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02-01-2021, 11:45 AM
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Alizée assessment on Reddit
I've known a gentleman on FB who I've exchanged short messages with over the years. He sent me a link to an assessment someone did on Alizée a couple of years ago. I have no idea who the guy was. Some of it I agreed with, some of it I didn't, but I thought it was fairly interesting and a good "center piece" for discussion.
reddit.jpg https://www.reddit.com/r/popheads/co...ch_pop_global/ Posted byu/radiofan15 2 years ago Presenting to you Alizée: the French pop global superstar that barely was [DISCUSSION] https://i.redd.it/f2jgopqoubd21.jpg r/Popheads loves a good underdog story, but also loves tragic storylines that satisfies the userbase’s inner gay desires for drama, especially if it involves a talented and artistic female pop singer flopping after a promising career… this post features one of those stories, but only this one is in French, and don’t worry, it’s not on black and white, it’s not artsy, it doesn’t need subtitles and the narrative it’s quite straightforward: this is the story of French once-to-be-superstar Alizée A STAR IS BORN, NOURISHED AND THEN DISCOVERED Alizée was always intended to become an artist: at the age of 11, she won a painting contest in which the big price was that the design would be used to paint the exterior of a commercial airliner which would be named after you (oh, and some all-expenses paid family vacation)… by that age, she was also a proficient dancer with a bright future ahead. In order to promote her dancing career, she auditioned for the French talent show Graines de Star when she was 15; however, she was forced to enter in the singing category as the dancing one was reserved for groups. During her stay in the show her natural display of charm, talent and stage presence led her to win the Meilleure Graine award for most promising young singing star of tomorrow. Legendary performer Mylène Farmer and her directing/songwriting partner Laurent Boutonnat were looking for a young and fresh voice to nurture and unleash to the top of the charts as part of a new project, and choose Alizée for the job. If you don’t understand how big this is, just imagine that Madonna (her American equivalent) was an avid watcher of the Mickey Mouse Club and decided that Britney Spears would be the next superstar, and then joined forces with someone with the directing talent of Mark Romanek and the songwriting talent of Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson to turn Britney into a worthy successor… and if you think I’m hyperboling, watch this video by Myléne directed by Laurent and tell me to my face I’m wrong. https://i.redd.it/ofykkw8qubd21.jpg Anyway, Alizée debuted with a splash thanks to the success of the smooth and subversive 2000 global hit Moi… Lolita (I… Lolita) which, aided by the very cinematical video, helped to shape Alizée’s image into that of a Lolita, The track was a critical and commercial global smash, reaching the top ten in several European countries (including a #9 in the UK) and the top spot in several others (like Japan and Russia), in France the track peaked at #2 but it ended up its run at the 33rd best-selling song in France of all time, above tracks like My Heart Will Go On and Beat It. The smooth and somewhat rocky L'Alizé (The Trade Wind) followed, and even if it was a number one hit in France it wasn’t as popular as Moi… Lolita worldwide. Her debut album Gourmandises (Delicacies) debuted later in the year through Polydor Records and was a critical and commercial success, selling over 4 million copies worldwide and being lauded as a modern classic among the French Pop scene. Reminiscent of Madonna and William Orbit’s work on Ray of Light in the way it mixes acoustic and electronic elements, the album features a mishmash of genres and influences, ranging from the obvious ones at the forefront (world music, pop, chanson, dance) and ones more subdued (techno, trip hop, drum and bass, ambient, rock, classical music) that complements the sonic pastiche that is Gourmandises. Two more singles followed, the ballad Parler Tout Bas (Speak Softly) and the bouncy techno title track Gourmandises, both peaking just outside the Top 10 in France. 2003 started with the release of a new lead single, J'en Ai Marre! (I'm Fed Up!), which I can only describe as pure pop perfection. An atmospheric and danceable yet serene upbeat ballad, ,J'en Ai Marre! was another worldwide hit for her, peaking at #4 in her native country, #2 in Japan and a surprising #3 in Mexico, which would be a very important place for the later portion of her career. https://i.redd.it/mybpw9irubd21.jpg Her second album Mes Courants Électriques (My Electric Currents) was released a month after the lead single, and despite its very positive reaction it didn’t sold as well as her debut but still managed to sell over 1.5 million copies worldwide. Although Myléne and Laurent still got a hold on the creative direction of the release, the album wasn’t as overtly sexual as her predecessor but still kept a similar musical style (albeit slightly more matured) and similar energy as her debut. The angelical pop rock anthem J'ai Pas Vingt Ans (I'm Not Twenty) and the calming and soothing À Contre-Courant (Against the Current) followed, both being small international hits and peaking just outside the Top 20 in France. I must mention that the first two singles of the album have English version just in case you’re allergic to any kind of foreign music: they are I’m Fed Up! and I’m Not Twenty! respectively, both made with the intention to expand the scope of Alizée’s international reach but unfortunately failing to do so. Alizée started her first concert tour later in the year with the En Concert Tour, in which she performed for 42 dates, mostly in France (including 6 dates at the Olympia) and two sole concerts in Switzerland and Belgium. A live album was released in October 2004. SPREADING YOUR WINGS, LEAVING THE NEST AND FALLING TO THE GROUND In spite of her fructiferous artistic relationship with Myléne and Laurent, Alizée amicably parted ways with the duo and left Universal/Polydor and signed with RCA (and Sony Music for worldwide releases) in 2007, this was after a hiatus that started after she gave birth to her first child. Although her popularity somewhat waned in her native France, she had started to build a strong presence in Latin America (especially Mexico) in spite of her hiatus with this newfound success, Universal rereleased the live album Alizée En Concert in Mexico in 2007 and somehow it went Gold (this was while she was in hiatus) and later complemented it with the release of a compilation album Tout Alizée (Everything Alizée), which came some weeks after the release of her third studio album, and as expected it didn’t included any track from it. https://i.redd.it/g3x5usnsubd21.jpg Psychédélices (Psych-delights) is her third studio album and featured a more mature and focused sound and adds some psychedelic elements that helps to distinguish it from other pop efforts of the era but somehow keeping the same kind of quality and power of her previous releases. The album’s lead single was Mademoiselle Juliette (Miss Juliet), a track with a heavy guitar and synth work that doesn’t distract from its earwormy qualities that makes this my favorite Alizée song of all time; the second single is Fifty-Sixty (and no, it’s not in English), a very guitar-heavy bubblegummy track with a very sweet vibe; outside of those singles two promotional singles were also released: the bouncy and bubbly Lilly Town and a cover of Madonna’s La Isla Bonita which somehow has a big cult following in Latin America and became an airplay Top 10 hit in Mexico… I mean, this live performance, for example, has way too many views. The commercial performance of the album. which sold over 300,000 copies worldwide, was considered disappointing in France, as it debuted just outside the Top 15 on the Albums Chart although it ended up being certified Gold, just like in Mexico, when an unhealthy amount of her short Psychédélices Tour took place: five days in said country, one date on Russia, and several other announced performances that never went to sale, including one in France and two on Belgium. https://i.redd.it/h5e1ifstubd21.jpg In 2010 and having already moved to the sister label Jive (while keeping in Sony), Alizée released her fourth album Une Enfant du Siècle (A Child of the Century), a concept album based on the life of Edie Sedgwick and featuring a more mature nature, abstract and sober sounds and risky musical elements, a very radical departure of her previous output. This is better seen in the lead single Les Collines (Never Leave You) (The Hills (Never Leave You), and yes, it features ‘some’ English lyrics), a sexy and dark track with a suffocating and strong atmosphere and a punchy chorus based on repetition that would never ever leave your head; the second and final release of the album was the English track Limelight, a dense electro-pop with 80s vibes and dark undertones. Une Enfant du Siècle was, unfortunately, a commercial (it peaked at #22 on France and only stayed there for two weeks, while having only slightly better performances in some other countries) and critical (it received a positive response, although Alizée was criticized for sounding unengaged and bored with the project) miss, with the first single only founding some success in airplay charts in Latin America (none of the singles charted at all) and the overall album selling less than 50,000 copies worldwide. In 2011 Alizée started doing something she had never done in her career: features. Her first feature was as part of the UNICEF-sponsored French supergroup Collectif Paris-Africa with the We Are the World-lite single Des Ricochets (Skimming Stones), which peaked at #5 in France; the next year she was included in a rerecording of Alain Chamfort’s 1994 single Clara veut la Lune (Clara wants the Moon), which was issued as a single for his celebratory album Elles & Lui (Them & Him) on honor of his forty years of career; the year after she was featured on the French version of Olly Murs’ Dear Darlin’, the former didn’t charted at all while the latter did… at #127 in France. DANCING YOUR WAY BACK TO THE TOP… OR AT LEAST TRYING https://i.redd.it/wpaukgyuubd21.jpg Now without any intermediary label, only under Sony’s umbrella, Alizée got ready to come back strong with a sunnier and happier material than everything in her previous release: the catchy and innocent-sounding À Cause de L'automne (Because of the Autumn) was released on the summer of 2012 in a high-profile campaign in order to build awareness… which failed to get much traction as the single peaked at #131 in France in spite of some decent airplay. A music video was planned and actually started shooting two weeks after the song release, only for the video to get infinitely delayed and then “accidentally” leaked more than two months after it started shooting; a second video started shooting the next month and it was finally released on December, over 6 months after the song was released. After such a royal f**k-up and an album delay, 5 was finally released to the public in the next spring, featuring a renovated, and poppier dance-pop/rock sound present in tracks like the upbeat and happy single Je Veux Bien (I’d Love To) or even some surprising stuff like the nostalgic guitar ballad Dans Mon Sac (In My Bag), released as a promotional single. 5 received some serious promotion, including a performance at the opening of the Le Tour de France, and it received generally positive critical reviews (especially when compared to her previous and probably way too ambitious effort) but still underperformed commercially with sales and chart positions comparable to those of Une Enfant du Siècle in France but also marking career lows in several others. Later in the year, Alizée confirmed her unfortunate status as a has-been by announcing that she would compete in the French reality show Danse Avec les Stars, based on the Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars format. The funny thing? She actually won. She obviously wanted to be (and had more experience as) a dancer before her singing career came knocking at her door, so being part of such a competition is quite a natural progression in some ways… but considering the status of her career at that point, the fact that such an (interesting) career move actually worked its quite impressive to be honest. And if you’re wondering how was she, here are her some highlights of her first place weekly winnings: The Pussycat Dolls’ Jai Ho from Slumdog Millionaire in the Bharata Natyam style Major Lazer’s Watch Out for This (Bumaye) as a samba The Baseball’s version of Crazy in Love in the Jive style Scream & Shout by will.i.am and Britney Spears as a Cha-cha-cha A cover of U2’s One in freestyle, this performance gave her the victory Her Stars victory brought her a level of popularity she hadn’t seen in years, and a new album was being rushed in order to not waste such an opportunity, in the meantime she performed Britney’s portion of Scream & Shout with will.i.am at the NRJ Music Awards later that year, but we don’t talk about that performance. https://i.redd.it/bcy9ytbwubd21.jpg The vibrant and sunny synth-heavy track Blonde (not on English) was released as the first single just a year after her previous album debuted and crashed, and it managed to get her best chart debut since 2007 when it debuted at #63, before free falling on the French chart. A second single, the dance-influenced Alcaline failed to make much of an impact, as it peaked at #172. Poppier and more straightforward than most of her previous efforts, the album Blonde debuted with slightly better positions and numbers than her previous releases, actually cracking the Top 20 on the French album charts, but failing to make much of an impact. As a curiosity, the album featured a track called Mylène Farmer after the former mentor. An intended national tour was “postponed indefinitely” due to low ticket sales; however, that doesn’t mean Alizée hasn’t stepped into a stage ever since*: Danse Avec les Stars: La Tournée* is a dance touring show in which contestants from previous seasons of the show compete in a live setting in a condensed format of the show; this show had toured ever since 2013 every year for at least 3 months and Alizée has been in the majority of the shows in each year ever since the tour started. The idea of apparently trading a singing career for that of a touring dancer might seem like a weird flex until you consider a couple of things: first, she’s more of a dancer than a singer and the Stars gig is an stable source of income that allows her to be on the spotlight doing what she loves the most; second, after a divorce in 2011 she started dating and eventually married her dancing partner in the competition so doing the gig gives her the benefit of getting the coin while being close to her husband doing what both of them loves; and third, the future of her music career continues to be uncertain almost five years after the release of her last album. Outside of two non-single features in 2013 and a cover of Cinderella’s A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes called Tendre Rêve for a 2014 Disney compilation, Alizée’s musical career has been inactive, with the always lasting promise that she wants to return to the studio someday, but there’s something on her way: officially, her newfound fame as a dancer has allow her to create a dance academy that she dedicates most of her time and she gives an occasional concert here and there for special occasions; unofficially she has troubles with her label and her career is stuck on a limbo (which helps to explain why some of her albums are unavailable for streaming and some videos deleted from her official YouTube channel) and her dancing career is what she can do for the moment. https://i.redd.it/19mphatxubd21.jpg Outside of her dancing work and her stint dubbing Nyx (the Rosario Dawson character) in the French version of Tinker Bell and the Legend of the NeverBeast in 2015, Alizée has seen what seemed to be a promising 2018 when she announced two concerts in Mexico (her first solo concerts outside France since 2012) and her former label (Universal) started to finally capitalize on her back catalogue by uploading her music everywhere they could (including a YouTube channel with everything you might have wanted from that era)… however everything turned sour when those concerts were cancelled almost back to back and Universal only released a Remixes album and that’s it. WHAT WENT WRONG? One could argue that Alizée made two fatal mistakes in her career: the first was leaving Myréne and Laurent behind, and the second one is having made Une Enfant du Siècle. Leaving Myréne surely derailed her career somewhat, alongside the hiatus she took after her second album, but from a creative standpoint it might have been the better decision as it allowed her to find her own voice and to not depend on a sole person for her career, which is an important lesson for everyone who wants to find a comfortable ground on the mostly lonely arena of stardom. About Enfant there’s no a possible defense… it’s not even a terrible album, but it was the wrong album for her to release (even she didn’t sounded that interested in the high concept of the release) at the wrong time (this was a 2012 dominated by the likes of Gaga and Kesha) and the wrong way (it was too abrupt of a switch, and with her career already on a tightrope, it was just a matter of how hard it was going to fall), which also bring me to another issue… She ditched the whole Lolita image as soon as she had some creative freedom, and sales went down as a result, which might led to some of you to believe that people only looked at her for the appearance and never cared about her as an artist, which is far from the truth. Musically and lyrically, Alizée has always been miles above most contemporary pop singers (even those from the English-speaking countries) thanks to her leaning toward interesting wordplay, literary references and/or novel subject matters instead of the vapid lyricism you sometimes get to see in the biggest pop hits of any given year, of course this doesn’t mean her music is Dylan levels of quality but it’s more interesting than the bubblegummy, sticky and catchy exterior would suggest, which is something of a miracle when you get to notice the mixture of sounds and sonic elements that makes every single track something unique. And if you think I’m hyperboling again just think on the fact that she went out to develop an international cult of personality when she was on a hiatus based entirely on her music. Although she has some experience as a DJ, she’s not an instrumentalist or a composer, making her dancing and singing her biggest assets, the same as it is the idea of choosing what it better suits her and not do immediately what the market had suggest her to do. Although she’s not exactly the greatest singer, she knows exactly what works with her voice and what doesn’t, and in a similar way to a curator, is capable of creating a public and musical appearance that’s up to her liking, which is quite important if you consider that she herself has mentioned how shy about her personal life she tends to be… With all of that, her relatively quick fall from grace (especially with a strong cult behind her and several layers of international success) after having started stronger than most is something I can’t fully understand… I mean, sure, the reasoning is there and the causes are there, but such a strong fall after a relative long period of domination and with all things considered is, after all these years quite baffling to me. Let this be a cautionary tale for your faves... nothing ever lasts, no matter how talented or skinny you are. 
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#2
02-01-2021, 01:15 PM
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#3
02-02-2021, 02:03 AM
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But I don't think Siecle was some kind of 'fatal mistake' --- I think her music career just fizzled out on its own over time-- record sales gradually declined. In terms of Alizee's career post-Mylene, I don't think one can point to a singular "fatal" mistake. Quote:
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#4
02-02-2021, 11:27 AM
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 Alizee looked incredible when she came out of hibernation with the Psych album. I think it is a good album with some very good songs but missed the mark with her age group. Some of her songs off the Blonde album, such as Alcaline, would have been great in 2007, but in 2014 hip hop already took over so releasing it then made Alcaline seem old. UEDS is my second favorite album of hers, but I agree with what the author of this piece says about it being released at the wrong time. Limelight would be the exception, but the rest of the songs sound like they should have been released by her many years down the line.
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#5
02-02-2021, 08:46 PM
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Well I think most of us agree she doesn't have that strong of a voice. She needs all her talents and abilities to be a success. She also needed to recognize that there are some aspects of putting together an album and a tour that are best left in the hands of others.
Pirating may have had a big affect on the number of cds she sold, but it was not the reason for the cancelled tours and shows. Psych though not a bad album was imo no where near the level of her first two. When she brought an arm chair on stage for her concerts in Mexico, what was she thinking? Compare that and the outfits that went with it to the shoe and the beautiful white outfit of En Concert. Also who was she targeting with those clowns on stage in Mexico? After the French people saw her in her early years and then saw her shows on video from Mexico, is it surprising she could not hold one concert in France? Her other albums were much the same, each having a couple of songs with potential, but the presentation and performances were so lacking. It didn't have to be the very sexy performances of J'en ai marre. The music video for A Contre Courant was imo a great video, one I still watch all the time. Something I mentioned too many times before is I thought Alcaline could have made for a great video ala ACC, but all that was produced in the way of videos for the Blonde album was a video for the song Blonde and as far as that video for me, it was one and done. When she left MF/LB, I don't know which was the biggest loss, the songs of Mylene Farmer, the music of Laurent Boutannat or their management skills.
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#6
02-04-2021, 08:31 AM
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You can't say she wasn't trying, but I feel like there's something missing. It was a big mistake to leave MF. I'm not much of an MF music fan, but I recently wanted to take a look out of curiosity at her 2009 concert. I didn't plan it, but I looked at it all. She really knows her job and is able to capture attention and make a spectacle. The concert hasn’t even started yet, and it’s already a spectacle because of the way she comes to the stage. I also wondered what an adult Alizee would look like if she continued to work with MF. Maybe something like 1:41:00 in a video with keyboards on steroids.
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#7
02-04-2021, 01:17 PM
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I've been to many, many concerts over the course of my life, and I have the poor hearing to back it up.  There are some that I come out of and wish I had saved my money and just listened to the album again. Then there were those with mediocre music but knew how to entertain on stage, which made the concert memorable. Alizee miscalculated her post-Mylene career. Psych sold pretty well but she needed a great tour to promote it (and her). It was though she thought it was enough to just stand on stage and sing her songs but we see how that went. Maybe it was a matter of too small of a budget to produce a Mylene-style show or even an En Concert style show? If that was the case, if she hired a good manager, perhaps he/she would have found some investors. She was the hottest name in France for five years and somebody might have thought she was worth the risk. Instead of turning over management and production to professionals, it looks as if her and Jeremy tried to do it all on their own. I think most of us has seen this little clip of one of Alizee's stage rehearsals, but perhaps somebody hasn't yet. This is how I imagine it should be to get prepared to perform live. A great band and sound crew, backup singers and dancers. And you have Mylene running the show, sitting and taking notes.
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#8
02-04-2021, 03:22 PM
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Something I've often said is almost exactly what CleverCowboy said in that I feel she thought all she had to do was show up and the fans would come. I also feel she has no idea why her albums failed and if someone were to present her with an album filled with great songs and music, it would meet with failure too because she would make the same basic failure she made in all of them, poor management. That outfit she wore in the Youpidou backstage clip makes her "look" chubby but I love watching the way she dances then. Just another moment that show s you what a joy it must be to work with her. "Alkaline A rhythm, a riff Not much The entrance of a gimmick A-ha, it makes its mark My heart speeds up My body holds back But the music makes That which I become An alkaline battery Of adrenaline So I can narrowly escape From the adrenaline A battery that we embrace For the narrow escape Far, further at last There, so high up, nothing reaches me any more, oh, oh Flying away, without seeing the end Eyes closed For elsewhere Interior voyage In my earphones Nothing is essential to me any more The world doesn't exist Only the music reveals That which is in me An alkaline battery Of adrenaline So I can narrowly escape From the adrenaline A battery that we embrace For the narrow escape Far, further at last There, so high up, nothing reaches me any more, oh, oh Flying away, without seeing the end" https://lyricstranslate.com/en/alcaline-alkaline.html Edit: I made a video many years ago to point out the great music of LB that I enjoyed so much that she walked away from. I cut out the points where she is singing to demonstrate better his music but the problem with that is when she's not singing she's dancing. It makes it very hard to concentrate on the music but together it's such a beautiful combination. Last edited by Scruffydog777; 02-04-2021 at 03:22 PM.. Reason: Automerged Doubleposts
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#9
02-04-2021, 04:03 PM
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 I don't think the problem was her standing on stage without doing anything because otherwise we would have seen a long tour where the first dates would have been successful and the other ones would have started to gradually lost people and interest. But here it is the Psychédélices tour: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psyc...3%A9lices_Tour 6 concerts were held (one in Russia and 5 in Mexico) and 6 concerts were cancelled. 2 of the canceled ones were set in Mexico so this may be actually due to the overall quality and entertainment of the shows she "prepared". But there should have been only one date in France. How is this possible? I agree with what Scruffy has said many times, that is the problem was her management. Honestly I don't know exactly what "management" means in this topic, but I refer to someone that let people know that Alizée was coming back: interviews, videos, ads... I mean, I often find out some random singers I don't care about are going to hold a tour only because they start to appear on television for interviews or newscasts talk about them. Perhaps Alizée was aware of the lack of management and she consciously decided to do everything on her own. I don't know exactly why she leave Mylene but I guess (artistic and personal) freedom was the main reason. She might have felt exploited by her mentor even if it wasn't true. So this might explain why she did everything "alone". I tend to agree that UEDS wasn't the best album to make in that situation. It has a very peculiar sound and should have been released only when she could have count on a solid fanbase. What I can't explain is how "5" was a flop. The songs are beautiful and accessible and she looked great. It is not the album that will stuck in your mind but it is above the average in my opinion. Is it always because of her management? ___________ I haven't totally got what he means here. Could anyone explain? Quote:
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#10
02-04-2021, 08:42 PM
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Again with this album she put as far as official videos, all her eggs in one basket. Videos are so important and can add so much to one's promoting an album. Again Je veux bien was a good song. I enjoyed watching her perform it in Corsica but a well "produced" video for this song, could have done a lot to win over fans. I wanted to add one more sentiment. When Psych came out the people mainly of France who are so important to her success, were wondering what they were going to get with Alizee and I think they were deeply disappointed. They then felt all of her success was due to MF/LB. To prove them wrong, she had to come out with something way over the top good and she hasn't done that yet as far as an album. Last edited by Scruffydog777; 02-04-2021 at 08:50 PM..
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