Christine and the Queens - Stayin' Alive!

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.

Slimane: Mon Amour live at the Arc de Triomphe

 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.

 

Beauregard Festival 2024

 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. 

We'll have more details throughout the year.

Welcome to 2024

 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.