What Could've Been for Alizee in the U.S.

[JoeNY]

I know it's crying over spilled milk and hindsight is 20/20, but Alizee could've been huge in the U.S. in the early 2000s. I think Alizee would have been an international star because she alone transcends the language barrier and music genre. You cannot help but love her image, voice, and personality even if you don't understand French or like pop music. I don't think Mylene Farmer even imagined that potential with Alizee, or maybe she felt tackling the big fish in the U.S. was too much to ask from a 16-year old. I have sifted through the music of other contemporary French artists, and I cannot see anyone other than Alizee who could succeed in the U.S. - not Jenifer, not Mylene, not Superbus. There was an anti-French sentiment in the U.S. around 2003 because of their anti-war stance on Iraq. I don't know if that had any effect on Mylene's decision to keep Alizee out of the U.S. Our loss. :( Even though Alizee is only 26 and far from finished in the music industry, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity in the U.S. that may have passed her.

[lefty12357]

I know what you're saying, but I would also point out that the future isn't written yet. Alizée's situation may not be as solid as it was back in 2003, but I think all options are still open to her, even if they may be harder to achieve. And who knows, maybe she is better equipped to deal with things now that she is older.

I'm not saying that having Alizée come to the US is likely, I'm just saying that no doors are closed to her, yet. And of course we don't know for sure what she wants to do. She has made comments that one could argue either way.

[Scruffydog777]

I agree she could've been huge here and though the anti French sentiment in this country was a big factor, epecially in 2003 (this was the year the name Freeom fries replaced French fries in many restaurants) when four of Alizee's English song were released, I still believe the main factor was the poor job Mylene Farmer did in re-writing the French songs which seems such a shame because she was so immensely talented at everything else.

If it wasn't for that sentiment, I think she could've made it here with just her French songs, it they had just made an attempt at it, after all Moi Lolita did very well in the U.K.But another factor that probably put the nix on that was a lot of parents would have taken much interest in a little French girl who was wore a dress with the cheeks of her rear end hanging out and singing about being a Lolita. That probably wouldn't have gone well at all. Even though we seem to have many rap songs that have lyrics that are far worse by comparison, I think they would've looked at her in a different light and not a favorable one.

I think the release of the 4 English songs in 2003 was meant to target the U.S. market, after all they had already made it into the U.K. market. But then they saw the reaction to these songs and decided it wouldn't work. Alizee said herself in an interview that her English songs were laughed at. I wonder if she knows the reason why?

I think Alizee could still make it in the U.S. First it will take her next album to have one or two good English songs on it. Of course to become a hit here, she'd have to come over here to release and promote them here. A lot more people here would then find out about her older songs and love them and maybe would want to hear them on the radio, but if by chance that happened, would radio stations be willing to play songs that were released years ago. I'm inclined to think not.

[Mon Maquis]

Alizee could of made it in the US with the right people backing her.

Alizee has to have the motivation to come to the US and meet with people. If she does not, then people will know she is not serious.

Many times I was asked when setting up promotions, well when your French artist be in the US? If they come to the US, then we will meet...Its nice to tell them, they are here in the US right now, what time are we meeting...

[babyblue558]

Same goes for Alizée in the UK. Although there was a bit of an effort to get her established over here (TOTP performances, UK interviews etc) I really feel that getting to #9 in the UK charts should've just been the beginning of much more. Instead, it was the peak of her appreciation by the British public, and from then onwards she rapidly disappeared. :(

[Merci Alizée]

Same goes for Alizée in the UK. Although there was a bit of an effort to get her established over here (TOTP performances, UK interviews etc) I really feel that getting to #9 in the UK charts should've just been the beginning of much more. Instead, it was the peak of her appreciation by the British public, and from then onwards she rapidly disappeared. :(

Same can be said about all those places where she made a breakthrough with her previous albums. If I'm not wrong then in Korea, her songs reached top of the charts, but that proved to be just one time achievement.

If you notice the kind of promotion of first two albums then you'll see that her image was a major part of it. But now there is only album and her image remains in the background. This has been case for both Psychedelices and UEdS.

For intentional success, a good album would be essential for the base, decent promotion to maintain it and a strong image to convert it into something.

It's hard to speculate, but I guess for a French artist all those factors will give better result in non-French European countries than in US. If she couldn't have got huge success in US, then at least she could have always got a decent constant support there. Such a support is always good for long-term objectives of the career.

[Rev]

...I think the release of the 4 English songs in 2003 was meant to target the U.S. market, after all they had already made it into the U.K. market. But then they saw the reaction to these songs and decided it wouldn't work....


Keep in mind that English is the most common second language in Europe (at least according to a Norwegian I spoke with when I was in France many years ago - who also said he could travel all over Europe and always use English). Therefore, if you wanted to reach a larger audience in Europe then writing songs in English could help. :)

[Junkmale]

I strongly believe that Alizee has the talent to 'make it' in any part of the world she wants to.
Unfortunately being a success means hard work and an enormous amount of effort.
I see no signs of that happening, but always hope and wish that things will change.

[ALS]

The problems was or appears that they didn't even try to break into America.

If some one could have gotten her on Saturday Night Live back in 2003 in that J'en ai marre out fit, she would have been the talk of the town after performing J'en ai marre and J'ai Pas Vingt Ans. :D

[babyblue558]

It's true. The issue isn't that English-speaking countries wouldn't accept a French-speaking singer - in fact it's quite the opposite - most of my friends I've shown Alizée and other French singers to love the fact they sing in French. The issue is that nobody was prepared to take the risk of promoting Alizée in a big way in English-speaking countries. With hindsight we can see that that was a mistake, but I guess at the time it seemed to be the obvious decision.

[lefty12357]

Yelle has been doing just fine in the US singing in French. So it is possible. Now her name isn't a household word at this point, and I can't speak for Yelle herself (or the band), but my guess is she is quite happy with the reception she has gotten so far. And maybe she feels it's worthwhile, or why else would she be doing another tour.

There are many degrees of success that are valuable, meaningful and worthwhile that don't necessarily require one to be as well known as Britney or Lady Gaga. Alizée could probably still achieve a limited, but worthwhile degree of success in English speaking countries.

Early on, Alizée may have feared success in the US, but now I think maybe she fears failure. If she can't get things going in France, venturing out into a large, English speaking country may seem like madness. But at least one French fan pointed out that if Alizée at least earned some credibility in the US, it may help her back at home. I'm not sure if this would be the case, but I take his word for it.

I know, it's a lot of "maybes" and "what ifs"...:)

[MarkL]

I know, it's a lot of "maybes" and "what ifs"...:)

But theres gotta be times when you take risks

[Scruffydog777]

I strongly believe that Alizee has the talent to 'make it' in any part of the world she wants to.
Unfortunately being a success means hard work and an enormous amount of effort.
I see no signs of that happening, but always hope and wish that things will change.

We see from her early career that she is capable of very hard work. She kept up a very busy schedule of performances, traveling and interviews, not to mention all the practicing it must have taken to dance as well as she did,but two things have changed since then. Appearing on stage was the main love of her life and she had someone driving her, who I assume was Mylene Farmer.

Now she needs someone else to drive her. As far as the love of her life, that has been replaced by her new family but now that her career is in trouble, can that fact maybe raise the importance of her second love to the point where she will give it the attention it needs to have meaningful success?

[Mon Maquis]

I can't speak for Yelle herself (or the band), but my guess is she is quite happy with the reception she has gotten so far. And maybe she feels it's worthwhile, or why else would she be doing another tour.

I don't know if you guys know this or not, but since Yelle toured over in the US, she caught the eye of Katy Perry and Yelle is opening for Katy Perry for her UK Shows.

Same could of happened to Alizee, you need to get your feet...

[lefty12357]

I don't know if you guys know this or not, but since Yelle toured over in the US, she caught the eye of Katy Perry and Yelle is opening for Katy Perry for her UK Shows.

Same could of happened to Alizee, you need to get your feet...

Actually I did know that, and I don't know why I didn't think of mentioning it in my post, because it's more proof that taking a chance by playing in the US can reap worthwhile rewards.

[Chuck]

Okay, I'm quoting myself again, but it pertains. As I said in that other thread a few days ago, in moderate agreement with Scruffy, MonMaquis, and others demanding more Alizée output...

"To reboot this career, she'll need an expert manager. Someone who would demand commitment. Someone who would be able to pull her away from her happy, idyllic lifestyle, and make her do more recordings, tv spots, concerts, appearances, traveling, interviews, and work, work, work, work and work!

I suspect she's not in a big hurry to hire this person. :( "

[FanDeAliFee]

I have not consumed a lot of US broadcast media in the last twenty years, but I do indeed recall one occasion when Alizée was mentioned on the air. This was on Attack of the Show! (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attack_of_the_Show!), a program about contemporary young adult mass-media culture. It premiered in early 2005 and I stopped watching it in late 2008, so that brackets the mention of Alizee. I suspect the mention was made in late 2006, by which time the massive expansion of YouTube had made Alizée known to many Internet users here in the States.

The reference made to Alizée was for her physical beauty, not her singing or other strengths.

Have you ever encountered Alizée in the broadcast media of your country in the latter part of the decade just ended?

[Euphoria]

She needs to work on either getting her career back in France or completely forget about it and try for the US.

[lefty12357]

Have you ever encountered Alizée in the broadcast media of your country in the latter part of the decade just ended?

I did in the early part of the last decade. I have told this story a few times before in various threads, but I saw a news magazine type show on network TV that was discussing the subject, "Are teens growing up too fast", or something to that effect. They mentioned the issue was also of concern in Europe, and then they showed a segment of Alizée's video, "Parler tout bas", and talked about it for a bit. I was mesmerized by Alizée's voice and the imagery of the video. I was determined to find out more about her the next day, but like an idiot, I forgot her name! I didn't actually find out more about her until 2006 when I found her JEAM video. I didn't recognize her immediately because 5 years had gone by and she had changed a bit. Searching for more, I found PTB, and the rest, as they say, is history. I have yet to hear of any other US fan who saw that same show I did.

[babyblue558]

Something I posted in another thread but also relevant here...

Yelle's also supporting Katy Perry on her tour in the UK... I think that if Alizée had someone really established in the music industry promote her then it would do wonders for her international career in English speaking countries. I know a British singer who's relatively well-known in the UK (and USA I think?) called Marina and the Diamonds who has said on several occasions that she's an Alizée fan in interviews and tweeted the Moi... Lolita music video to her 70 000 odd followers.

^^Lili could do with some more of that... it does work... as proven by the case of Yelle

[User22]

The problems was or appears that they didn't even try to break into America.

If some one could have gotten her on Saturday Night Live back in 2003 in that J'en ai marre out fit, she would have been the talk of the town after performing J'en ai marre and J'ai Pas Vingt Ans. :D

And that could have been the beginning of my fandom with her...

But see if this had happened, then the world would have exploded...

Anyway on a more serious note...yeah she could have been big...not much more to say...

[JoeNY]

I know what you're saying, but I would also point out that the future isn't written yet. Alizée's situation may not be as solid as it was back in 2003, but I think all options are still open to her, even if they may be harder to achieve. And who knows, maybe she is better equipped to deal with things now that she is older.

I'm not saying that having Alizée come to the US is likely, I'm just saying that no doors are closed to her, yet. And of course we don't know for sure what she wants to do. She has made comments that one could argue either way.A belated surge in Alizee-mania in the U.S. like Mexico is too much to ask for? I know Alizee is gaining a bigger American audience every day thanks to Youtube and Google. However, that audience is mostly for Alizee's earlier work with Mylene. I know when I first saw Alizee on Youtube back in 2007, I was immediately floored and wanted to know everything about her. :p Unfortunately, I've just been lining the pockets of Mylene with my Alizee CDs and DVD purchases since then.

[DrSmith]

Unfortunately, I've just been lining the pockets of Mylene with my Alizee CDs and DVD purchases since then.

This will help you sleep better at night. (http://www.alizeestore.com/) ;)

[Future Raptor Ace]

I know it's crying over spilled milk and hindsight is 20/20, but Alizee could've been huge in the U.S. in the early 2000s. I think Alizee would have been an international star because she alone transcends the language barrier and music genre. You cannot help but love her image, voice, and personality even if you don't understand French or like pop music. I don't think Mylene Farmer even imagined that potential with Alizee, or maybe she felt tackling the big fish in the U.S. was too much to ask from a 16-year old. I have sifted through the music of other contemporary French artists, and I cannot see anyone other than Alizee who could succeed in the U.S. - not Jenifer, not Mylene, not Superbus. There was an anti-French sentiment in the U.S. around 2003 because of their anti-war stance on Iraq. I don't know if that had any effect on Mylene's decision to keep Alizee out of the U.S. Our loss. :( Even though Alizee is only 26 and far from finished in the music industry, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity in the U.S. that may have passed her.
It was before 2003 bud, months after the day that "we will never forget" is when America went from Pro France to Anti France. If Alizee was ever starting to get some fame in the US in 2000, it was extinguished immediately in 2001 and never allowed to light again. If history was to change I still dont think she would be that popular here; she would be as popular as she is in England today and maybe even less so.

[JoeNY]

It was before 2003 bud, months after the day that "we will never forget" is when America went from Pro France to Anti France. If Alizee was ever starting to get some fame in the US in 2000, it was extinguished immediately in 2001 and never allowed to light again. If history was to change I still dont think she would be that popular here; she would be as popular as she is in England today and maybe even less so.Whatever Katy Perry's popularity is in the U.S., Alizee's would be far greater here. ;) And capturing even a small part of the U.S. population as fans is a big deal. There's over 300 million people here. And 5% of fans in the U.S. is equivalent to 25% in Britain. Alizee is irresistable, and Americans are not immune to her charms. ;)

[Future Raptor Ace]

Whatever Katy Perry's popularity is in the U.S., Alizee's would be far greater here. ;) And capturing even a small part of the U.S. population as fans is a big deal. There's over 300 million people here. And 5% of fans in the U.S. is equivalent to 25% in Britain. Alizee is irresistable, and Americans are not immune to her charms. ;)
That's all nice but your pulling out hypothetical percents lol. There is no guarantee she would even get 0.001% of the US population as her fans. Even when she was at her peak in success in England, she didn't have very many fans! Today she is nearly all but forgotten in England and declining slowly in France.

[Junkmale]

That's all nice but your pulling out hypothetical percents lol. There is no guarantee she would even get 0.001% of the US population as her fans. Even when she was at her peak in success in ENGLAND, she didn't have very many fans! Today she is nearly all but forgotten in ENGLAND and declining slowly in France.

What you mean FRA is the UK.
England is only a part of the country.
And...yes....i know i'm being pedantic :)

[Future Raptor Ace]

What you mean FRA is the UK.
England is only a part of the country.
And...yes....i know i'm being pedantic :)
Lol its kool man. The reason I keep saying England and not the United Kingdom is becuase she was popular in England only to my knowledge, not in Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. Correct me if im wrong

[Junkmale]

Lol its kool man. The reason I keep saying England and not the United Kingdom is becuase she was popular in England only to my knowledge, not in Wales, Scotland, or Ireland. Correct me if im wrong


You are FRA. :)
Moi did very well in the UK singles charts (not sure what number it ended up as?).
UK sales charts are taken from total sales throughout the UK i.e. England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands etc. The figures don't take into account which area of the UK sold the most copies. Their is NO seperate chart position for England only.
The Republic of Ireland, as a foreign country, have their own charts.
110% no offence intended!!!

As an aside i been trying to work out how many other songs with French lyrics have been hits here in the UK.
Just remembered this one -

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/mwFhRigCHzY" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[JoeNY]

Just to prove my point about Alizee being an unrivaled international French star, the top 10 Youtube videos for Alizee have had over 95 million views with her live performance of Jen ai' Marre getting almost 16 million views alone. Mylene Farmer's top 10 most viewed Youtube videos combined for a total 8 million views. And most of the comments on her videos are in French which tells me she mostly captures the French-speaking markets - France and Canada. I'd say the majority of comments for Alizee's videos are in English (and some Spanish, Russian, and even Chinese/Japanese/Korean). Of course, views don't necessarily translate to album sales and $$$, but exposure is everything in the music business.

Too bad we don't have any mega-record stores in NYC anymore. I could imagine Alizee having a CD-signing in the now-closed Virgin Records store in Union Square and selling 5000 copies of UEDS in one day. Well, as many as she could sign. :p I would stand in line for hours for my one chance to see her in person. :wub:

[Merci Alizée]

Just to prove my point about Alizee being an unrivaled international French star

Alizée is most well-known French artist in the world, there is no doubt about that.

[FanDeAliFee]

Just to prove my point about Alizee being an unrivaled international French star, the top 10 Youtube videos for Alizee have had over 95 million views... I could imagine Alizee having a CD-signing in the now-closed Virgin Records store in Union Square and selling 5000 copies of UEDS in one day. Well, as many as she could sign. :p I would stand in line for hours for my one chance to see her in person. :wub:

You make EXCELLENT points Joe - and welcome to AAm!

I know it is not quite the same thing, but maybe if you bring your UEdS CD to the Chateau Marmont show (http://alizeeamerica.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6274) in the East Village on Friday, you might get one or more of its members to autograph it for you. As the composers of HALF its songs, they had a lot of contact with Alizee, and might even answer a question or two about her you pose. The last word I have from AAm's leader Ben is that he will attend, making it a great chance to meet him in person as well.

If I could attend, I'd ask the venue if I could shoot video footage, and then offer it up to CM for their exclusive benefit. Wouldn't that be a nice way to earn their possible friendship?

[Corsaire]

Just to prove my point about Alizee being an unrivaled international French star, the top 10 Youtube videos for Alizee have had over 95 million views with her live performance of Jen ai' Marre getting almost 16 million views alone. Mylene Farmer's top 10 most viewed Youtube videos combined for a total 8 million views. And most of the comments on her videos are in French which tells me she mostly captures the French-speaking markets - France and Canada. I'd say the majority of comments for Alizee's videos are in English (and some Spanish, Russian, and even Chinese/Japanese/Korean). Of course, views don't necessarily translate to album sales and $$$, but exposure is everything in the music business.

Too bad we don't have any mega-record stores in NYC anymore. I could imagine Alizee having a CD-signing in the now-closed Virgin Records store in Union Square and selling 5000 copies of UEDS in one day. Well, as many as she could sign. :p I would stand in line for hours for my one chance to see her in person. :wub:

The problem I see with your line of reasoning is that those YouTube numbers for Alizée are/were mainly generated by days gone by dance moves, panties display, sexy look and bathing suit pictures. I am all for promoting Alizée, but let us be realistic, if you were to subtract the views and comments that relate to her teenage beauty and sexy moves, those numbers might not even be 5% of what they are. I have introduced Alizée to countless people and although every single one of them (male and female) commented on her exceptional beauty and grace, I doubt very much that a single one would care to see one of her shows, let alone stand in line for an autograph.

I can’t speak for other countries, but one can easily list 5-10 French female singers (Mylène Farmer, Patricia Kaas, Vanessa Paradis, Véronique Sanson, Mireille Mathieu...) that could show up in Canada tomorrow and get way more interest generated than Alizée can. The potential might be there, but I really doubt she is the most popular female French singer in the world right now, not even close.

And that is not counting other female francophone artists that are not of French nationality, like Céline Dion or Lara Fabian.

[Merci Alizée]

The problem I see with your line of reasoning is that those YouTube numbers for Alizée are/were mainly generated by days gone by dance moves, panties display, sexy look and bathing suit pictures. I am all for promoting Alizée, but let us be realistic, if you were to subtract the views and comments that relate to her teenage beauty and sexy moves, those numbers might not even be 5% of what they are.


That was too much of assumption in saying that numbers would be 5%. I would say that some of the factors that you mentioned actually contribute to much lesser than your speculated 95%. I would put it as her beauty, dance moves and beautiful voice together in one group of factors and rest in other group. The former is much more dominant than the later one.

[Chuck]

You tell 'im, MA! :):)

Say, I was watching Lettterman the other night, and when he announced some great foreign singer about to make her American TV debut, I held my breath for a moment. I wasn't expecting it to be Alizée, but I definitely stopped and paid attention. But it turned out to be a Danish hottie who goes by the stage name "Oh Land". Did anyone else catch this? Has anyone else here even heard of Oh Land before?

Mostly, I was filled with thoughts of "hey, that shoulda been our girl up there!" Well, maybe it will be next time... But it made me think of posting it in this thread. I had to wait a couple days before someone put it up on YT...

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CLgU8PXsZOE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

You gotta admit, she nailed it, gave a great performance, and blew the crowd away. Alizée can already do that, too. But in English?? (key question) :blink:

[Corsaire]

That was too much of assumption in saying that numbers would be 5%. I would say that some of the factors that you mentioned actually contribute to much lesser than your speculated 95%. I would put it as her beauty, dance moves and beautiful voice together in one group of factors and rest in other group. The former is much more dominant than the later one.

MA, the major point I was trying to make was the “days gone by” part in the context of JoeNY's claim that Alizée was an “unrivalled international French star”.

I was trying to explain that Alizée got/gets the vast majority of her views on YouTube from stuff that is gone, that does not exist anymore; teenage beauty, dance moves, panties display, sexy look... One could argue that Alizée is still very sexy (I would), but that does not seem to be something she wants to overplay as it was done in the past (and I prefer that, myself).

An example that might help to understand my point is Alizée’s rendition of Ella, elle l’a which generated close to 8 million views on YouTube. I would say that Alizée singing this song today, with her present style, wouldn’t get even close to 5% of 8 million. And you also have to consider that quite a lot of people who discover Alizée through JEAM or JPVA are trying every single Alizée YouTube video to find more of the “sexy” stuff.

I think many fans of Alizée (I am not targeting anyone in particular) overestimate the quality of her voice and the importance of her present beauty for new fans recruitment, while they underestimate the importance of her past beauty, moves, sexiness and persona. I think that the Alizée that got dozens of millions of views on YouTube is gone and I still maintain that she is not even close to being a significant (popularity wise) French female singer today. As I said, the potential might be there, but we have to see Alizée for what she is today.

Edit:

You tell 'im, MA! :):)



It is hard enough as it is Chuck, don’t you guys gang up on me... :)

[lefty12357]

Well, "Les Collines", which of course is from her last album UEDS, was posted last March 19 and already has over a million views in less than a year's time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJ1EFr_gXQ

This "Fifty Sixty" video was uploaded Oct. 25, 2009 and has over a million views as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29l7UeClwSY

This "Mademoiselle Juliette" video was uploaded on Oct. 24, 2009 and has over 2 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyUXWgmEvE8

And all of these examples are from what some would say is her less popular era. What complicates things is people are constantly uploading the same videos over and over again on YT, so it is hard to get a good idea of how many views in total are out there for any given song or performance. Just go to YT, type in Alizée and then under "search options", select "this week". You might be surprised at what people are still uploading, week after week.

[Merci Alizée]

Well, "Les Collines", which of course is from her last album UEDS, was posted last March 19 and already has over a million views in less than a year's time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJ1EFr_gXQ



I had exactly this song in mind during my previous reply in this thread. The insights for the video are even more interesting.

[Corsaire]

Well, "Les Collines", which of course is from her last album UEDS, was posted last March 19 and already has over a million views in less than a year's time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLJ1EFr_gXQ

This "Fifty Sixty" video was uploaded Oct. 25, 2009 and has over a million views as well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29l7UeClwSY

This "Mademoiselle Juliette" video was uploaded on Oct. 24, 2009 and has over 2 million views.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WyUXWgmEvE8

And all of these examples are from what some would say is her less popular era. What complicates things is people are constantly uploading the same videos over and over again on YT, so it is hard to get a good idea of how many views in total are out there for any given song or performance. Just go to YT, type in Alizée and then under "search options", select "this week". You might be surprised at what people are still uploading, week after week.


I did look at those sort of numbers before taking a guess at what Alizée would generate if she did not ride on her past beauty, dances, provocative moves and outfits (again, not that she is incapable of using these attributes today) and I still stand by my evaluation.

In the examples you gave, only Les collines did make me question my conclusion when I researched this. I do not really understand why that video got so many views. As for the other two you listed (FS and MJ), well, I would say this is still based on an Alizée that is gone. Dance moves, provocative images and sexy outfits. BTW, did you notice the dripping ice cream cone that Alizée licks in FS? I would say this is highly sexually charged and I doubt she would still agree to do that sort of stuff today, unless she decides to return to what worked the best for her (popularity wise), that is.

Also, as I alluded to before, any video of Alizée that has a thumbnail showing some sexy pose or some skin (even later in her career) will most likely have its view count artificially inflated since people constantly search for more sexy videos from her. Most people I have introduced Alizée to confessed to have done that since they find her so sexy. How many people came back to me mentioning that they searched for some of her songs and really wanted to hear more of her voice: nil. What made Alizée what she was is a full package of beautiful attributes and I doubt she will conquer the world tomorrow by the shear power of her soothing voice and beautiful face.

In any case, I was just trying to clarify the situation and make people aware of the fact that Alizée is nowhere near being the most popular French female singer today. Claiming this is utterly wrong as far as I am concerned. Arguing about the popularity of a singer from YouTube view data is rather difficult because the different variables cannot be isolated and analysed properly. I am sure you will at least agree with that point.:)

[Bigdan]

I can’t speak for other countries, but one can easily list 5-10 French female singers (Mylène Farmer, Patricia Kaas, Vanessa Paradis, Véronique Sanson, Mireille Mathieu...) that could show up in Canada tomorrow and get way more interest generated than Alizée can. The potential might be there, but I really doubt she is the most popular female French singer in the world right now, not even close.

And that is not counting other female francophone artists that are not of French nationality, like Céline Dion or Lara Fabian.

I have the painfull duty to be... agreed with you. :(

[Corsaire]

I have the painfull duty to be... agreed with you. :(

Thanks for the support Bigdan...:)
I do feel mostly lonely on AAm forums. :( I think this is because I try my best to analyse situations and state facts regardless of what Alizée means to me. I will not intervene most of the time, but when the illusion becomes unhealthy, I think someone has to do the dirty job. We have to call it as it is and not let our admiration/love/dedication/respect for the little Tinker Bell ;) blind our judgement.

People keep mentioning that Alizée might occasionally visit this place (which I doubt very much, but it isn’t impossible) and from time to time, there are some concerns about the way we are perceived from a general public standpoint. Allowing all sorts of unsubstantiated statements (not directed at anyone in particular) unchallenged does not help giving us a good image.

[JoeNY]

The problem I see with your line of reasoning is that those YouTube numbers for Alizée are/were mainly generated by days gone by dance moves, panties display, sexy look and bathing suit pictures. I am all for promoting Alizée, but let us be realistic, if you were to subtract the views and comments that relate to her teenage beauty and sexy moves, those numbers might not even be 5% of what they are. I have introduced Alizée to countless people and although every single one of them (male and female) commented on her exceptional beauty and grace, I doubt very much that a single one would care to see one of her shows, let alone stand in line for an autograph.

I can’t speak for other countries, but one can easily list 5-10 French female singers (Mylène Farmer, Patricia Kaas, Vanessa Paradis, Véronique Sanson, Mireille Mathieu...) that could show up in Canada tomorrow and get way more interest generated than Alizée can. The potential might be there, but I really doubt she is the most popular female French singer in the world right now, not even close.

And that is not counting other female francophone artists that are not of French nationality, like Céline Dion or Lara Fabian.
I agree with you, which is why the thread title is "What Could've Been for Alizee in the U.S." (past tense). Considering Youtube only came into existence about 2006 or 2007 - well past Alizee's success with Gourmandises and MCE in 2001 through 2004 - it's pretty impressive that Alizee got so many views after her glory days. A lot of Americans are only discovering her today, so I imagine sales of her first 2 albums may eventually double or triple from the initial 5 million back in 2001-2004. I think they just added Alizee to iTunes, but unfortunately, only her first 2 albums. If Alizee's mgmt had any brains, they'd put Psychedelices and UEDS there too and hope for some trickle down effect. Right now, everyone is just lining the pockets of Mylene Farmer. :mad:

And you are right. The initial draw to Alizee is her incredible beauty during her early days. But which artists don't sell a bit of skin to get attention? It's like a bread crumb trail, and before you know it, you've seen and heard every song on Gourmandises and MCE as well as Psychedilices and UEDS. But the music and vocals also have to be strong for people to stay interested, which is Alizee's problem now.

BTW, you really shouldn't belittle Alizee's voice and talents. It's unfortunate that her incredible sex appeal overshadows her voice, but I'd like to note that 2 of her top 4 videos on Youtube are La Isla Bonita and Ella Elle L'a with 12 million and 8 million views respectively. And she isn't exactly stripping for the cameras in those 2 videos. She's wearing sweatpants as more than one comment on those vids stated. She can't help that she's incredibly sexy. It's a curse! :) And most importantly, neither of those 2 songs are from the Mylene/LB team who gets most of the credit for Alizee's success.

If you were to ask 100 Americans to name a famous French singer, I'm pretty sure Alizee would top that list regardless if they are fans or not.

[lefty12357]

Well, I feel I should clarify my position a bit. Speaking only for myself, I am not making any claims either way as to where Alizée stands in the World French Singer Popularity Contest.:) Of course “known” and “popular” are really two different things. And I suppose we should clarify if we are talking about French singers or singers from France. When I have something to add to the subject I do, but one should not assume what my position is unless I state it specifically. In fact, in regards to Corsaire’s last few posts, I agree with much of what he said.

In my last post, I was merely pointing out that there is still some significant interest in Alizée’s new offerings in the last year or two. I said no more than that. With the lack of meaningful data, it is really hard to know much of anything or just how significant to her career these YouTube numbers really are. I guess the only thing they tell us is that the number of people around the world that are aware of Alizée is probably in the millions.

Personally, one of my frustrations on this subject is the lack of a broad range of reliable data. Even sales figures from record companies are extremely unreliable, as it can serve their interests to overstate as well as understate the numbers depending on the situation. I’ve even watched the sales rankings at the US Amazon store and I’ve seen Alizée at the top of the French category ahead of a lot of well known French singers, but I’ve also seen her way behind. I think the numbers are small, and therefore a few sales can jump someone up or down quite a bit. Mylene’s latest album is #5 and UEDS is #95. A few weeks ago Mylene was not even in the top 100 and Alizée was near the top. Again, the numbers are too unreliable to draw a firm conclusion.

[Corsaire]

Hey JoeNY, I see we agree on many things, after all. :) For the rest...

Far from me the idea of belittling Alizée’s singing voice, I just think people should not overstate its quality. We love Alizée for so many things that we tend to want all her qualities to be more than what they are. That is my appraisal of the situation, but I might be wrong. The most impressive quality about her voice as far as I am concerned is the way she speaks. I think she is just irresistible when she speaks. For me, it is also due to her accent and mannerism.

As for the rest of her talents, I think I have quite a few posts on here that can testify to the fact that I believe she is very gifted.

I am mainly against the idea that Alizée is the most popular French female singer in the world today. I think this can easily be shown to be an unfounded claim (but I will be happy to discuss any tangible proof of this). BTW, if you can really get 100 Americans to name Alizée more often than any other French female singer, I can tell you I could not do that in Canada (and we do have a substantial portion of the population speaking French up here :)).

[Scruffydog777]

I agree with Corsaire's point that a lot of views are drawn by sexy images in the thumbnails people see for a certain video. Such as when I first downloaded the video of her performance at the Festival de Alcalá de los Gazule, it was just one video of her two songs ML and JAM. The video I had downloaded was obviously a video someone had copied from a vcr video because it had those lines at the bottom when a vcr isn't tracking properly. (There may have been a better video available at the time but that's not my point right now.) So I decided to crop out those tracking lines and split up the two songs of the video into two seperate videos.

Now when you upload a video to Youtobe, they give you the option of about 4 different thumbnails to pick from in their process . You then pick one to represent your video. Well with her ML song, there was a beautiful thumbnail to pick from as you can see from the video below, but for her jam performance which was just as good, there were no real good ones ( those images of her on the screens behind her, can,t be seen in a thumbnail) and as a result, ML has gotten twice the hits of JAM.
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/JKU6Yr2BFck" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="480" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Xyw_MoH0HcI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I think she has a tremendous amount of draw power left from her beauty. She doesn't have to wear the sailor suit to be appealling. I think her looks in this performance in Spain is probably one of her most beautiful looks ( i wish we had this video in a better resolution.) and I think she is still capable of an equally beautiful look if she is willing to wear something that accentuates her beauty as this outfit did as opposed to all the horrible outfits she wore during the Psych era.

Another thing she needs to be successful is to take advantage of that wonderful skill of dancing she developed from numerous years of hard work. No more eye candy on stage as there was with Hung Up. People want to see her dance. Again it doesn't have to be anything elaborate. It could just be like her performance or ML here where she's just dancing in place or Ella Ella, or when she did the medley on New Years eve 2003 again, where she's just dancing in place. As this years Enfoires demonstrated, she is still a joy to watch dance and she needs to put her abilities to good use.

Going back to what could have been in the states. I think all it would have taken was one appearence and Hollywood and the entertainment industry would have fallen in love with her. They would have loved her voice, her beauty, her dancing, the person and the story of Alizee. If MF, couldn't come up with good English songs for her to sing, they would have. They probably would have had her do a duet like Stevie Nicks did with Tom Petty, or Cheryl Crow and Kid Rock, or even another great song that was sung by a two members of the same band,
<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/CwXKOVH5uYI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
They would have found a way to make it work here. Hollywood probably would have loved to seen her in a movie and like I said, all it would have taken is one appearence at the right time, and what I mean by that, it's hard to tell what the political climate in this country back in 2003 would have had. It could have killed any chance she may have had at that time.

Now a days, I think there is still a potential for her to have success here, but she will have to use all her abilities.

[lefty12357]

Since this subject is about Alizée and the US, it made me think of the report on French TV that Bigdan showed us. It was a report on US soldiers in Afghanistan, and one soldier was watching Moi, Lolita on his phone. Thanks to Aaronius for putting a small bit of it on YouTube.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ld2hrsZBuW4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Thought I'd post it for those who haven't seen it. Full video here: http://13h15-le-samedi.france2.fr/?page=accueil&rubrique=reportages&video=manuel_13h15_reportage_1_20100515_1505201015 3121_F2

[neoteny]

that's really nice. what better way to keep sane right?

[rcs]

Nice find! I wish I had that ability to view Alizee while deployed to Afghanistan in 2003-2004. That was when I first heard her...enroute via Sicily. It was JEAM, however, that I heard on radio and TV.