La Gaité/Klaske

Trio La Gaîté are this years winners of the (26th) Amsterdam Concours de la chanson, a talent hunt for young Dutch chanteurs and chanteuses. Yves Duteil and Liesbeth List were in the jury - they praised the originality, freshness and upbeatness of Dafne, Sabien and Margriet. Who met on the steps of Paris' Sacré-Coeur, there they first sang an old French ditty. To be honest, I never paid much attention to the CdlC; although I appreciate that they urge young Dutchies to sing in French, they also tend to linger in the past. Contestants sing songs by Piaf, Aznavour and the like. But this year (and, so I'm told, also in other recent editions) contestants chose more recent material. Like runner-up Klaske, who very bravely covered Ta Douleur by Camille. Winners La Gaîté chose a song from Pauline Croze's debut-album, Tita. Thanks to Sylvester, who also made the picture of La Gaîté, here are live-recordings from the CdlC.

Klaske - Ta Douleur (see original version here)
La Gaîté - Tita
Pauline Croze - Tita

Amandine Bourgeois

How can you NOT win, with a name like Amandine? She won Nouvelle Star in 2008 (she auditioned by singing Les Rita Mitsouko's Andy!), and now, right before she turned 30 on June 12, her debut album was released. Most songs were (co-)written by Amandine, but Joseph D'Anvers, Rose Keren and Jeanne Cherhal also wrote songs. Ariane Moffatt (!) wrote single L'homme de la situation, see clip here. The album is very upbeat and reeks of summer. If you like Claire Denamur or Jeanne Cherhal, this is a treat.

Amandine Bourgeois - L'homme de la situation

Coralie

Dj Trouble, she of Jersey City's WMFU-fame, has Coralie Clement on her radioshow this Thursday. Between 11.00 and noon (Jersey time). You can listen live via internet.

UPDATE! Lynn emails: She was a no show! Supposedly she got lost....lots of phone calls from her handler after the fact claimed she took a cab from the upper west side of NYC and didn't realize that our studios are on the other side of the hudson. very disappointing to all. I will go see her perform tonite, but it's not quite the same. So i played the benjamin biolay cut from gentils garcons instead!

New stuff

Aaaaaand we're back! Mallorca's a really nice place if you like sea, sex and sun (and rioja wine), so I did enjoy myself.
I my mailbox I found a link to the new Souvenir video, in which the lovely Patricia resembles Bardot in her ultra-sexy years (see here), and the new Emilie Simon single. Em always had a strong Kate Bush influence in her music, but in Dreamland she seems to imitate her big hero. New album The Big Machine sadly has no French songs. Damn you, International Career!

Emilie Simon - Dreamland

Still in French, thank Dieu, is superchanteuse Lio, who made her new album with help from Jacques Duvall and Phantom. New single Je Ne Suis Pas Encore Prete is out now.

Lio & Phantom - Je ne suis pas encore prete

In case you're wondering where my Iggy Pop post went, DMCA took it down (sigh). But the mp3 of Ig singing Je sais que tu sais with Lucie Aimé is still up. Right click, save as.

Summer Cycling Mix

Me & the mrs and our little sprout are off to a sunny island for 2 weeks. So here's a Summer Cycling Mix, featuring mostly men singing about riding a bike, about watching girls ride a bike, about cycling through Paris and about speeding. This lickle mix kicks off with the theme-music used on Dutch public radio during La Grande Boucle, aka the Tour de France. Enjoy yerselves, back on June 15.

Filles Sourires Summer Cycling Mix, download from HERE

Tracklist:

Rein van den Broek - Trumpet Cross
Eddy(la)Gooyatsh - Le Vélo
Joe Dassin - Au Vélo dans Paris
Plasticines - Zazie fait de la bicyclette
Benabar - Velo
Gil Chovet/Chris Hayward - a Velo
Gerald Genty - Mon Velo
Georges Moustaki/Vincent Delerm - Une fille a bicyclette
Yves Montand - A Bicyclette
Carine Erseng - La vitesse superieure

Nicoletta et Marlène

And the guestposts by Sky on Nicoletta keep on a-comin':

Nicoletta’s second cooperation with Francois de Roubaix was her vocal version of the master’s theme melody for José Giovanni’s 1969 noir policier Dernier Domicile Connu – featuring a stupendous, timeless leitmotif that was also used by the likes of Robbie Williams and R&B queen Missy Elliott.
The female lead in Dernier Domicile Connu was played by French actress Marlène Jobert (pictured), who already had starred in now classic movies like Godard’s Masculin féminin, Malle’s Le voleur, and René Clement’s Le passager de la pluie, alongside Bronson, Belmondo, and Jean-Pierre Léaud. In the 80s, Marlène recorded a handful of meanwhile much sought-after singles, among them Je ne pense qu’à toi (Les oisaux chantent faux), a cuddly post disco charmer, complete with sexy whispers and sultry sax. Très chaud!
Marlène quit the movie business in 1998, but her legacy lives on – in person of her daughter Eva Green who started her career with a quite risky role in Bertolucci’s geriatric ménage à trois meets incest fantasy The Dreamers and moved on to play James Bond’s love interest in Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace. Before meeting Carla Bruni, Nicolas Sarkozy invited Eva to join him on his campaign trail. Here you can see why.

Francois de Roubaix - Dernier Domicile Connu
Nicoletta -Pour Qui, Pour Quoi
Robbie Williams - Supreme
Missy Elliott - All n My Grill
Marlène Jobert - Je ne pense qu’à toi

Nicoletta

Guestpost! Sky on Nicoletta:

France’s biggest-selling hit of 1971 was the dull folk-pop earworm Mamy Blue, sung by Nicole Grisoni alias Nicoletta. Despite the huge success, the beguiling brunette had already recorded a row of considerably more impressive tunes, among them the solemn Il est mort de soleil which made Ray Charles call her his „soul sister“, and her sublime technicolor version of Jacques Brel’s wistful Quand on n’a que l’amour – a mighty, but never exalted voice, and one of the finest grand-screen arrangements in the history of French song.

Quite hard-to-find is Nicoletta’s first collaboration with French composer genius Francois de Roubaix: her admirable vocal version of an equally striking soundtrack piece from Jean Herman’s rough, seldom-seen thriller Jeff. During the shooting in 1969, Alain Delon fell in love with blonde co-star Mireille Darc – an affair to remember, though surely not as breathtaking as Nicoletta’s chanson.


Nicoletta - Quand on n’a que l’amour
Jacques Brel - Quand on n’a que l’amour
Francois de Roubaix - Le Canal Gelé
Nicoletta - Jeff