Video

Remember that scene at the end of La Grande Bellezza, where we see Jep and the girl who deflowered him? Did it make you remember your first time? It might just be like the first time pictured in the new video by Odezenne. This band, hailing from Paris and Bordeaux, was part of the ‘renaissance of French rap’ in the late 2000’s (zeroes), but now aims for the ‘varieté français’ label, which means they left the boom-bap behind and incorporated more pop-influenced, yet electronic sounds. ‘Je veux te baiser’ (I want to fuck you) is a pretty blunt sentence and title for an elegant song, that lifts the bassline from Julee Cruise’s dreampop-classic ‘Falling’. It’s not rapping what Ali does, it’s more reciting, close to the way Grand Corps Malade or MC 900ft Jesus do. Odezenne reinvent themselves on their new EP ‘Rien’, see also the (also pretty blunt) title track.

Charles Aznavour turned 90 today. Here’s a little tribute:

How gently she sings about ‘your penis’:

Françaises who coo over synthetic beats – ever since Elli & Jacno decided to go electronic, this combination kept up its appeal. Lio! Niagara! Agathe! Mikado! Ah, les 80s! This year, we already had DyE, Cléa Vincent and Exotica, now Parisienne Juliette Armanet steps into the neon light. If you google her, you find four videos on Vimeo, with kooky indie songs in the vein of duo Brigitte. L’amour en solitaire (surely a reference to Lio, no?) is different, more France Gall meets Sebastien Tellier. The track was produced by Yuksek.
And if you look closely to the cover picture, you’ll see a variation on the girl with a beard theme…

Mark writes:

As well as the stunning music of ‘Child of Light’, Coeur de Pirate has recorded a new interpretation of Renaud’s 1986 classic ‘Mistral gagnant’. (History of song is here…)

Béatrice was specially chosen by the veteran writer and singer to lead the album of modern covers of his compositions (by Carla Bruni, Elodie Frégé, Nolwenn Leroy, and more) with this song:

The unusual lyrics, and an English translation, can be found below the Youtube film of CdP’s version. The full album will be issued in June.

A live 1988 interpretation of ‘Mistral gagnant’ by Renaud himself is here

La Grande Sophie was the last top singer to tackle this classic, in 2012. She sang it both solo on France Inter, and in duet with Matthieu Boogaerts on ‘Taratata’.

However it is not (yet) on an LGS album, so Filles Sourires gives the best links to her covers of the song.

More proof of Béatrice’s outstanding skill has come with the release onto the web of her full ‘Taratata’ appearance on 28 February last. The 2014 ‘Taratata’ format is a short programme, still with a duet in the middle. Remarkably, CdP performed four songs – two from ‘Trauma’ in English, ‘You know I’m no good’ and ‘Dead Flowers’, one duet with a male artiste, Tété, and ‘Place de la République’ –all at the piano. See HERE

Béatrice is off the stage only between 18m00s and 24m00s in the 33-minute programme. Don’t miss the standing ovation she receives after ‘You know I’m no good’ which brings her to tears; and an interesting interview with the presenter Nagui, where she speaks ‘Parisian’ French as Canadians call it (and so can be understood). Her appearance and poise show how she has changed from the little blonde girl of 2009 to a striking woman, 25 this September, with all the style in hair and dress that Paris offers!

Also good is ‘Dead Flowers’ sung with guitar on ice-rink in Paris with skaters swirling around her.