Maybe it's time for a new approach.
 

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I keep trying to spread the word of Alizée but it's been a very long, slow struggle with very few significant gains. I've given away many dvd's I've made up, and I show her music to just about everyone I can and called music stations asking if there was anyway they could possibly play some of her music but to date, not one station has.Unfortunately I think the fact that most of her better music, especially her songs in English which are so critical for her to have success in this country are over 5 years old, is something radio stations look at if they do ever consider playing her music. Hopefully the release of her new album will change all that.

Her two most recent English songs, Hung up and the Sound of Silence were not original hits and though I enjoy them, quite frankly I'm sure the average listener would much prefer the songs by their original singers. So time I think is weighing heavily against us. Unless this new album has a very good song in English on it, I think were fighting a major battle with a dwindling supply of ammunition, so I think it may be time for a different approach.

I think one thing that could be attractive to some segment of the entertainment industry in this country is the story of Alizée. I've seen the threads for street teams and net teams but that seems to be for contacting the potential fans, or contacting radio stations which in the few times that have worked has only resulted in them playing one of her songs. I think we need to target our efforts in a new direction. Try to get some program to do a story about Alizée that will feature several of her songs. This is what would really get people interested in her music. It's a story that I'm sure a lot of people in this country would enjoy.

How would that story go?

It would start on Corsica, an island off the southern coast of France, where she and also Napoleon were born.
It would also start with her beautiful name. Alizée. Whose parents named her after a tradewind that blows through parts of Africa and the Caribbean because they loved to sail.
Then how she was persuaded by a friend to enter a talent competition as a dancer, couldn't enter the dance competition because it was for teams and she was by herself, so she entered the singing competition instead and came in second, but more importantly, in the process, got noticed by MF (one of France's most successful female artists) and LB (Mf and LB is another interesting story in itself). They talked her and her parents to letting her drop out of high school so she could move to Paris to pursue a career in music, but she still flew home every weekend to be with family and friends.

She released her first song and video when she was still 15. It was controversial, but it was also a huge hit in Europe.

She didn't exactly go from rags to riches, but did go from being a totally unknown to someone who was dancing and singing her way all across Europe in a very short time.

She had a song at #1 on the charts and another at #3 for 3 months in France. Something no other artist had ever accomplished there.

Released 2 albums that met with great success.

Performed at Paris city hall during the 100th running of the Tour de France

Performed at the Eiffel tower on an occassion celebrating the installation of strobe lights all up and down the tower. There were 350,000 people in attendance.

Met a handsome singer/musician. Flew off to Las Vegas to get married!

Disappeared off the radar for over 3 years. Had a baby during that time and is now attemping a comeback.
She released a new album. One that was an experimet for her, trying to find out what style worked best.
Despite doing well in Mexico,she has fallen on tough times in Europe with 2 concerts cancelled within a 6 month span, in Paris, a place she now calls home, cancelled due to low ticket sales (despite what her management says.).

Now she is due to release a new album. Will she have learned from the experiment and once again sell out 6 concerts in one week in Paris as she did back in 2003 or maybe she'll have to cancel another concert, something that would set a more dubious record ( Hey you got to make the story sound interesting if you want someone to cover it.)

Then there's Alizée the person. Who even though she came under the influence of Mylene Farmer at a young age, at a time where she could have been easily influenced by this notorious personality, a very controversial singer/writer who had Alizée singing some controversial songs and wearing some revealing outfits, she never let it affect her as a person. There were never any stories about her being pulled over for dui, no late night parties, no wardrobe malfunctions, no fights with her parents, no train wrecks. Just a person who stayed as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside.

Then there's the two Stars a Domicile shows. The great story of her and Jessica and the first show too, where her reaction on stage showed you a glimpse of what she the person was like.

Then theres the shows shes done for charity.

So this is what I think is a very interesting story. I'd like to know what other people think. Is this a good approach?
Is there more that should be added? Are there things that should be left out?

I've thought Entertainment tonight would be a great show to try and contact, but it turns out they're a very tough outfit to try and contact, with no direct e-mail contacts, but I've found some contact info for some of the producers which I will pursue.

I sent WGBH a letter. They're a public broadcast company. They cover a lot of international topics and often have music specials. I saw somebody else suggest PBS before and the idea wasn't that well recieved. I think mainly because they have a smaller audience than your name brand networks. But if they ever produced and aired a story on Alizée, I'd bet you a magazine like People would be much more likely to do a story on her.

I sent People magazine a letter. A magazine isn't really the type of media I was looking for, but it could be a good target. It would be awesome to see Alizée's picture in People. They have a lot of readers and I'm sure this would generate a lot of interest in her music.

I sent these two letters out last week, so I haven't heard back yet.

I made up a video to send along with the letter. The original was about 271 MB long. It first showcased her songs in English, which like I said before I think is key for her having success or at least having her story told here. Then I included several of her French songs, first starting off with 4 songs from En Concert so they could hear her "live" voice, and also a clip from Stars a Domicile. Unfortunately it's too big to e-mail. Comcast only allows files 5 MB in size, so I signed up for G Mail because that allows 10 MB, but alas I found most of these e-mail attachments can only be 1 MB in size. So I had to do quite a bit of cutting and the final product is of a poor quality but it's that's the way it has to be then so be it. I'll attach them here so you can see both files for yourselves. The original I wanted to send, then the final product.

When possible, If I get a mailing address, I'll send dvd's to these companies with whatever videos I feel will be best suited for each.
I'm sure a lot of these companies are flooded with e-mails and regular mail, a lot of which probably never get read. If I don't hear back from them. I'll contact them again a few weeks later.

So let me know what your thoughts are on the subject. Has anyone tried this approach before?
And if you think it's a good approach, maybe some people could supply contact info for shows that maybe are exclusive to their part of the country but are shows that do cover the entertainment industry. Getting e-mail addresses or regular mail addresses would be a lot more helpful than just the name of a company.

I was thinking about this today as well, after reading another thread. I was preparing a rather lengthy post myself on the subject. I'll put some of it here instead because it follows with what you are saying.

It’s been discussed here before, but it seems people are more likely to become fans if they are allowed to discover Alizée for themselves. We are an enthusiastic bunch and are likely to give people the “hard sell”. People often put up barriers once they are exposed to that.

Getting Alizée played in clubs and on radio would probably work best because it exposes people to her and allows them to discover her for themselves. One of my local radio stations (they do their own programming locally) does requests every Saturday night. They even play Yelle! I requested Alizée and even mailed them Psych so they would have it on hand, but no luck. The wall we have to beat down is mighty strong. Maybe stations like this around the US could be identified and targeted with a more concerted (but measured) effort. We want success, but we don’t want to piss everyone off.

Another possibility is to get the US media to do a story on her. I think Alizée’s story is interesting. She is not like other pop stars, she’s from Corsica, she has US fans and she has been somewhat of an internet phenomenon. There are a lot of interesting angles in which to approach such a story. Disney, what about you? The connection is obvious and I’m sure you could get some mileage out of it as well.

Just a few minutes in prime time is a powerful thing. When I saw like 30 seconds of the video Parler Tout Bas on TV, the imagery, Alizée’s face and voice stuck with me for 5 years. It wasn’t until 2006 that I rediscovered her and put 2 and 2 together. In any case, the seed was planted and I became a fan.

I like the “Disc Drop” idea too, but I’m not sure if it has been very fruitful to date. It may require a massive effort to work. Winning fans over one at a time by word of mouth is fine, but I doubt it will lead to the success we hope for. I wish I had the knowledge, skills or connections to make any of the above happen, but I don’t. If anyone out there has access to a person involved with radio or TV media, maybe we can get an “in” somewhere, or at least some sound advice on how to proceed in such an endeavor.

We probably aren’t lacking in ideas. We are lacking in organization and effort, but I think its coming. However small, there is the possibility of success if our best ideas are identified and put into real action.

I think the bottom line is putting all our good ideas into action. Scruffy, I think the media idea has great possibilities and I hope you are successful. As I said, I wish we had access to an industry insider. It sure would help.

I agree with both of you guys we are beginning to really show Alizee to America. However like lefty12357 we lack in organization. There is a big tough barrier we have to bring down but if we get organized and focus our publicity on main targets like cities, age groups, radio/ TV stations we will succeed. I dont know if anyone has tried this but why no contact SONY music here in the US and tell them to start an official publicuty for Alizee. Anyway we are all doing our part, but once again we have to work together and get organized to reach our goal.

Know you made the same point Scruffy, but Lefty summed it up well. It's a good idea. What we need is an "EPK", or "electronic press kit": typically a ~15 min infomercial-style video made by an artist's promoter and sent out to the media. Ideally a job for someplace like Sony with original footage, but if they won't do it maybe we can. It would entail more than your average fan vid though, like narration explaining the "Alizée story", etc.

I'm sure Sony wont do it on there own, so how do we approach them to get them to create such a video? I would think something along the lines of an electronic petition would be good but I think what would be even better is if we could get as many fans as possible to send in individual e-mails with such a request. We'd have to contact the other Alizée forums to get them to help out in order for something like that to work.

Exactly! We all have to group up and send individual letters to radio/tv stations, and yes contact all Alizee forums here in the US to help out. By them receiving many requests of one new artist they will research who this artist is and how successful she has been internationaly.

Well I meant we could make a video like that ourselves, though yeah maybe that's another way to do it.

Well yeah evryone of us have have different talents and abilities that we could contribute for Alizee's promotion. The thing is whatver we do, is send it all to one place at a time so they could get as many fan promotions as possible. We could work together to do such video organize it well, edited it, mix it and send it. I think we are begginnig to do progress with great ideas!

This one is a real great idea. Only the intensity is required. You need to do what Mexicans did there. But one thing is sure, if she could engulf the entire Europe into her charm, then she can do the same to America as well. And if by the way she becomes a phenomenon in US, she will have some impact in India as Well:).

Best of Luck to you, Guyz:)

There we go! Thanx Alizeeindia for your support! and yes if we could promeote her the correct way in America she could also become a new phenomenon. I mean come on she has conquered Europe, Asia, Latin America, she only needs the United States. We can do it!

This is a great idea. I'm not so much about the video editing, but I'd be interested in writing and/or narrating for it, if this was a project we decided to take on.

i kinda did that on youtube but this idea is cool not as long

..........

Dave,
Great video and work you did!
Stephen

the right promotion in the USA requires new material

let;s be completely honest here
Europe- she was quite popular there at one time, but now not so
Asia-never was that big a bit of a following in Japan
Latin America- a significant following in Mexico and even there it isn't as big as people think it is

so in conclusion she needs work everywhere at the moment

my .02

I think you kind of missed the drift of this thread. You're right that to get radio stations to play her music might require some new material, especially considering the songs that had the most success are over 5 years old,but what I was suggesting was to get someone to do a program on the story of Alizée, which is a very good story imo, a very interesting story and an on-going story. A story about a woman who is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. A story that is at a very exciting and crucial point. How well will this new album do? Will it be her downfall or will it be a re-birth of her popularity in Europe?

For me the answer to her becoming popular here is quite simple, and english language album. I've seen it many times, Utada Hikaru and BoA, both of whom sang in japanese and korean, have been making a splash stateside since their english albums.

Most people are too closed minded to appreciate music not in english. Domestic reissues of her existing albums would really help as well. As long as neither of these happen i don't see much of a change.

Sounds like my brother

Interesting subject, where do I start?

I really like the idea of the...shall we say...unauthorized biography. From Corsica to the coloring contest to...well you get the idea. I like it a lot. I believe the shorter the better because the lack of attention spans but realize that everyone of us would want to just load it up because we all find her so interesting. I do think that would be awesome but would like to see it accompanied by a 'trailer', a 30 to 60 second spot designed as a hook for the biography.

Promoting Alizee. This is a tough nut to crack from many perspectives. I have found that just because Alizee is my favorite does not mean that she will be everyone's favorite. As incredulous as this may sound to you now, it is true. You may love a certain car, you think everyone will just love it too, but... Not a reason to not try but just keep that in mind. I started the blog for a lot of reasons, that's a story for another day, but the feedback of information regarding this subject has made me rethink the whole if you build it they will come phenomena business.

There was a thread on here that I think hit home...we are a cult. That is not that far off. There are deadheads and Alizeeheads. Taking that to the next level is a whole new challenge.

Our friend DisqueDrop ran an interesting social experiment in an attempt to hand out free CD's. Just not as easy as it seems.

Then there is Alizee. What does she want to do? No matter what we may all think that she wants we really do not know. I just posted a Motley Fool article in which Alizee is mentioned as a millionaire. I had to sleep on that myself. I know how successful things have been and that she made a lot of money, but to see it in "print" on a financial site, it really made me think. She is just over 7 weeks away from her 25th birthday, a quarter century, married 5 1/2 years, has a 4 year old, has mentioned she wants another child. She is living the European Dream. A new phenomena in its own, surpassing the American Dream. What does Alizee want to do at this point in time? Is America on her 'to do' list? Is it a balance between her career and family? Can we make her a phenom without her help?

Here is something I might take as a hint: from wikipedia
"Following the success of Alizée En Concert and Psychédélices in Mexico, Alizée's former music label, Universal Music released a compilation album, titled "Tout Alizée". The compilation, which is a Mexico-only release"
And even Alizee's official youtube I can not view the featured video due to location restrictions.
No releases in North America?
Yet her web pages and twitters are in English...clearly communicating to North America, I think... geez I'm just not sure. I guess it boils down to a more basic problem for me, woman, I can't read them no matter where they are from. :) or should it be :(

I would like to know more about how things are officially "released". What does it mean? I know someone can help me on that and then throw in what is officially released in America.

At this point I feel there would need to be some type of "Perfect Storm" recipe for success on an 'American phenom' level. The biography idea is a great place to start. Emphasize her uniqueness. For example Alizee's unusual absences make her a more interesting person. Flip a perceived negative to a fascinating positive - it is for me! She has me hooked.

Just some rambling thoughts.
Lefty and Ruro go easy on me

I like the biography idea too.

I imagine the USA and Canada are not on Alizée’s “to do” list. More than likely Mexico wasn’t either. But Mexico laid the foundation for her and almost handed it to her on a silver platter. How could she resist that? The Mexican fans were even calling her house, if I remember right. I would go so far as to say Mexico helped to keep her career alive.

If Europe continues to not produce the sales needed for her to keep going, I suspect she will take advantage of other opportunities that present themselves in the future. If the USA and Canada can offer her something like the Mexicans did, she may very well accept it. If her new album sells big in Europe, there may be less incentive for her to go abroad.

Alizée may be a millionaire, but there is more to life than money and I would assume she would like to keep recording and performing. I think we all believe Alizée is mostly practical when it comes to money and though she may like to shop, I don’t think she leads a lavish lifestyle. Having said that, I believe she still will need to make money for the long haul to live the life she wants. So I believe she has the desire and the need to keep going, both financially and artistically. New territory may be needed, especially if things fall off a bit in Mexico and Europe doesn’t embrace her again.

My guess is that she is using English because of its prevalence, and if it isn't your first language, it seems to be everyone's second language. It's probably the easiest way for her to address all international fans. I don't know to what extent it is addressed to those of us in the USA and Canada, but one would like to believe we are in her thoughts as well...:) As far as the video restrictions go, I found it interesting when she put videos on her myspace that were actually linked to fan's Youtube pages so they would show anywhere.

I would say that success is a matter of degree, not an “all or nothing” proposition. If she becomes only somewhat known in the USA and sells between 50,000 – 100,000 discs here, she might consider that a great success and well worth a visit. That may not be an impossible goal to achieve in a market of 300 million people.

I always keep in mind that Alizée’s record company has much to say about all this, and they want to make money and achieve their goals as well. They can also pull the plug on Alizée’s career if the money isn’t there or if she won’t cooperate. Her goals may not be the same as the record company’s, but she must keep them happy as well. So they may decide whether she comes to the North America or not. It’s a balancing act for her. I hope she can have success in all the places mentioned, and still have the life she wants and keep the record company happy.

And yes, she has me hooked too...:D

There are many elementary, middle and high schools (and colleges) in the USA that teach beginning French language. I suspect that some instructors use music as part of their teaching technique.

What would be the most efficient method to make French language instructors aware of Alizee music (both aural and visual) as a method to teach the language?

What about searching for school web sites that have a French language program and emailing Alizee music links (and links to French lyrics of Alizee songs) to associated department heads and individual instructors? (As many of you know, AlizeeAmerica.com has an excellent reference library of Alizee music videos and lyrics, in French and English.)

Interesting idea. We have at least 2 French immersion schools here and I will look into contacting them and see if they would be interested. I think I've seen one or two posts here or on another Alizée fan site talking about how her music was played in a French class. Since exposure to French is more intense in an immersion school, I would think there would be more of an opportunity for this to work in such a school.

http://www.edina.k12.mn.us/normandale/

http://frenchimmersion.spps.org/

Google keyword search: french immersion shools
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...=f&oq=&aqi=g10

Altavista
http://www.altavista.com/web/results...ls&kgs=1&kls=0

Dogpile
http://www.dogpile.com/dogpile/ws/re...7?_IceUrl=true

Metacrawler
http://www.metacrawler.com/metacrawl...7?_IceUrl=true

Good idea, which reminds me I had the Benny Benassi JPVA remix played at an event in my school (sorry If I already mentioned it :D), which has a french program.
I never took any french course, but I know that the students think they are boring, not many of them are interested in the French language.
I think the best method to make French language instructors aware of Alizee music is by providing them with CDs. This would work best if you are involved in the course or school, of course.

I also think it's a very good idea. Vista and Edgar have a ponit; "What would be the most efficient method to make French language instructors aware of Alizee music (both aural and visual) as a method to teach the language? ", and that its true most French learners dont pay attention to the class bacuase it seems boring and not interesting.
By being able to give out these videos they could inlcude like said before, original music videos with English and French Subtitles so students may see both ways and meanings. I am pretty sure it would be something new in the classroom and students would really pay attention to the "new lessons". We would just have to leave them in the teachers' mailbox at school including info about the source and how it would help the students in learning. Pretty good idea Vista.

i dont' know how important the French language is in getting Alizee here.. i mean, i don't speak of word of it, and Im an addict, whereas i've taken 4 years of Spanish, and am a native speaker of Korean.. but don't listen to Spanish or Korean music.

@wasabi622:
I would suspect a French instructor might use Alizee music to make the French language more interesting. My (our) intent is to provide a greater exposure to Alizee through a viral marketing technique of sorts. I would assess the technique as being successful if only several students of each class developed an interest in Alizee and her music; and those students could in turn influence some of their friends, and so on.

Multiply this type exposure by many French instructors using Alizee music to enhance the students' interest and maybe Alizee's music career may be significantly enhanced in the USA... a win situation for all.

So, me personally, I am interested in promoting Alizee, not learning French in an academic sense. :)

I think you're right Vista, but anything that will get more exposure for Alizée is worth the effort and I think contacting French instructors is a great effort. I think trying to get radio stations to play her songs is something we should keep on trying. But the main focus here is to get someone to do a program about Alizée, that would have several of her songs in addtition to telling her story. It would get her the type of exposure in this country that could have great results. It could make her a household name.

I didn't miss it I was just stating my opinion on what was said ;)

the fact of the matter is that without new material it'll be a stretch to get new fans in the states and an even farther stretch for the media to do a story on her

thank you AI

there is a alizee fan club that started in mexico city. this club did things like hold garage and bake sales and asked for dontations to get money to promote alizee. they printed t-shirts, visors, posters, photo cards and even cd's with a few of her songs. they visited malls, market places, plazas and radio stations. they brought a boombox, played her music and gave away free stuff all in order to get her name to the public. they hounded small local radio stations to play her music. once it got on the air, people from other cities and towns started hearing and gaining interest. soon more fan clubs started in other towns and as more and more radio stations started playing her music, the faster her fame spread. i hope this is helpful and has given some of you ideas.

About the "Does she really want to be promoted" thing
The goal with the promotion is to make her bigger thus allowing us to see more of her, it's not like we are trying to save the world or anything (maybe from ignorance perhaps). We do it for ourselves and not neccesary for Alizée (depends on how you view it ofc) so having fun while doing the promotion is essential, we shouldn't make such a big deal out of it.

Of course it's always fun to see the fruit of your achievements and know that you are actually effecting people but I think it's better to do something rather than performing wonders.

Let's do like the mexicans, get togheter, grab a beer, play some Alizée on the loudest volume while having a great time.

*Tomten calls for a group hug*
:)

Yes indeed!
We must get Obama to open up the borders and allow open-minded mexicans to migrate into the states and spread the Alizée plauge!!!!!!

Just kidding ;)

tomtemp i heard you said alizee is fake in a video on youtube tisk tisk tisk lol

i am totally for the t-shirts and hats. we should make some sort of Alizee America t-shirt!

yeah that would own

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...9/SDC10121.jpg

or

http://i295.photobucket.com/albums/m...20081006_3.jpg

the only question is what would we put on it? i mean, what the mexican fans used, the "A" from the psychedelices album was good.. but what would we use?

edit: didn't see jung's post. :D

The J'en ai marre writing!

Well since we are a Fan Club why dont we create our own logo??? To make us more original,serious and proffessional. What do you guys think???

yeah but the j'en ai marre writing is fancy we can create our original logo with the j'en ai marre writing