Facebook monitor

[Alizée-Nederland]

Thursday, September 27, 2001

MUSIC REVIEW

French teen queen breaks the mold

Eric Harkleroad
Princetonian Arts Writer

"Sixteen-year-old Alizée is France's answer to the teen queen phenomenon. With one notable exception: Alizée has real talent. No breast implants or choreographed group dancing needed here, just haunting melodies and songs that get better each time you listen."

So reads an Amazon.com review of the French teen star's debut album, "Gourmandises," a French word used in the album's title track to draw a comparison between culinary delicacies and kisses. The delectable quality of the tracks make the album's title fitting. As another Amazon.com reviewer wrote, "there is not a bad song here."

Alizée, a native of Ajaccio, Corsica — also the birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte — seems to be taking Europe by storm just as the French general and emperor did.

The track "Veni Vedi Vici," a quote by Julius Caesar, refers to small, everyday victories in the same way that the ancient Roman general and statesman referred to his victories in the field. The track is a battle hymn for life.

Her name, which is not a pseudonym, comes from a French term for wind and reflects her parents' passion for windsurfing. The self-titled track "L'Alizé," is an assertion of her independence and ability to love.

The album contains several other notable tracks. "Moi...Lolita" suggests the title character in Vladimir Nabokov's risqué 1955 novel. "J.B.G." expresses the fantasy of being a James Bond Girl-the lead female role in the popular series of films starring the fictional British agent, 007.

Alizée has sold millions of albums and singles and has been featured in a number of magazine articles and fan websites. She also received an M6 award last year-one of various awards given annually by France's M6 television network to honor icons of popular culture.

Despite the magnitude of her success, Alizée's interests extend beyond music. In interviews with the press, she has noted that if she weren't singing, she would be working as a computer engineer and teaching dance classes on the side, since dancing is her greatest passion.

In pursuit of these dreams, she has kept up with her education by taking correspondence courses and dancing when her schedule permits.

With her talent and diversity of interests, she would undoubtedly make a significant contribution to the Princeton class of 2007, assuming she and the Admission Office agree.

https://web.archive.org/web/20030704...rts/3423.shtml

[Bamagirl]

I think MF was under the impression that Alizée had to have some good songs in English to break into the US market. Unfortunately in trying to rewrite songs like "J'en ai marre" to "I'm fed up" and "J'ai pas vingt ans," she did a terrible job. The songs were laughed at, but I think the point needs to be made that Alizée could have come over here with her French songs and still have been a success.

There is a French singer called Yelle who has come over here on a few occasions and has a following. Here is a video of her singing in Austin Texas 10 years ago. I have never heard mention that Austin is a place that has a lot of French speaking people, but it is a college town whose students are attuned to music from around the world. It is not great success for Yelle, but it is success that keeps her coming back.

Yelle does have English songs, too, but I think Alizée would have been able to have the same type of success Yelle had, though in smaller markets as Yelle. But, if you throw in the beauty, the charm, and the sexiness of Alizée, I believe she would have achieved much more success in a much larger market than Yelle.

Here's another video from a Yelle tour of the USA in 2014.



IMO, if Alizée was brought over here with just her French songs, half the country would have been speaking French by the time her tour was over!

[BroKenSkullDG]

Some of Mylène's earlier songs had also been rewritten in English - to no avail. I think she should've learned from that and made an exception for Alizée by bringing someone externally on board to write English Lyrics for her. Preferably something original. Adapting French Songs into English rarely works well since a lot will get lost in the translation anyhow. Might as well start from scratch.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I'm fairly sure it wasn't in a school because she was too busy with her career to attend school so it had to be either on line classes of more likely with a tutor.

I meant before meeting Mylène. I'm asking because I had to learn English starting third grade. Maybe things were different back then when Alizée was still attending school. After, it obviously makes more sense the way you described it.

Edit:

Originally Posted by Bamagirl

IMO, if Alizée was brought over here with just her French songs, half the country would have been speaking French by the time her tour was over!

Absolutely. She had that 'mass appeal' needed. Plenty of countries took notice, can't see why it wouldn't have worked in the US without trying too hard.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

This got me interested as to why the French might think they have no chance in the US. I found some statistics that are interesting. At least to me.

As you know, most of the US population have their heritage from somewhere else. Most bring their traditions with them and still have some emotional ties to their home countries, and if they are recent immigrants, still might use their native language in their home. They most likely would be interested in the news of their home country as well as the sports figures and celebrities.

Only 2.6% of the US population has a French ancestry. Compare that to Germany, which comprises a surprisingly large 14.4% of the population. The majority of the French population are in three states far in the northeast US (Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont) that border the French Canadian provinces. The other significant pocket of French population is centered around the city of New Orleans in the state of Louisiana, which makes sense because it was a French territory in the past. Everywhere else the French population is spread pretty thin.

Mylene took Alizee to New York City, which is only 0.8% French heritage.

So as beautiful and sexy and talented that Alizee was and is, the odds were very much against her making it in the US. If she was able to speak English with some fluency, she might have had a chance being promoted as an "exotic" singer. It is my understanding that Mylene had Alizee start English classes, but that had stopped somewhere along the way.

Wow! It is good observation and good research!

But it fits the pattern well.

For example, Italian music is liked in the United States and many know that there are many Italians there.

The same, eg., Spanish music!

That is a clear pattern!

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Bamagirl

I think MF was under the impression that Alizée had to have some good songs in English to break into the US market. Unfortunately in trying to rewrite songs like "J'en ai marre" to "I'm fed up" and "J'ai pas vingt ans," she did a terrible job. The songs were laughed at, but I think the point needs to be made that Alizée could have come over here with her French songs and still have been a success.

There is a French singer called Yelle who has come over here on a few occasions and has a following. Here is a video of her singing in Austin Texas 10 years ago. I have never heard mention that Austin is a place that has a lot of French speaking people, but it is a college town whose students are attuned to music from around the world. It is not great success for Yelle, but it is success that keeps her coming back.

Yelle does have English songs, too, but I think Alizée would have been able to have the same type of success Yelle had, though in smaller markets as Yelle. But, if you throw in the beauty, the charm, and the sexiness of Alizée, I believe she would have achieved much more success in a much larger market than Yelle.

Here's another video from a Yelle tour of the USA in 2014.



IMO, if Alizée was brought over here with just her French songs, half the country would have been speaking French by the time her tour was over!

It's interesting to wonder if Mylene would have been happy with some success for Alizee in smaller venues like Austin to get her "established" here or was she only interested in the big stage, the lime light of places like New York or Los Angeles? I also wonder if Mylene thought Alizee had to have some good English songs in order to have any level of success here and did she think Alizee could not succeed here with only French songs? Kind of redundant but I'm sure you get my drift.

Edit:

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

Had her take English classes? Didn't Alizée learn English at school? Or did she have her take 'extra' classes - to improve upon her pronounciation and fluency?

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I'm fairly sure it wasn't in a school because she was too busy with her career to attend school so it had to be either on line classes of more likely with a tutor.

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

I meant before meeting Mylène. I'm asking because I had to learn English starting third grade. Maybe things were different back then when Alizée was still attending school. After, it obviously makes more sense the way you described it.
...................

Sorry I misunderstood you. She must've mentioned it in some of her interviews. I would think Ajaccio wouldn't be the best place to learn English back then. The times I've been there, I've had trouble finding people who speak English well as opposed to if you go to a big city like Paris or Madrid or Amsterdam, you'll find no shortage of people who know English well and I think that's something you really need to learn a language well, to be able to converse with others who know the language.

[AlizéeSuperFanFIN]

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

Had her take English classes? Didn't Alizée learn English at school? Or did she have her take 'extra' classes - to improve upon her pronounciation and fluency?

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I'm fairly sure it wasn't in a school because she was too busy with her career to attend school so it had to be either on line classes of more likely with a tutor.

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

I meant before meeting Mylène. I'm asking because I had to learn English starting third grade. Maybe things were different back then when Alizée was still attending school. After, it obviously makes more sense the way you described it.

I understand that the biggest problem in France is that (at least in the past) the teaching of foreign languages, including English, has been limited and poor.

In many European countries it is compulsory. But not in France.

Sure... English is also compulsory in France at least at some point, in fact the school starts there with the new law at the age of three(!), But especially in the old days, for example in 2000, its teaching was clearly quite miserable...

I was looking for a topic and noticed some rather amusing news when President Jacq Chirac walked out of the EU summit in 2006 when the French representative had started speaking in English.

In the studies, France also ranked as the second worst European country in foreign language teaching.

It is only in the 2010s that there have been statements calling for more effort, because globally, English is a major language.

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

Some of Mylène's earlier songs had also been rewritten in English - to no avail. I think she should've learned from that and made an exception for Alizée by bringing someone externally on board to write English Lyrics for her. Preferably something original. Adapting French Songs into English rarely works well since a lot will get lost in the translation anyhow. Might as well start from scratch.

That would have made the most sense.

So once again the Corsica's world conquest ended in a small mistake ... Until YouTube was invented and today Napoleon is so jealous!
_________

By the way, happy Easter everyone!

[BroKenSkullDG]

Originally Posted by AlizéeSuperFanFIN

So once again the Corsica's world conquest ended in a small mistake ... Until YouTube was invented and today Napoleon is so jealous!
_________

By the way, happy Easter everyone!

I don't think this particular Corsican is very jealous as his world conquest ended in a small mistake too, called "Russia".

[Scruffydog777]

Four more members added today to our FB page. One is from India, one from the Czech Republic, one from Belgium and I believe one is from Bolivia. The last one doesn't say where he's from but all his friends are from Bolivia.

[Mr Coucou]

Originally Posted by 24Shepherd24

I hadn't thought about the hostility Americans had for France as impacting Alizee's career, but now that you mention it, I think that's probably a factor.

I have always believed Alizee could have done well here even though she couldn't speak English. Her beauty and charm would have made an impression. At a time when American pop had turned porno, her wholesomeness would have been unique.

The songs would have had to have been in English, though.

That includes Moi Lolita. For "Moi Lolita" to have been a hit in the U.S., it would have to have been played on FM radio, which means the song would have to have been in English. I can't imagine mainstream American radio giving airplay to a song that isn't in English--- it just doesn't happen, no matter how good the song.

Edit:

Originally Posted by BroKenSkullDG

Had her take English classes? Didn't Alizée learn English at school? Or did she have her take 'extra' classes - to improve upon her pronounciation and fluency?

I read in an interview that Mylene was having Alizee take English classes. But I read in another interview that Alizee took English in grade school, but ended up hating English because she hated the teacher.

Edit:

Originally Posted by CleverCowboy

Mylene took Alizee to New York City, which is only 0.8% French heritage.

I assume that is because (I presume) international record labels are headquartered there. It was a business trip, to sign contracts etc. (I don't know this for certain, but that is my assumption.)

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

The songs would have had to have been in English, though.

That includes Moi Lolita. For "Moi Lolita" to have been a hit in the U.S., it would have to have been played on FM radio, which means the song would have to have been in English. I can't imagine mainstream American radio giving airplay to a song that isn't in English--- it just doesn't happen, no matter how good the song.

Well it's all about the money.

http://youtu.be/AuTp2WUYfps?t=96

http://youtu.be/AuTp2WUYfps?t=175

Originally Posted by Mr Coucou

I read in an interview that Mylene was having Alizee take English classes. But I read in another interview that Alizee took English in grade school, but ended up hating English because she hated the teacher.......

That sounds familiar and I'm sure you're right that there was an issue with her English teacher that hindered her learning of the English language.