How did you discover Alizée?

[Ben.Daly]

Originally Posted by Davedel

Back in February of 2005, I was downloading various music videos from the NewsGroups/Usenet. I downloaded 3 of Alizée's videos along with hundreds of other music videos. When I started watching the music videos I stumbled upon Alizée's videos by dumb luck. I thought she was sexy but classy sexy (not a sleaze) and was very attractive.

After gaining an interest in Alizée and then French and France, I went down to a newly opened French Bistro in my area and befriended the owner, a real French Chef from France. Within a few weeks we showed a 12' projection of Alizée's concert for a French club that I invited. The owner made money hand-over-fist that night and so we began showing various European concerts, about 1 every 4 months. After a while I helped the owner sweep up at nights and I got free French food every time I went there. At the end of the night, just before we went home, the chef/owner and I used to watch various Les Enfoires videos for about 30 minutes. It was really great.

After about a year we decided to put on a concert for Alizée fans (and anyone else interested) on her 23rd birthday. We had a number of fans show up from around the country and even 3 local fans in our immediate area. I had the cake made with a photo of Alizée on it and Chef Bertrand made a menu of Corsican food special to the occasion. The concert went on early into the next morning with various games and prizes awarded. It was really fun.

Because of Alizée's influence and myself (making the introduction), CF Hollister (on this site) got to personally know Chef Bertrand and began working as a Sous-Chef for him. Eventually, CF Hollister began running the bistro by himself and became quite a good chef while Chef Bertrand moved on to bigger and better things. CF Hollister eventually moved on himself and started a new career as a chef working for 2 other restaurants. La Creme Brulee French Bistro is now defunct (not because of lack of customers but rather everyone moved on to bigger things) but it holds many great memories for me. And so, that is my Alizée story... at least part of it.

Fascinating story Davedel, thanks for sharing! That mini-concert event sounds like a very joyous occasion.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Davedel

Back in February of 2005, I was downloading various music videos from the NewsGroups/Usenet. I downloaded 3 of Alizée's videos along with hundreds of other music videos. When I started watching the music videos I stumbled upon Alizée's videos by dumb luck. I thought she was sexy but classy sexy (not a sleaze) and was very attractive.

After gaining an interest in Alizée and then French and France, I went down to a newly opened French Bistro in my area and befriended the owner, a real French Chef from France. Within a few weeks we showed a 12' projection of Alizée's concert for a French club that I invited. The owner made money hand-over-fist that night and so we began showing various European concerts, about 1 every 4 months. After a while I helped the owner sweep up at nights and I got free French food every time I went there. At the end of the night, just before we went home, the chef/owner and I used to watch various Les Enfoires videos for about 30 minutes. It was really great.

After about a year we decided to put on a concert for Alizée fans (and anyone else interested) on her 23rd birthday. We had a number of fans show up from around the country and even 3 local fans in our immediate area. I had the cake made with a photo of Alizée on it and Chef Bertrand made a menu of Corsican food special to the occasion. The concert went on early into the next morning with various games and prizes awarded. It was really fun.

Because of Alizée's influence and myself (making the introduction), CF Hollister (on this site) got to personally know Chef Bertrand and began working as a Sous-Chef for him. Eventually, CF Hollister began running the bistro by himself and became quite a good chef while Chef Bertrand moved on to bigger and better things. CF Hollister eventually moved on himself and started a new career as a chef working for 2 other restaurants. La Creme Brulee French Bistro is now defunct (not because of lack of customers but rather everyone moved on to bigger things) but it holds many great memories for me. And so, that is my Alizée story... at least part of it.

Good story Davedel. Pictures of that Alizee birthday party have been posted here before???

[Davedel]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Good story Davedel. Pictures of that Alizee birthday party have been posted here before???

Yes. In the past I've posted some of the photos from the party and some PDFs of the games we played.

Over the years I've had different login names on this site with my current one for the last few years being, "Davedel". I don't even remember when I first joined this site.. sometime around 2005 or 2006. Also, I don't think any of the old members when I originally joined this site are still active, although, you are still here and have been for years. The last time I heard from member "Cooney" was when he was working for Homeland Security at Seatac Airport and "CF Hollister" was moving to Central Washington State to be with his college girlfriend, eventually wanting to open his own restaurant in Bellingham, Washington. Chef Bertrand now lives and works somewhere in Seattle.

As for me, I went to Paris a few times (years ago, back in Alizée's hay day) and met some young 22ish year old French people and hung out with them for a while. Got to stay at one of their houses for a week and then they showed me around Paris and even threw 2 parties for me. Considering I was 46 years old at the time I find that amazing. But I will soon be driving a Big Rig around the country... still playing Alizée's music on the radio. Although, I don't get back to this site very often I still do check-in from time to time to see what's happening and am glad to see it's still active.

[Alizée-Nederland]

Originally Posted by Alex

12-14-2009
It's a very normal symptom, waking up the following day and taking up all that info, videos, music, and precious history of Alizee, its the Alizee pandemic and phenomenon!, and we all have it!

2009's "pandemic" "we all have".

That aged well...

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Alizée-Nederland

2009's "pandemic" "we all have".

That aged well...

Welcome to the forum Alizée-Nederland. Is there more to your story?

[Alizée-Nederland]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Welcome to the forum Alizée-Nederland. Is there more to your story?

Thank you.

I discovered Alizée when I went to France for the first time.

When I arrived on vacation in Paris on August 20, 2000 Alizée was like everywhere, although after translating the "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" text from the posters in Dutch I first thought her name was Lolita.
The French-Dutch dictionary listed "Moi" as being "I" and "Lolita" as a girl's name of Spanish origin, while it listed "Alizée" as trade winds, so I first thought "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" meant "I, Lolita - am going for the wind" (as in being successful), which didn't surprise me after seeing her posters all over the place and hearing her music.
So first I thought I had translated the text from the posters very well, only to find out later after the single was released in The Netherlands that my translation was completely wrong.

Music wise there was only the Moi... Lolita single, which could be heard playing on different places throughout the city.

It was impossible not to see Alizée in Paris back then, being on every poster wall and in (magazines in) all kiosks we came by.

Back then you didn't just take pictures of everything (no digital camera's yet), although I still would like to find pictures of how the streets of Paris looked in August 2000 with those same "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" posters like literally everywhere.

I later found out I discovered Alizée on the last day that we were both 15 years old.
Because I remember everything so well it doesn't feel like over 20 years ago at all, more like last month or so.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Alizée-Nederland

Thank you.

I discovered Alizée when I went to France for the first time.

When I arrived on vacation in Paris on August 20, 2000 Alizée was like everywhere, although after translating the "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" text from the posters in Dutch I first thought her name was Lolita.
The French-Dutch dictionary listed "Moi" as being "I" and "Lolita" as a girl's name of Spanish origin, while it listed "Alizée" as trade winds, so I first thought "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" meant "I, Lolita - am going for the wind" (as in being successful), which didn't surprise me after seeing her posters all over the place and hearing her music.
So first I thought I had translated the text from the posters very well, only to find out later after the single was released in The Netherlands that my translation was completely wrong.

Music wise there was only the Moi... Lolita single, which could be heard playing on different places throughout the city.

It was impossible not to see Alizée in Paris back then, being on every poster wall and in (magazines in) all kiosks we came by.

Back then you didn't just take pictures of everything (no digital camera's yet), although I still would like to find pictures of how the streets of Paris looked in August 2000 with those same "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" posters like literally everywhere.

I later found out I discovered Alizée on the last day that we were both 15 years old.
Because I remember everything so well it doesn't feel like over 20 years ago at all, more like last month or so.

Thanks for sharing that and that's very interesting to hear. I've been lucky enough to visit the beautiful country of the Netherlands on a couple of occasions. I've been a part of this forum for 14 years and in that time we've only had a couple of people who were at one of her concerts and could give us an idea of what it was like but we hadn't heard what it must've been like in Paris with her posters all around. It would be great if we could somehow get pictures of that.

So did you get to go to any of her concerts? We know she got up to Belgium with her concerts, but not the Netherlands, but she did make a few appearances in the Netherlands including that awesome performance in Amsterdam. Were you at any of them there or in other countries?

[Alizée-Nederland]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

Thanks for sharing that and that's very interesting to hear. I've been lucky enough to visit the beautiful country of the Netherlands on a couple of occasions. I've been a part of this forum for 14 years and in that time we've only had a couple of people who were at one of her concerts and could give us an idea of what it was like but we hadn't heard what it must've been like in Paris with her posters all around. It would be great if we could somehow get pictures of that.

So did you get to go to any of her concerts? We know she got up to Belgium with her concerts, but not the Netherlands, but she did make a few appearances in the Netherlands including that awesome performance in Amsterdam. Were you at any of them there or in other countries?

As far as I know the first performances of Alizée outside of France were in The Netherlands on Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) Monday April 30, 2001.

First the performance of Moi... Lolita on the Museumplein in Amsterdam.



And later that day during a TV show called 275 jaar Staatsloterij (275 years State lottery), celebrating its 275 years that year.



The interview on the Dutch TV channel The Music Factory (TMF) with Daphne Bunskoek is from Tuesday May 1, 2001.

The interview on the Dutch TV channel The Box in the TV program BOXTalk is from that same day.

[Aragorn97]

Originally Posted by Alizée-Nederland

Music wise there was only the Moi... Lolita single, which could be heard playing on different places throughout the city.

It was impossible not to see Alizée in Paris back then, being on every poster wall and in (magazines in) all kiosks we came by.

Back then you didn't just take pictures of everything (no digital camera's yet), although I still would like to find pictures of how the streets of Paris looked in August 2000 with those same "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" posters like literally everywhere.

Hi, Alizée-Nederland! Your story is fascinating. It isn't hard to believe that Paris is so vivid in your memories. To imagine Alizée and Moi... Lolita as popular and omnipresent as today's famous songs is intriguing.

[Alizée-Nederland]

Originally Posted by Aragorn97

Hi, Alizée-Nederland! Your story is fascinating. It isn't hard to believe that Paris is so vivid in your memories. To imagine Alizée and Moi... Lolita as popular and omnipresent as today's famous songs is intriguing.

Back in 2000 being popular and omnipresent was completely different compared to today, everything was physical, there was no online promotion / banners, no streaming and no online sales except for physical delivery of the CD single, and the percentage of people even having Internet access was low, and you had to pay for every minute you were online. So nearly all promotion and sales were physical.

In Paris in August 2000 there were way more (large!) physical advertising spots compared to nowadays, almost every street had one, and they all had the "Moi... Lolita - Alizée" poster.

By literally every few shops / kiosks / street vendors Moi... Lolita was being played, with a person next to it actively approaching all tourists who walked by, telling them they had to buy the Moi... Lolita CD single then and there, because it was the greatest French invention ever etc. (like market vendors promote their goods).

That doesn't happen with today's famous songs.