[2013-03-25] Album "5"

[lefty12357]

Personally, I always thought Alizée should do a few shows or maybe an in-store appearance (like in NYC) just to test the waters a bit. Nothing elaborate, expensive or time consuming. As we all know, Yelle has successfully toured in the U.S. singing in French and audiences loved it. She was even on the Carson Daly show. It can be done if the desire is there. There is no need to become a huge star here, just tap into some CD sales and get a bit of recognition started and see if it leads to something more.

But I think Alizée's main goal is to re-establish herself in France and she will put most of her effort there. As far as international markets are concerned, I think she will only pick the low hanging fruit. She's not going to work for it, but she will take it if it is handed to her. And it's very doubtful that the U.S. market is going to be handed over to her (or anyone else for that matter) without any effort on her part. So, until there is a change in strategy, don't expect to see Alizée in the USA, (unless she is on vacation).

[Mon Maquis]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

Personally, I always thought Alizée should do a few shows or maybe an in-store appearance (like in NYC) just to test the waters a bit. Nothing elaborate, expensive or time consuming. As we all know, Yelle has successfully toured in the U.S. singing in French and audiences loved it. She was even on the Carson Daly show. It can be done if the desire is there. There is no need to become a huge star here, just tap into some CD sales and get a bit of recognition started and see if it leads to something more.

But I think Alizée's main goal is to re-establish herself in France and she will put most of her effort there. As far as international markets are concerned, I think she will only pick the low hanging fruit. She's not going to work for it, but she will take it if it is handed to her. And it's very doubtful that the U.S. market is going to be handed over to her (or anyone else for that matter) without any effort on her part. So, until there is a change in strategy, don't expect to see Alizée in the USA, (unless she is on vacation).

Think Lefty is very accurate in what he is saying.

[BlackAnthem]

Originally Posted by Rev

Do you think that, because SONY France and SONY USA are somewhat separate entities (but still related), that this would discourage SONY France from introducing an artist over here as it is not their "turf"?

Pretty much. SONY France wouldn't want to support anything that might be a flop in the states. The only way they might introduce someone in the States would be if they were sure it would be successful financially.

Originally Posted by Aaronius31

I see what you're saying...but Alizee has said again and again that she has chosen not to enter the US Market since it is "full of sharks" as she said. From what I've seen in interviews and everything, she has no intentions to come here. And that should be a bit obvious since she released UEDS in France and Mexico and not the US. But hey, she might just change her mind in these next few months if she hasn't already and decide to enter the US Market with Sony's help if they accept her...

This is true. If she doesn't want to come to the US then no one can make her even it is a wise career move. If Sony decides to sign her and spends time promoting then all is possible.

Originally Posted by SlipshodDread

I think i need to re-iterate. Alizée's only big non-french market (also her biggest market as far as we know) is Mexico. English speaking countries, such as the U.K, U.S.A rarely if ever have non english songs in the charts. Songs like "Livin La Vida Loca" don't really count because they are almost entirely in English other than certain phrases, but I can think of a ridiculous amount of French phrases that are regularly used in English "Je ne sais quoi" "Deja vu" spring to mind... In fact Moi Lolita was one of the few foreign language songs to ever place highly in the U.K top 10.

So considering that, and that the general markets in the U.K and U.S.A are very unlikely to pay much attention to a song that they have no understanding of. That and the fact that Alizée like all French people prefer French to English, means that she is very unlikely to make an almost completely English song that ISN'T just made as an English version of an originally French song (unless you happen to count the 5 choruses of Les Collines as making it an English song.........)

And sadly people are pretentious arseholes. Most will dismiss an artist with a distinctly Non-English speaking accent (by non english I mean from a country that does not speak English as a first language, not as one of the many accents from around the world in English speaking countries such as the U.S.A, Canada, Australia etc) when they try to speak English "because they sound funny/weird/whatever" and that is the sad truth of things.


Oh and UEDs was also released in the UK, but only as a digital download, not physical copies. I get the feeling that if she manages to get into a high position in the U.K charts with her next album that she could see the potential for success in the U.S. The reason being that the U.K is a much smaller market (based on population) and is the closest country, in non-mainland Europe, to France. So here's hoping her next song can better Moi Lolita...

Lot's of good points. The language barrier is an unfortunate player in this game. I'd be interested in the stats of the digital download in the UK if you could find it.

Originally Posted by lefty12357

Personally, I always thought Alizée should do a few shows or maybe an in-store appearance (like in NYC) just to test the waters a bit. Nothing elaborate, expensive or time consuming. As we all know, Yelle has successfully toured in the U.S. singing in French and audiences loved it. She was even on the Carson Daly show. It can be done if the desire is there. There is no need to become a huge star here, just tap into some CD sales and get a bit of recognition started and see if it leads to something more.

But I think Alizée's main goal is to re-establish herself in France and she will put most of her effort there. As far as international markets are concerned, I think she will only pick the low hanging fruit. She's not going to work for it, but she will take it if it is handed to her. And it's very doubtful that the U.S. market is going to be handed over to her (or anyone else for that matter) without any effort on her part. So, until there is a change in strategy, don't expect to see Alizée in the USA, (unless she is on vacation).

Interesting point about her goal in France. Was that not the point of her last album? Maybe she shouldn't focus on France. After all, she'll always be welcome there. People in France will follow her. Let's say she focused on Mexico. And she had a great hit. France population wouldn't ignore it. They would embrace it. I say put forth effort in other frontiers.

[SlipshodDread]

Well by going back to "her musical roots" as has been suggested in posts from various sources, we can guess she's trying to return to GM/MCE era. The reason that Moi Lolita became so big even in other countries was because it got so big in France and via proximity started a chain reaction. Originally obviously it was released in France, but spread through Francophone countries, such as Belgium (Wallonia) and Switzerland, and also to the other two Romance language countries in Europe; Italy and Spain. Although it was number 9 in the U.K before it was in the charts in Italy.

My point is that if she can recapture her European market she will have a great kick start for sales etc. If she gets popular again, then tackling other more difficult markets would be the next logical step.

UEDs was surely an artistic step, not to try and recapture European fame. That was most likely the intention of Psych, which whilst not doing badly, did not match GM/MCE at all in sales.

[mzracing76]

today, singers/artists take 1-2 years to put together a new ALBUM/CD. taylor swift has 4 cs's in 10 years. so give LILLY time.
mz

[Azhiri]

I just hope that this time she puts more effort into promotion and building up hype for this new album. UEdS was a pretty quiet release and promotional efforts on her team's part almost seemed lazy at times regardless of what her goal was. I hope that doesn't happen again.

If she is ever going to try and expand to international markets now is not the time, for now I hope she just worries about making noise in France. Personally I would prefer to become a huge hit in one country over being somewhat famous in several countries. If she manages to become as famous as she once was in France, which I believe she is quite capable of doing, it will open doors.

[Rev]

Originally Posted by SlipshodDread

Well by going back to "her musical roots" as has been suggested in posts from various sources, we can guess she's trying to return to GM/MCE era. The reason that Moi Lolita became so big even in other countries was because it got so big in France and via proximity started a chain reaction. Originally obviously it was released in France, but spread through Francophone countries, such as Belgium (Wallonia) and Switzerland, and also to the other two Romance language countries in Europe; Italy and Spain. Although it was number 9 in the U.K before it was in the charts in Italy.

My point is that if she can recapture her European market she will have a great kick start for sales etc. If she gets popular again, then tackling other more difficult markets would be the next logical step.

UEDs was surely an artistic step, not to try and recapture European fame. That was most likely the intention of Psych, which whilst not doing badly, did not match GM/MCE at all in sales.

I believe that UEDs was an attempt be her to catch the leading wave of an upcoming trend. Good attempt, but she picked the wrong wave.

I think that she feels that she has to do at least decently in France. Remember, she really likes going to LE every year. In order to continue, she needs to maintain some momentum there.

[Chuck]

@Rev, don't worry, I think she's maintaining momentum.

We have neighbors from France, but none of them had ever heard of Alizée (but we're still good friends anyway).... But now their nephew is visiting, so when I was introduced to him, the lad's uncle said "This is [Chuck] -- he loves Alizée, have you heard of her?", and the guy was like "sure!"

I haven't had much opportunity to grill the kid about it yet, but at least it seemed a more positive sign at this point, seeing as it's 2011 instead of 2001. Oh, and the uncle (our neighbor) does know all about Coluche and les Enfoirés, so he can't be all bad. We drink wine and play Scrabble together. (And he always kicks everyone's ass.)



Warning: more rambling to follow

Basically, I agree with everyone who thinks she's planning to stay true to France and the French language. That's where she's always had the strongest base of all (naturally), and besides, most of her English songs are just not her greatest material. Even Limelight and Les Collines, impressive though they are, are simply not such great, amazing songs that the whole world stopped to take notice. Thus, they did not "break through" to get played in the UK or the US. ("Lolita", on the other hand, entirely in French, was a very ambitious song. Laced with literary references, classical strings, and the sexed-up, slightly shocking lyrics, that was a song that dared to sound big and dared to be great, and it paid off internationally!)

So if she's "going back to her roots" of singing big, great songs that feature her voice (instead of the electronics) then hooray! UEDS was her least successful recording so far, and I personally feel that it's because they mixed and blended and remixed until they almost lost the star completely. I mean, it says "Alizée" on the package, but to me it's mostly an Institubes' record. I still love it, because Alizée sings on it, but I could never call that her best work.

(Not that I'm dissin' the electronica, either)
I guess I'm just dissin' Rob. It's like he did all this mixing and producing and nerd-work without ever even knowing what an amazing talent he was dealing with!!! He shoulda let her sing more. But he didn't. And now Institubes is gone. Tant pis, as they say.

[Chuck]

Damn. It just happened again. Got my ass handed to me at Scrabble again. Next time, I'm sticking with the Kool-Aid!

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by Chuck

Damn. It just happened again. Got my ass handed to me at Scrabble again. Next time, I'm sticking with the Kool-Aid!

Oh, Chuck, that's humiliating, considering the guy who beat you isn't even a native English speaker. I sometimes feel the same way reading Nabokov, who wrote better than I do even though he grew up speaking Russian.