carla bruni, jeanne balibar, etc. (contemporary french singer-songtresses)

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bruni is a former model

balibar is the very delicate-looking star of recent french movies including 'va savoir!'

both have new albums out (i believe it's balibar's first, and bruni's second) which are all over french radio

they have a kind of tastefulness stamped all over them, a prettiness, that first made me balk, but whaddaya know, after a while i've sort of grown to like them (the singles anyhow)

france has a bigger tradition of actors turned singers (or vice versa--sometimes i don't even know which career came first) which is in my mind not all to the better, hipster affection for gillian hills records notwithstanding.

what do you people think of these and other present-day examples of this phenomenon?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:53 (twenty-two years ago)

also julie delpy has an album coming out, but i'm not sure if it's in english or french, and it's supposed to be kind of leonard cohen-y

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:54 (twenty-two years ago)

also i want to clarify by stating that i am not opposed to hott girls making records

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 16:56 (twenty-two years ago)

i haven't heard any of these but will be first in line for any ludivine sagnier records.

― dan (dan), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:02 (twenty-two years ago)

i had no idea Bruni was making records. can we blame this on Mick Jagger?

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:04 (twenty-two years ago)

ludivine, i deam of dan (wank fantasy, 2004)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

ludivine, i dream of dan (wank fantasy, 2004)

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

oops

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:08 (twenty-two years ago)

the carla bruni record is really really nice...not quite coffetableish, very enjoyable (at least to me)

― manuel (manuel), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:22 (twenty-two years ago)

I hope Ludivine does the song she sings in that "8 Women" film, that was pretty good

― Donna Brown (Donna Brown), Thursday, 19 February 2004 17:29 (twenty-two years ago)

ludivine should also redo "tanze samba mit mir" from "water drops on burning rocks". it's going to be a tremendous album.

― dan (dan), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:33 (twenty-two years ago)

she also covers "come on-a my house" and "hey hey we're the monkeys!" (as "entrez chez moi' and "hé hé on est les singes")

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:35 (twenty-two years ago)

what if all ilx threads ended up as ludivine sagnier threads?

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:38 (twenty-two years ago)

I've got Carla's first LP. It's great - only just missed my Top 20 of 2002 list (as I said at the time). So would like to hear the new one. Not living on the continent anymore though I guess I will have to wait a few months yet... :(

― Jeff W, Thursday, 19 February 2004 18:56 (twenty-two years ago)

Yeah, another vote for Carla Bruni's album. Sure it's nice, tasteful and all that, but within that genre it is mighty fine. She actually started by writing songs for other people (e.g. Laurent Voulzy), so she's had some practice.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 20 February 2004 08:35 (twenty-two years ago)

Carla Bruni's LP sold more than 1 million units, which shows the unbearable lack of taste of the french audience, especially when it comes to "intimate/authentic" music. Every regular bourgeoise owns a copy, including my girlfriend, my two sisters and my mother.

Jeanne Balibar's album "Paramour" is fine, well-produced and rather ambitious. Not really my cup of tea but worth-hearing. There's a song with Maggie Cheung.

Apart from that, i'll never understand how non-french males can be so fascinated by french "cute" girls - you're wasting your time guys.

― Etienne Menu (Etienne), Friday, 20 February 2004 08:37 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't really see how Carla Bruni is any worse or less authentic than any other female singer-songwriter.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 20 February 2004 09:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Etienne, 95% of ILX is regular bourgeoise!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Friday, 20 February 2004 09:26 (twenty-two years ago)

Baaderist, i'm not saying she's less authentic, i know she's honest and believes in what she does, but i just can't stand the climate of her album, it sounds fake to me, that's it. The lyrics are poor, the songs are dull and her so-called great voice is boring and/or annoying. It's just mediocre music for a mediocre nation of listeners.

― Etienne Menu (Etienne), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:13 (twenty-two years ago)

There's a song with Maggie Cheung.

is it called 'we are the handmaidens of the european art film'?

i don't think i'm obsessed with french cute girls, which is why i made fun of dan re ludivine sagnier. i do admit a certain journalistic interest in cute girls in general, of which there are astonishingly many in paris.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Carla Bruni occupies the same consumer demographic in France that Dido occupies in the UK. She's alright - at least she can sing, unlike the vast majority of French actresses turned chanteuses.

I like the Café de Flore - Rendez-Vous à Saint-Germain album.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00008AY6F/002-0067338-2218439?v=glance

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:36 (twenty-two years ago)

C'est quand meme mieux que Nolwenn, non?

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:39 (twenty-two years ago)

Star Ac et compagnie n'ont rien à voir avec la musique.

― Jonathan Z. (Joanthan Z.), Friday, 20 February 2004 10:44 (twenty-two years ago)

Oh yeah? so how come people were humming their record in shopping malls across the land the Christmas before last?

― Jeff W, Friday, 20 February 2004 10:59 (twenty-two years ago)

spanish actress leonor watling (my life without me) has just released her debut album with her band Marlango (a tribute to tom waits). but she'd better stick to her acting career. she can sing, but the songs aren't even remarkable.

― joan vich (joan vich), Friday, 20 February 2004 11:09 (twenty-two years ago)

Anyway, does anyone have Carla's new one? I expect it to be excatly like the first one, but I'm still midly curious.

― Baaderist (Fabfunk), Friday, 20 February 2004 15:52 (twenty-two years ago)

one month passes...

so there are two indie-pop-style songs on french radio nowadays

one is by louis (??) and is called "leylie brown" (??), it's very retro and probably would grate if i heard it more often, but it's cool in a sort of bertrand burgalat mode

another is by a girl singer whose name i forget but i think it's called "la tort ou la raison" and is very pretty, if modest. it has a really cute video which is actually not sickly sweet. i'd be curious if anyone knew more about this. i want to leave here with some cursory knowledge, at least, of good contemporary french pop.

i'm surprised that either of these songs are popular. they're too soft and too traditional for american radio. though i guess they fit in ok alongside the new air single (which i find kind of boring) and even the new phoenix. the rest of the stuff on french pop radio is pretty much shit, especially the weird ska hybrid stuff. some of the rap i find ok, but it rarely transcends an imitation of a particular american style. the lyrics are often very serious, which annoys me, as i've always hated "conscious" rap in america too.

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 April 2004 07:24 (twenty-two years ago)

oh it's "à tort ou à raison" by prudence

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 April 2004 07:36 (twenty-two years ago)

funny, i think a lot of ilmers would like prudence (it's a band, i guess, not a girl) but i guess no one's heard this track....

― amateur!st (amateurist), Thursday, 1 April 2004 17:54 (twenty-two years ago)

three years pass...

carla bruni is now apparently sarkozy's new girlfriend :/

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 13:02 (eighteen years ago)

Respec' Nicky boy

― Tom D., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

among those who got there first: mick jagger, eric clapton

― Tracer Hand, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 13:06 (eighteen years ago)

She prefers the older, more mature right winger wanker

― Tom D., Tuesday, 18 December 2007 13:07 (eighteen years ago)

haha - painfully OTM

― baaderonixx, Tuesday, 18 December 2007 16:01 (eighteen years ago)

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