An interesting little clip of the song Paroles...Paroles featuring Celine Dion and Alain Delon, the legendary French actor whose death was confirmed earlier today.
The song was originally released in 1973 by Dalida with Delon duetting with her, and featured on Dalida's Julien... album from that year. An adaptation of an Italian song, it reached the top ten in France at the time and sold well in other countries, becoming in subsequent years one of the best-known French songs internationally, and inspired covers in other languages.
Delon plays a supporting role in the song, perhaps wisely leaving the actual singing to the female vocalist
A video of the original was eventually released in 2019, Delon's involvement in the original essentially being only in the recording studio. Dalida would continue to perform the song live for the rest of her career, either solo or with other vocalists.
This version is from 1996, recorded in December 1996 for a New Year show broadcast on France 2 on December 31.
I'd normally be writing something about Eurovision today, about how it's not a real representation of music across Europe. About how ultimately from a UK point of view it's seen as an excuse to laugh at those funny foreigners trying to do something we invented and are the absolute masters of. And how those foreigners just don't appreciate our mastery of popular music and vote for someone else instead.
I'd be discussing France's entry, and how it compares to previous times with a video or two to illustrate some of France's most memorable performances.
But this year it's a bit different. The competition comes with a backdrop of the atrocities in Gaza, and how the show must go on even with a representative of Israel on the stage acting like they're just another fun-loving country who are only there for the music.
But it's a lie. They're there to normalise the situation, to maintain that Israel is an acceptable modern country that's the equal of any one of the others. Apparently, it's all just fun anyway, it's about music, not politics, isn't it?
Aye, right, as they say around here.
Apartheid South Africa was shunned from international sport. Russia was excluded from Eurovision following the invasion of Ukraine. Rogue states can be held to account for their actions in non-political events and it would be right for Israel to be denied a place this year.
The organisers want the focus to be on the music, not the horrors off stage. The slogan for this year is "United by music."
We should be, but only if Israel was dropping beats rather than bombs,
Another new release by David Hallyday, with a song aimed at
filling the Johnny Hallyday-shaped hole in the world of French music, this time
a duet between father and son of the title track of Johnny Hallyday’s 1999 album,
a song co-written by David Hallyday
It’s from the forthcoming Requiem pour un Fou album due out
at the end of June, a work David has described it as “the most important
project of my life”. It’s a collection of
covers of songs recorded by his father, plans for an album of songs by David
that were originally intended for Johnny were abandoned in favour of a more
direct approach.
The title track of the new album was released at the end of
last year, a cover of the song from Hallyday pere’s 1976 Derrier l’amour
collection, a song that would go on to be one of his best-known works. Like Hallyday
Jr’s cover of Requiem pour un fou, the new version of Sang pour sang doesn’t
wander far from the original. The production and music take it more into the 21st century. While it may be a comparatively recent Johnny
number given the length of his career, but times, technology and tastes move on
and its purpose is as much to win over a new generation of fans as to satisfy
those already converted.
It’s an interesting take on the song, David and Johnny’s
voices are so matched it’s hard to tell which is which, which is a serious credit
in David’s favour here. Johnny was, after all, one of France’s most distinctive
voices. It’s a tricky line to walk though, a tribute to a departed father, especially one who was
held in such widespread esteem, risks being mawkish or, given the celebrity attention
and the unresolved familial disputes, seen as an exploitative or in poor taste.
I don’t think there’s anything to worry about here. David
Hallyday has more right than anyone else to sing his father’s songs. He’s
already established himself as an artist and, lest we forget, a matter of years
has passed since Le taulier left us. Maybe it’s only right that David should
claim his family heritage.
As for the video, the game of pool an echo of the pool hall
scene from the original Sang pour Sang video. There’s no crowd like there is in
the original now, just David H on his own, later joined by another in a game of
pool by a younger man. The part is, appropriately, played by Cameron Smet, the son
of David Hallyday. The song is a duet between father and son, the video features
a different father and son. Time moves on, new generations take their place.
There’s much going on in the video, and it’s nicely done.
Johnny’s presence and influence is there throughout, but the focus is now on David.
I expect that’s how David wants it to be, and probably Johnny would as well.
David Hallyday’s album Requiem pour un fou is released at
the end of June, his tour begins in November
Some serious issues ahead for the Vieilles Charrues festival, France's biggest summer music event. Organisers are warning that this year's event, scheduled for July 11-14, could be the final edition of the festival unless the problems are addressed.
They're concerned about several measures that the local government has called on, including a loss of the land they can use for the event which means a loss of half of the camping area and less parking space, the local authority acquiring the festival organisers' office at the main entry to the event and a charge of 400,000 Euros for use of the site at Kerampuilh, despite organisers saying they'd agreed for it to be used for five years with the festival donating more than 2 million Euros in work, shows and the equivalent of 2,000 tickets to the local authority.
Organisers say the constant changes have resulted in a lack of stability that now endangers the future of the festival.
It's a difficult situation, and it comes at a time when the future of many large-scale music events is looking uncertain due to the economy and the difficulties that came in the wake of Covid, Vieilles Charrues cancelling its 2020 event.
The festival was created in 1992 and has been held in Carhaix since 1995 and over the three-decades-plus that it's been held, it's attracted some of the biggest names in music - both French and international - to Carhaix in Brittany. Some of the international acts that have played there include the likes of Bruce Springsteen. Iggy
Pop, Muse, Lou Reed, The Cure, Bob Dylan, Rammstein, Neil Young, Lana Del Rey and Depeche Mode, while from France, acts like Stromae, Indochine, Justice, Etienne Daho, Vanessa Paradis, -M- have all played along with legends like Johnny Hallyday, Jane Birkin Charles Aznavour and Jacques Dutronc.
Last year’s edition included Robbie Williams, Blur, Soprano, Rosalia and Red Hot Chili Peppers in headline slots, alongside sets from BigFLo & Oli, Jeanne Added, Shaka Ponk, Lomepal, Pomme, Phoenix and Silmarils.
Despite having the big names at the top of the bill, the event has not lost touch with its roots, with local acts and newly emerging artists regularly getting the opportunity to perform.
The festival is - to say the least - a big deal and it draws a crowd of hundreds of thousands to the area, last year's event attracting its biggest-ever crown of some 346,000 people.
Love this clip of Jacques Higelin from 1976. Acoustic and up close and personal, with just a touch of
late glam rock and early punk about him. It's so lowkey and natural, and the talent at his fingertips just shines through.
Cigarette as metaphor? Something very French about that for sure, and it's the kind of song that you couldn't get away with these days. At the very least, a government health warning would be required, perhaps it would only be available in plain packaging and pressed in a nauseating green vinyl if a limited Record Store Day release came out.
The original was from his legendary BBH75 album, an astonishing work where Higelin, previously an experimental singer-songwriter, embraced rock music as part of a three-piece band with drummer Charles Bennaroch and Simon Boissezon on bass and guitar. It was a bold move, and one that not only established Higelin's reputation but also went a long way to establish the possibilities of rock music as a viable proposition in the French language.
BBH75 maintains the experimental edge that Higelin had in his earlier works, but this is hitched to a raw electric sound, one that evolved from the electric blues and heavy rock of the early 1970s, and pre-dated the championing of the rough-edged urban experience championed by acts from later in the decade. BBH75 somehow sounds post-punk despite being released in 1974.
BBH75 sees Higelin in a place somewhere between Lou Reed and Ian Dury, the poetic lyricist drawing his inspiration from his everyday environment, earthy but with class, style and an effortless literacy. An authentic witness to his world, the sharp guy with the knowledge of the local streets and faces, able to articulate and sum up what's really going on internally and externally. There's perhaps a wink that he doesn't take himself too seriously though, as the smoker's coughs in the studio version of Cigarette confirms.
A French-speaking singer didn't have to try to match what was going in in American or British rock music but could create something unique on its own terms. Concepts like genre - rock, chanson, blues, whatever - could be used, incorporated or discarded as appropriate and a French artist could release something solidly groundbreaking. It was always all about authenticity all along.
Did Higelin ever better the BB75 album? I'm not sure, but I'll be spending some time going through his back catalogue and finding out.
It's still an unusual phenomenon for a French artist to make the news in the UK, and the circumstances surrounding the appearance of Kendji Girac are even more unusual.
The BBC report that The Voice France star was seriously injured in a shooting incident, apparently an accidental shooting caused by the singer himself while he was handling a pistol he had earlier bought in a junk shop.
His injuries were serious, with a gunshot wound to the chest, but while remaining in a serious condition he's no longer thought to be in danger. He was, reportedly, able to tell emergency services what happened when they arrived on the scene.
Girac has had four number-one albums in France, from 2014's Kendji to 2012's L'école de ma vie and he also performs as one of the members of Les Enfoirés, the charity group that raises money for the Restos do Coeur charity. Along the way, he's picked up a handful of awards. He's also become something of a representative of the French Gypsy community from the southwest of France, while his songs have made a significant impact in Spain, his Catalan-speaking upbringing winning him a receptive audience over the border.
While it's easy to assume a shooting incident involving a singer is somehow linked to serious or organised crime, Girac's always had a clean-cut reputation, and there doesn't seem to be anything sinister behind what happened. Police are obviously still investigating the circumstances of the incident.
Hopefully. he'll be back to health before too long. It's interesting that the UK media took an interest in this story, even if they did hang it on his The Voice France success rather than the fact he's been a massively popular artist for a decade. Still, a UK audience would know what The Voice was and are less likely to be familar with a singer who's not all that well known here. As usual, we're a very insular country when it comes to music, with anglophone artists always taking prominence with only one or two exceptions. Nice to see the BBC taking a broader view of things, even though it's in the most unfortunate circumstances.
A high-profile appearance in the American press for Justice, unquestionably one of the finest French
acts in recent years.
They're playing Coachella tonight and ahead of that they appear on the cover of Billboard magazine.
Their album Hyperdrama comes out at the end of the month, and I'll be surprised if it's not on a few record-of-the-year lists come December. It's hard to think that it's actually only their fourth proper album
One Night/All Night and Generator have both emerged as clips, both showing Justice still able to startle with images as well as sound, while Incognito and Saturnine reveal an act that hasn't lost any of their sense of urgency.
They've got more dates in the USA ahead of them, and they've got dates lined up in Europe including a set at the We Love Green festival in Paris at the end of May, Glastonbury in June, Field Day in London in August and two nights at the Accor Arena in Paris in December
I love this new clip for C'est aujourd'hui que ça se passe from Grand Corps Malade, I could listen to it on repeat for hours.
As always he plays with words and rhythms, repetition and vocabulary. If I was just learning French or teaching it to those who were, GCM would be one of the finest teaching assistants that could be deployed. Language becomes a joyous thing in his hands without being overly complicated or obscure.
As for the track itself, it's a joyous thing, uplifting and positive without being trite or oversimplified. If you want the future - either a collective future or simply your own future - to be better, make it start now. Today.
It's all too easy to get in a rut and not get on with the things done that you say you will, to regret not having done it the following day, to plan to make things happen but procrastinate to the point that they don't emerge. I'm as guilty as most, and the weight of unaccomplished things can be a burden we can all do without. GCM makes it clear that life is an interactive game, not a spectator sport, and that rather than putting things off to the next day if we get on with them now we can have a better future. It's extraordinarily uplifting and liberating, simple and effective.
The actual visuals are simple, GCM looking through a window at the world in its various ways in motion, whether city skyline or Paris streetscape, sea or sky and stars. With his image in the glass, it's a nice metaphor for being both reflective and looking outwards.
The song is the third release from his REFLETS album that came out in October last year, and the follows Retiens les rêves and Le jour
d'après. He's been on tour for the last three months, with two dates in Paris, and he plays the summer festivals across France and beyond before returning to tour the arenas towards the end of the year.
I'll have this song on repeat to banish the uncertainty, the doubts and the inertia. The more I listen the more it impresses me. If we make things happen we can, as he puts it, turn our DeLorean Back To The Present. There might not be as much time as we think, but there's still space to take care of two or three important things.
An electronic version of the disco classic Stayin’
Alive sees Christine and the Queens start 2024 in style. Safe to say the Bee
Gees song is totally owned by Héloïse Letissier and friends.
The drama
plays out on the streets and canals of Venice, a place no stranger to masked
theatricality, in a video that Chris directed.
It perhaps
marks the turning of a page. 2023 saw the release of his Paranoïa, Angels, True Love album, an ambitious collection of work
that might not have had the commercial success of earlier releases, but certainly
made up for it in artistry. The year also saw performances including Coachella
and Rock en Seine festivals as part of a world tour, but also the cancellation
of the end of that tour.
It’s not the
first time Christine and the Queens have dropped a jaw-dropping cover version, think
of their version of Paradis perdus on
Chaleur Humaine or Freedom ’90 on the Joseph EP.
I wouldn't be surprised if some found Paranoïa, Angels, True Love a bit too challenging, but it's a rewarding and rich album and one that will be looked back on favourably. But for those who didn't quite get the album when it came out, this new release will remind tem exactly why Christine remains an essential artist.
A landmark performance from Slimane on New Year's Eve in Paris, with a version of the song Mon Amour live from the Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris for La Grande Soirée du 31 de Paris on France 2.
The song will be France's entry into this year's Eurovision, with Slimane performing the track in Malmo in May. It's always a bold move when a country puts forward an established artist to represent them in the competition, as a poor showing might reflect badly on their career.
But equally an artist who already has an international following is also more likely to gather votes from other countries familiar with his output. However he does, the song's a strong enough one to win over new fans and Slimane's a big enough star to be undiminished if he's not the winner. 2024 looks like it will be a big year for the former winner of The Voice in 2016 and this is just another event in what looks like a key year for his career.
It will be better than the UK's entry that's for sure.
As for Slimane, he's off on tour across France and beyond for most of 2024 supporting his Chroniques d'un Cupidon album from 2022 - a number-one album in France that produced the singles Des Milliers de je t'aime, La Recette and Chez Toi. He's at the Accor Arena in Paris on March 1 although it's already sold out like many of the dates have. Another show's been added there on January 8 2025 regardless of Eurovision success or failure.
Over the holidays we had details released of the lineup for the 2024 Beauregard festival in Normany in July, with some very interesting names on the bill.
While anglophone acts like Massive Attack, LCD Soundsystem and Bring Me The Horizon are big names that grab the headlines, there's much more than just that going on, with a strong representation of French home-grown acts.
Rappers Bigflo and Oli are probably the biggest commercial concerns, but the likes of Etienne Daho, Yodelice and Veronique Sanson broaden the range of acts and styles on offer. Etienne De Crecy teams up with Boombass, formerly of electronic legends Cassius, and L'Imperatrice is one act we've featured here in the past that's gone on to well-deserved success.
We're particularly excited to see Justice make an appearance and can't wait for their new studio album that's expected this spring, their first in seven years. A snippet was previewed by the band in their New Year message.
As always, France is home to some of the best music festivals in Europe. Events like Beauregard fill the summer months across the country, with some of the biggest names internationally as well as French acts playing to massive audiences.
So it's suddenly 2024. We managed a few posts last year, but looking ahead with our New Year
resolutions hat on, we're aiming for a bit more over the next 12 months. Can we do it? We'll certainly try.
There are a few other projects in development this year on the book front, that will hopefully bear fruit before the summer and possibly again later in the year. Obviously, we'll let you know when things shape up.
In the meantime, there's a mountain of festive cheese that won't eat itself, some strange drinks that need to be finished off and it's still officially a holiday here in Scotland on January 2.
It's been good to concentrate on more lengthy pieces in the past few months rather than just focusing on French music news as new things emerge, I'll aim to do a bit of both.
Meanwhile, it's an interesting year ahead, with Paris coming under international attention with the Olympics over the summer. Hopefully, this will mean some French music acts get a bit more international attention than usual. There's more than Gainsbourg, Hallyday and Eurovision - not that there;'s anything particularly wrong with these of course - and we'll be across as much of it as we possibly can.
I'm also aiming to spread the word about what we do here and hopefully establish this site a bit better. The old Blogger template was fine in the olden days (yes, we've been going that long!) but it might be time to finally look at a refresh. You'll know it when you see it...
I'll get the ball rolling and see where it ends up.
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