Elli

Guest-selector Sir Edward Verward provided a great track by the very fit Elli Medeiros. Read Edward's nice story about her:
"Un tout petit baiser, au bord du decolleté" (from megahit A bailar calypso) can be included among the most catchy opening-phrases of French popmusic. As is the very ambiguous "prends un petite poisson, glisse le entre mes jambes, il n’y a pas de raison, pour se tirer la langue" (from Toi mon toît), a song regularly played out by fille-sourire french d-jane Clémentine.
Musical formation was due in punk band The Stinky Toys, splitting after two albums and recycling into infamous yé-yé pop-duo Elli & Jacno (rather call it yélectro). Together they wrote one of Lio’s first songs (Amoureux Solitaires) and collaborated on the original soundtrack of the Eric Rohmer’s movie Les nuits de la pleine lune. From this passiv-punk electro-coldness era together with dandy Jacno (remember Main à la main) until the more world-music influenced stuff she tango’ed through in the later parts of the eighties (Bom Bom in ‘87 for Barclay and a second Vanille in ‘89), her voice transformed from falsetto into very teasing and sensual.
Elli Medeiros has enforced strong respect, on one hand for her song-writing skills (it’s rare somebody embodies and keeps perfect balance between electronica and acoustica, between hysteria and tristesse, while smuggling in musical influences from Japan to Argentinia.), on the other hand for her exquisite use of French language, as the song posted, Marie, proves:

Coquille de roudoudou
Ton joli doux tout doux
Ma moue, mon boudou
Ouvre ta bodidou
Ne pense à midabou
Qoudou, mi dadou
Mon rikiki, mon tiz,
Au lit, mon bidi
Marie, mari, ami
Fais-mi, aussi...

Born in Uruguay, this fille de vanille tended in her later carreer towards the sounds of her motherland, with the song La Rubia (‘97) being a concluding piece and tribute to Montevideo. She went on to persue her other two main occupations, illustration and acting (Lulu,Jet Set), got romantically involved with Brian Da Palma, for whom she wrote a song and did costume-design for his film Femme Fatale. Currently she’s working on an new album together with Ettienne Daho’s équipe. Proceedings can be followed at the diary on her website.

Hear Here.