Although P. usually chooses to listen to Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez (yeah...), occasionally she'll turn on a French artist. Today I bring you one of P.'s favorite singers, Camelia Jordana. She competed on the French version of American Idol and has had a fair amount of success since then. "Non, non, non" is the one song of hers that I've heard more than once on the radio.
(Yes, I know it's Sunday but I left for Pierrelatte too early Friday morning to make my self-imposed deadline.)
Last weekend I was watching the French version of the Grammys with my host family when a group called Brigitte got on stage to perform. Apparently they had also performed in Aubenas one of the few times where I didn't go along for a concert and stayed in Pierrelatte for the weekend to hang out with these cool people instead. Anyway, the point is that I totally wish I'd seen their concert because now I'm obsessed with them.
This video isn't the official music video for "Battez-Vous" but I almost like it better. And now, I leave you with Tyler's final comment because it's so true.
Les Demoiselles de Rochefortwas the second French musical I'd ever seen. Like Les Parapluies de Cherbourg,it stars Catherine Deneuve but it's less of an opera and more of a musical. I was surprised to see George Chakiris (Bernardo from West Side Story)and Gene Kelly speaking and singing in French, but found upon further inspection that they had been dubbed.
My favorite song was "La Chanson de Maxence." Maxence is a sailor and a painter pining away for his dream woman, aka Catherine Deneuve. P. and S. thought he looked like Draco Malfoy with his blonde hair. The English version is called "You Must Believe in Spring."
Now that I'm back in France, French Music Friday is back. As with Claire Denamur, Coeur de Pirate (Beatrice Martin) is an artist that I knew about before crossing the Atlantic. However, she is better-known than Claire Denamur -- the Coeur de Pirate wikipedia page is translated into six languages while Mlle Denamur's page is only available in French.
I had a hard time choosing which song of hers to post because I have many favorites, but this music video is the most entertaining with a story easy for non-francophones to follow. You know that part in Monty Python and the Holy Grail when King Arthur chops off all of the Black Knight's limbs in a duel? If that made you feel squeamish, you might want to look away at around 2:12-2:16 when the brunette is flirting with the football player. Just a heads up. No pun intended.
Today I felt like posting a video from one of my favorite French singers. I'm sure I've talked about Claire Denamur before, if for no other reason than to covet her hair swoop, but I adore her voice.
When I came to France just over two months ago, one of the first questions the family asked me was what French music I liked. I mentioned the obvious (Edith Piaf, duh) and a few other famous artists, but when I said Claire Denamur, they were completely shocked. They said that she's not at all well-known in France outside of certain circles, and they asked me how on earth I discovered her music all the way out in Arizona. Thanks, Little Brown Pen, for making me seem awesome.
Despite how cheery this song may sound, it's actually quite sad. It's about a fairytale, happy ending not turning out the way it should have. I still love it though. I think you can guess what "Le Prince Charmant" means, but Tyler always called it the "restaurant" song because that was the one line he understood. I still have to play that game from time to time -- trying to remember snippets of French lyrics to google songs after hearing them on the radio. I did the same thing with the Karimouche song with the "pourquoi c'est comme ci, pourquoi c'est comme ca" line. Thank goodness for search engines.
Anyway, Claire Denamur came out with a new album recently and supposedly it's "edgier," whatever that means. The first single off of it looks much more intense than "Le Prince Charmant," so I guess I'll just go off of that. If you were wondering what I want for Christmas, now you know. :)
From what I've been told, Jeanne Moreau is much better known for being an actress than a singer. I won't pretend to be an expert on French cinema, since the only role I recognized on her imdb filmography was her as the old lady in Ever After.
I've listened to this record four or five times in the past couple of weeks and love it.
The other day P (the 7 1/2 year-old daughter of M. T and Mme. T) wanted to show me some of the CDs and books she "used to" listen to when she was "little." First we listened to a book on CD of The Little Mermaid and I was seriously confused because the ending was different both from the original Hans Christian Andersen ending and the Disney version. In her version, after the prince leaves the little mermaid for another woman, the king destroys the sea witch so that the spell on the little mermaid is broken. She ends up going back to live with her mermaid family and marrying a sea prince! I didn't even think of that as an option. Are there other endings I don't know about?
Anyway, after that I was introduced to the French version of Raffi -- Pascal Parisot. Rest assured that I showed the kids "Bananaphone" and "Down by the Bay" afterward, but Pascal Parisot definitely gives Raffi a run for his money.
My favorites were "Les poissons panes" (fishsticks), "Mes parents sont bio" (roughly translating to "My parents are organic/only eat organic"), and "Tu chantes comme une casserole" (you sing terribly/like a casserole). Unfortunately, his songs haven't yet taken youtube by storm, so the video I'm posting is a mishmash of songs he played for a concert for little kids. He plays "Tu chantes comme une casserole" towards the end at least.
I couldn't find a video of my favorite of him singing the songs ("Mes parents sont bio"), but I did find this charming video of a French dad singing it with his kids behind him. At the end the kids come out and make comments about how their dad clearly does not eat all organic and even gets burgers at Quick (Quelle horreur!) and then he calls them "fils indignes" (indignant sons). I have a feeling it's staged, but quite cute all the same.
One of my favorite parts about living with my host family is that they know a lotabout French music. 'A lot' as in it's M. T's job to have broad as well as good taste so that he can book groups for concerts and events.
For my very first "French Music Friday," I'm posting a song that's been stuck in my head ever since we listened to it in the car two weeks ago (or at least the part where she sings "Pourquoi c'est comme ci, pourquoi c'est comme ca").
