October 11th marks the 50th anniversary of Edith Piaf’s death. A few days ago, a bunch of great French singers paid tribute to La Mome in New York. Anyone’s who seen the movie La Vie en Rose or read about Edith, knows about her ties to the big apple. See an introduction to that show here. Below, a few performances by Elodie Frégé, Olivia Ruiz and Coeur de Pirate on that tribute night:
We’re approaching #1 of our list of the ten sexiest French singing filles today. On the number 5 spot, a fiery seductress.
5. Élodie Frégé
To quote acclaimed Dutch biologist Midas Dekkers, ‘Red-haired women are the comfort par excellence for everthing that went wrong with creation.’ Look at the picture above. Don’t you want to be comforted by Élodie? If you’re not convinced yet, watch this clip from the movie Potiche, in which she plays a younger version of Cathérine Deneuve. The latter tells her husband (yep, Depardieu) that she cheated on him. Several times. Élodie re-enacts the adultery. She doesn’t speak, but boy, is her acting convincing. She’s a temptress (with an excellent voice, we might add), as this supersexy video for La Ceinture showed earlier – keep watching until the end! Heck, her third album La fille d’après-midi is all about being the girl on the side. It’s a theme we hope she will explore some more.
Elodie Frégé – La fille d’après-midi
Alain Chamfort is a big name in France. He played on hits by Dutronc like Les Playboys and Le Cactus, worked with Véronique Sanson and had Gainsbourg write lyrics for him. He debuted in 1968, released his first album in 1976 and scored big hits. Elles et lui is a duets album, Chamfort revisits old songs with the creme de la creme of French female vocalists: Claire Keim, Keren Ann, Vanessa Paradis, Elodie Frégé, to name but a few. Most songs are great. Take the lovely duet with Elodie, for instance. The original, from 1993, is an overblown, kitschy jazz ballad. Now, the music’s understated, the lyrics stand out and Elodie is doing what she does best. Also very good is Bambou, Chamfort’s duet with Camelia Jordana (a song written by Serge).
Alain Chamfort & Elodie Frégé – L’Ennemi dans la glace
Ooh, to have an affair with the ravissante Elodie Frégé – I’m sure I could write a concept album about that. If I’m not mistaken, the beautiful redhead is one step ahead of me: she wrote a concept-album about being the girl on the side, or La fille d’après-midi. The long version of the video for the title-track is telling, songs like Nous ne parlons pas and La belle et la bete are too. On her second album, Benjamin Biolay lend a hand. His influence is felt on La fille…, but he’s not on board as producer. Dunno what happened, I heard Elodie was supposed to contribute on Bio’s La Superbe but bowed out. Anyway, the strings, the dramatic piano-chords, phat bassline and the subtle electronics all add to the sensual songs. I’m not having an affair with Mme Frégé, and I never will. That could be a fine concept-album too, by the way. If only I had the talent…
Elodie Frégé – L’imperméable beige