Emma

Emma Daumas from Avignon was destined to be a popsinger: she wrote her first song when she was 12, and took part in variours concours de chant, and talent-searches like Star Academy. In 2003, her first single was released, which sold over 200000. Her music's pure pop, with a carefully studied rebellious undertone. Think Avril Lavigne. But Emma writes her own songs - on Effets Secondaires, her second album that was released this year, she got some help (from Maidi Roth, among others), but the best song was written by Emma alone. Ailleurs starts like a Radiohead-cover, but changes into a Gainsbourg-influenced, very sultry rockballad. Hard-rocking guitars are de rigueur on this album - because most songs are pretty bland, one could conclude Emma needs volume to cover up emptiness.
But still, Ailleurs is one of my favourite French rocksongs this year.

Emma Daumas - Ailleurs
Emma Daumas - Dommage

Jeanette

If it wasn't for Mordi, I would've never known Jeanette's marvellous Porque te vas. The English-born, American-bred and Spain-residing singer with "the tiniest voice I ever heard (dixit songwriter Manuel Alejandro, who wrote her hit Soy Rebelde) was heavily influenced by American folkheroes like Bob Dylan and Donovan. However, Spanish label Hispavox turned the tomboyish frontwoman of folkrockband Pic-Nic into the unwilling, but highly succesfull 'Spanish voice of romance'. Her biggest hit is Porque te vas. ChaChaCharming writes in an excellent article on Jeanette:

No one would have guessed that an upbeat pop song layered in big beats, horns, and wah-wah guitars would mesh with Jeanette's delicate voice, but the result was stunning. Porque te vas faired poorly during the weeks after its release, but the song was revived two years later when director Carlos Saura chose it as the title track for the film Cria Cuervos. The film won the Grand Prix award at the Cannes Film festival, garnering quite a bit of attention for the soundtrack. Porque te vas was a hit in France, and soon caused a small ripple effect that reached as far as Japan.

The song has been covered many times, far more than I post here. Mostly by cheesy latin popbands and even trancehouse-producers, to disastrous effect. However, there are some good versions, also in French (for instance by German singer Elke Brauwelier, or Canadian crooner Dan Bigras), or by French artists - and this is where the link to this blog comes into play. Here are ten nice, odd and some very bad versions of Porque te vas.

The Original
Jeanette - Porque te vas
Jeanette - Porque te vas (Dreamtime remix)
See Jeanette on YouTube.

The Good
Jeanne Cherhal & Vincent Delerm - Porque te vas (merci Alexandre)
Elke Brauweiler - Pourquoi tu vis
Dan Bigras - Pourquoi tu veux (actually, nice song, but no coverversion. see comments)
NEW: Kahimi Karie - Porque te vas (merci Sky)
NEW: Javier Alvarez - Porque te vas (merci Evaristo)
Andrea Lindsay - Porque te vas
Brigitte Escobar - Porque te vas

The Odd
Los Telebolitos - Porque te vas
Refractory - Porque te vas

The Bad
The Springlove - Porque te vas
Masterboy - Porque te vas

Catherine

Another Catherine (see below), but again from Quebec: Catherine Durand. Last year Diaporama was released, her third album. She was discovered by the guy who also broke Amanda Marshall. Catherine's music and voice are a little understated - folky acoustic guitars with a tender voice that's sometimes just a tad more than a whisper. She studied cinema and communications at the Montreal university, worked as camerawoman for a musicstation and counts Johnny Cash, Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Union Station and Gillian Welch among her influences. Just like these artists, Catherine isn't ashamed of her religious beliefs - on Diaporama the English song I Still Pray is an ode to Jesus - and maybe the 'he' in many other songs refers to someone else than a former or present lover. Doesn't bother me.

Catherine Durand - Aujourd'hui
Catherine Durand - Je Me Rapelle

Voilà Jeanne

See the new video for Jeanne Cherhal's Voilà above. See the making-of that video here. And download the song from her lovely album L'Eau below.[Merci René]

Jeanne Cherhal - Voilà

Klervia

Natasha bumped into Catherine Major (see below), I just got acquinted to Fabienne Kervella, also known as Klervia. A bretonne who moved to Paris, and who's influenced by Raphael, Jeff Buckley, Fiona Apple and Damien Rice (if it's intense, very emotional male singers you like, I strongly recommend Damien's latest album 9).
She sings in both French and English, I immediatly fell for her song Ici Et Maintenant. Klervia explains: "I wrote it 3 years ago. In this intimate and tormented lovesong, I talk to my new boyfriend. I explain my unfortunate past experiences which have left me some scars. Even if I feel fine with him (I repeat it in the refrain: I feel fine here and now, hence the title Ici et Maintenant), I still have doubts and I am still on the defensive side."

Klervia - Ici Et Maintenant

Catherine

Guestpost! Natasha-la-la went fishing for unknown filles online, and caught budding Quebecois singer and pianoplayer Catherine Major.

Besides her undeniable talent as a pianist and singer-songwriter, she has had a very straight and narrow ascent into the music world, dominated by winning tons of prestigious awards and warm media acclaim. And she’s just 26.
Once you’ve proved yourself in your own neck of the woods, it’s time to cross the Atlantic and see what French-speaking Europe thinks of you, the ultimate test for any French Canadian artist. In 2004, Catherine received a prestigious award in France for her first and only album so far Par-dessus bord, which won the Coup de cœur of the Académie Charles Cros. In 2006, she won an award for best singer-songwriter at the Swiss festival Pully à l’heure du Québec. I’d say she on the right track.
She has much passion, sensitivity and emotion. She is a brilliant piano player and a delightful lyricist. I liked her right away. I liked here because she seems and sounds very authentic and not a glossy music business product or just another pretty face. A bit of jazz here, some latin, some African, she plays it all. Her singing on Le ciel gris vaguely reminds me of French singer Belle du Berry of Paris Combo, although it is much more dramatic. Her other songs tell stories and make me wonder what it would be like to hear live.
She has often been the supporting act of another popular singer-songwriter and pianist Richard Desjardins, who made it in Europe a long time ago. Desjardins apparently once told her over a drink that her homework was to listen to all of Bob Dylan, all of Leonard Cohen and all of Léo Ferré. She told him that in order to open for him properly she had to listen to his music first since shopping for his music was what she had been doing that day. Smart girl.

Catherine Major - Le Ciel Gris
Catherine Major - Par-Dessus Bord

Mayane

Not sure what went wrong between gorgeous, fizzy haired Mayane Delem and her recordlabel Delabel - either her debut didn't sell very well, or 'artistic differences' drove them apart. Fact is that Mayanes sophomore release was autoproduit, and released on a very small label (available via iTunes, though). Hard to understand - with a body, a face and a perfect Fillessourires-voice like hers, why is no major label interested? As you can read in this artist profile, Mayane is multitalented (she acts as well), was whipped by music from an early age and she, err, likes to sweat. Second album Petites Chansons Domestiques dans ma Chambre de Disques is a breezy affair, with "des chansons de fille douce-amère et fière de l'être!" She made a few nice videos to accompany her songs. See them at Mayane's MySpace-site.

Mayane - Dans Ma Chambre
Mayane - Tout va Bien