Stephanie Crayencour

The fuzzy-haired four of Suarez recorded for the French release of their very nice album On attend a duet with Belgian acting beauty Stephanie Crayencour. She played in a movie directed by none other than the great Eric Rohmer. It's a folky affair, the song I mean, and Steph has a honey-drenched voice that suits her dollface very well.

Suarez & Stephanie Crayencour - Juste pour voir

Madame Aime

Madame Aime is an album featuring the most gorgeous French actresses singing covers, mostly of 80s hits. Initiative of Madame Figaro, the magazine of newspaper Le Figaro. I got a copy of the mag that featured a photoshoot with all actresses, shot by Kate Barry. Philip Uminski and Bertrand Burgalat, who produced this album, are also featured. It's one of those albums that FS-fans just have to buy. I mean, Viriginie Ledoyen (pictured), Emmanuelle Beart, Emma de Caunes, Cécile Cassel, Valérie Lemercier, Léa Drucker, Isabelle Carré, Clothilde Courau, Mélanie Laurent, Joanna Preiss, Sylvie Testud - just calling these names out loud is a joy.
It's hard to pick songs (ok, well, not everyting is brilliant), but Virginie Ledoyen's version of Niagara's L'amour à la plage is great. Very Filles Fragiles-territory is Mélanie Laurent with Du bout des lèvres (orig. Barbara).

Virginie Ledoyen - L'amour a la plage
Melanie Laurent - Du bout des levres

Brazilian Interlude: Tiê, Clara

Special Brazilian correspondent Luciane on two fellow filles:

The moment I heard Tiê (pronounced "tee-eh"), I knew she was filles material: sweet, enticing, delicate, playful. She studied music in New York and toured extensively around the world with Toquinho, a major name in Brazilian music, before releasing a self-titled EP, in 2007. Her debut album, aptly called Sweet Jardim (Sweet Garden), was released the following year and fulfills the promise. She plays piano, acoustic guitar and signs all the ten songs with an intimate, autobiographical tone. At 28, we can only hope for more! Tiê flirts with English and Français besides composing in her native tongue, portuguese. Le pont (The bridge), from her EP, is an upbeat and playful french tune to sing along to the piano. Aula de francês (French class), from her debut, is as cute as it comes for low-fi charm. Her wordplay combines the honest mistakes of beginner students with a clear intention to communicate her desires and wills. Secretly, perhaps, but just enough. What is she a beginner at? Love, French or both?

This tasty wordplay with French and Portuguese brings us to another Brazilian fille, Clara Moreno, daughter of celebrated singer Joyce and previously featured here on FS. But now the invitation is to samba - and barefoot, no less! Why? Because we can! That's the story behind Pourquoi, an irresistible hip samba with a French spice from Clara's sixth album, Miss Balanço (Miss Groove). The song talks about this rebellious girl who wants to samba without her sandals on. But is it really so? Hmmm... You can't tell for sure if samba means dancing, flirting around when hubby is out of town or both. Either way, he comes home and doesn't like it. But this girl is the proud owner of a free spirit and the french chorus clearly states that she'll do as she pleases 'porque sim', a common portuguese expression to use when you don't want to explain yourself too much. It's very similar to saying 'pourquoi pas' or 'why not', but using 'yes' to make it more defiantly affirmative. Indeed, it takes a lot of attitude to samba barefoot, but not when you have the groovy sambas of Clara Moreno to lead you on. ;)

Tiê - Aula de Francês
Tiê - Le pont
Clara Moreno - Pourquoi

Jeremie & Emily

From the upcoming new album by Swiss singer Jeremie Kisling, this very beautiful duet with Emily Loizeau. See a live version on shaky cam here. If you think Emily's last album is a bit too freakfolkish, try this. (merci SOM)

Jeremie Kisling & Emily Loizeau - Nouvel Horizon

Tigrita Project

You non-Europeans are probably oblivious about our Eurovison Songcontest - and rightly so. It's a campy feast (I mean, see this, or this) with usually bad songs competing. The finals are this Saturday, for France Patricia Kaas is participating with an okay chanson. I missed it, but thanks to Sam I know that Poland could've entered a probable winner. Tigrita Project, with Mon Chocolat. Yes, a French song, a tango to be more precise, sung by a beautiful redhead with a husky voice. Alas, they choose for this crap.

Tigrita Project - Mon chocolat (see video here)

Jenny Canto

Everyday, labels and promopeople offer me music to post on this blog. Most of those offers I turn down - although they claim to 'love' my blog, they send me noisy American indierock, weird clicks 'n cuts-music or country. Seldomly, it's female and French. Lo and behold: Jenny Canto is of Spanish descent, but sings in French. Her debut-single Me la couler douce has a big phat bassline, but her vocals are fragile the way we like it here. The label also send me a remix - not my cup of tea. But the link they provided to Eclats de Lune, a French collective of rappers and dj's, that was really nice. Check out the first track on their Myspace (Dans la lune), and you'll see why. (For the clueless: that's a Gainsbourg-sample right there). Jenny's songs is, and I quote, about 'urging us to let our hair down and get in touch with our inner child'. Irie!

Jenny Canto - Me la couler douce

Make the girl dance

Ripped from this, yes. Gratuitous video, sure. But hey, it's in French, it's with sexy girls. What can I do but post?


Make the girl dance - Baby Baby Baby

The inspiration for the video was not this, but this.
Make the girl dance Myspace.