.

February sees award season in full effect, with the Oscars, Césars and  Victoires de la musique, and a number of interesting releases over coming weeks.

We'll be takinga  careful watch over these events as well as everything else that's goingon.

Our features on new acts last month was well worth doing,  and hopefully provides a platform for musicians who might struggle to get a mention in the anglophone press.

As always, I can be contacted on johnkilbrideAThotmailDOTcom, with the appropriate punctuation where you'd expect it to be.

I'm always pleased to hear from record companies, PR companies and promoters, so do get in touch.

We're also on Twitter as @viveleroq or you can find me at @karnag

Thanks as always  to the good people at the French Music Office in London and to the Institut francais in London for their help and encouragement.

Merci et à bientôt

John K