Did Alizée's French fans abandon her?

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by Fenris

Indeed, that's the big question.
She is in a very difficult position in france, but at least i would expect her to show some activity to win back her lost credibility.
As Lefty stated, there are boatloads of competent musicians who could play her UEDS stuff and accompagnie her on some smaler performances.

Regarding the matter of her "band" not being there:
In spring she talked about a concert "at the end of the year" when it was already known that Rob and CM would be on Tour and not available. So i think this was just a convenient excuse given to a nosy fan she happened to meet at the Nolwenn concert. Besides, Château Marmont stated in an interview that they have no knowledge/plans of touring with Alizée.

Whatever her reasons are, with the level of commitment she is showing so far she will get nowhere. There are enough hungry artists out there who are willing to do the grind and reap the rewards.
Maybe it is her weakness that she never really had to fight for her place in the music business before.
In the beginning Auntie Mylène made things right, and in 2008 the mexican miracle fell in her lap without her having much to do about it.

In the end, it's all about hard work and commitment. Ask Lady Gaga, she knows.

I really hope that that's not what she's really planning on. I mean, with all the time and effort she's put into this new album, it would be an awful waste to just sit back and hope for some sort of miracle to bring her back up to the top. She did a whole lot more back with Psychedelices, and seeing as how UEDS is more of a "her" album, I figured she'd be more excited to promote it.

I can understand how with Gourmandises, and MCE she just let Mylene do all the heavy lifting, and with Psychedelices, she did do a fairly good job of promoting it, with those photoshoots, the music videos for MJ and 50/60, as well as all her performances. With UEDS though.. I mean, yeah she's had a photoshoot and a music video, but it's plateaued before it even really took off.

[FanDeAliFee]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

Actually, I wouldn't say she can't perform without her team, she has simply chosen not to. Any competent musician familiar with analog synths could play anything on UEDS, and there are plenty of musicians floating around with that level of capability...

Dare I write it? There are even wanna-be keyboardists who would work for nothing and mime performance on a non-functional synthesizer while a recorded track provided perfect synthesizer sound. If Alizée had a taste for physical comedy, at some point the guy could even slowly "come clean" by first starting to "play" with one hand, then just an elbow, then a nose or a tongue, etc. while he mugged at the audience. Doesn't anyone remember Victor Borge, the Clown Prince of Denmark?

As to venues, I have a suggestion. As a Paris suburbanite, Alizée would find it very convenient to perform in metro Paris. Add in the consideration that of all the cities in France, Paris has the biggest resident population, the most tourists, and a wide choice of support labor.

Of course, all these advantages make it an expensive place to host an audience, but that is the price of working the top rung of the entertainment world.

Now, even in Paris, both residents and visitors must eat, the latter almost always at restaurants, the former, sometimes. What if Alizée opened a personally branded eatery/showplace? Her former one-time mentor, Monique Mufraggi. might even have a relevant trade secret or two to share, given her parents' successful ownership and operation of the cabaret Le Bonaparte in post-war Morocco.

I don't think Alizée has nearly as much money as many people idly imagine, but it is not necessary she develop a restaurant from scratch, or even provide enormous equity to an existing place which her branding helps to transform.

Maybe there is a struggling eatery in Montmartre looking for a gimmick. Perhaps they would welcome the opportunity to remake themselves into Alizée's Corsican Restaurant. (No doubt the real Audrey Tautou would charge too much to work as a waitress, but her help would hardly be necessary to make the place a success!) The name of the place need not constrain the cuisine, which could be quite eclectic (see song video embedded below!) even if it also included Corsican fare for the adventurous willing to pay a premium. But the decor might well reprise the sunny south of the Med, and Corsica in particular, with exaggerated mountains towering over the littoral splendors of the Île de Beauté depicted in murals.

This is a place at which Alizée could meet with the public informally on a frequent surprise basis, perhaps even customizing logoed merchandise including recordings and posters, even if her actual performances there were even less frequent. And every night the spirit moved her, she could have a friendly, captive audience enjoying dinner, free of art critics who would count bodies at places like the Grand Rex, and pronounce her a success or a failure.

Indeed, many celebrities have opened restaurants when they got tired of the road, including musical performers. Perhaps the ancient example of Nicola Paone is instructive.

Is the occasional party which Institubes puts on in the spirit of my suggestion here? An article like Paris, the city that always sleeps (The Times, London, November 18, 2009) is a discouragement, but could part of it be ancient Chunnel-end disdain?

Anyway, now you can debate the question of "If Alizée were a Parisian restaurant, what would she taste like?"

<table width="640" cellpadding="20"><tr><td>
Arlo Guthrie's magnum opus, Alice's Restaurant. By coincidence, the first name of Guthrie's poet grandmother was Aliza.</td></tr></table>
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b8DtpdXZi0M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b8DtpdXZi0M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>

[DrSmith]

Alizée isn't Rocky Balboa.

[Zeerre]

Originally Posted by DrSmith

Alizée isn't Rocky Balboa.

lol Non sequitur of the week right here.

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by FanDeAliFee

You can get anything you want at Alizée's Restaurant
=====


Dare I write it? There are even wanna-be keyboardists who would work for nothing and mime performance on a non-functional synthesizer while a recorded track provided perfect synthesizer sound. If Alizée had a taste for physical comedy, at some point the guy could even slowly "come clean" by first starting to "play" with one hand, then just an elbow, then a nose or a tongue, etc. while he mugged at the audience. Doesn't anyone remember Victor Borge, the Clown Prince of Denmark?

As to venues, I have a suggestion. As a Paris suburbanite, Alizée would find it very convenient to perform in metro Paris. Add in the consideration that of all the cities in France, Paris has the biggest resident population, the most tourists, and a wide choice of support labor.

Of course, all these advantages make it an expensive place to host an audience, but that is the price of working the top rung of the entertainment world.

Now, even in Paris, both residents and visitors must eat, the latter almost always at restaurants, the former, sometimes. What if Alizée opened a personal;y branded eatery/showplace? Her former one-time mentor, Monique Mufraggi. might even have a relevant trade secret or two to share, given her parents' successful ownership and operation of the cabaret Le Bonaparte in post-war Morocco.

I don't think Alizée has nearly as much money as many people idly imagine, but it is not necessary she develop a restaurant from scratch, or even provide enormous equity to an existing place which her branding helps to transform.

Maybe there is a struggling eatery in Monmatre looking for a gimmick. Perhaps they would welcome the opportunity to remake themselves into Alizée's Corsican Restaurant. (No doubt the real Audrey Tautou would charge too much to work as a waitress, but her help would hardly be necessary to make the place a success!) The name of the place need not constrain the cuisine, which could be quite eclectic (see song video embedded below!) even if it also included Corsican fare for the adventurous willing to pay a premium. But the decor might well reprise the sunny south of the Med, and Corsica in particular, with exaggerated mountains towering over the littoral splendors of the Île de Beauté depicted in murals.

This is a place at which Alizée could meet with the public informally on a frequent surprise basis, perhaps even customizing logoed merchandise including recordings and posters, even if her actual performances there were even less frequent. And every night the spirit moved her, she could have a friendly, captive audience enjoying dinner, free of art critics who would count bodies at places like the Grand Rex, and pronounce her a success or a failure.

Indeed, many celebrities have opened restaurants when they got tired of the road, including musical performers. Perhaps the ancient example of Nicola Paone is instructive.

Is the occasional party which Institubes puts on in the spirit of my suggestion here? An article like Paris, the city that always sleeps (The Times, London, November 18, 2009) is a discouragement, but could part of it be ancient Chunnel-end disdain?

Anyway, now you can debate the question of "If Alizée were a Parisian restaurant, what would she taste like?"

<table width="640" cellpadding="20"><tr><td>
Arlo Guthrie's magnum opus, Alice's Restaurant. By coincidence, the first name of Guthrie's poet grandmother was Aliza.</td></tr></table>
<object width="640" height="505"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/b8DtpdXZi0M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/b8DtpdXZi0M?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="505"></embed></object>

What just happened here? How'd we end up talking about Alizée opening a restaurant?

[lefty12357]

Originally Posted by Fenris

Indeed, that's the big question.
She is in a very difficult position in france, but at least i would expect her to show some activity to win back her lost credibility.
As Lefty stated, there are boatloads of competent musicians who could play her UEDS stuff and accompagnie her on some smaler performances.

Regarding the matter of her "band" not being there:
In spring she talked about a concert "at the end of the year" when it was already known that Rob and CM would be on Tour and not available. So i think this was just a convenient excuse given to a nosy fan she happened to meet at the Nolwenn concert. Besides, Château Marmont stated in an interview that they have no knowledge/plans of touring with Alizée.

Whatever her reasons are, with the level of commitment she is showing so far she will get nowhere. There are enough hungry artists out there who are willing to do the grind and reap the rewards.
Maybe it is her weakness that she never really had to fight for her place in the music business before.
In the beginning Auntie Mylène made things right, and in 2008 the mexican miracle fell in her lap without her having much to do about it.

In the end, it's all about hard work and commitment. Ask Lady Gaga, she knows.

Well, I have to agree with everything you said. Alizée's opportunity with Mylene gave her the chance to completely bypass that whole experience that most artists have to deal with, and jump to the top. But one learns a lot having those experiences and one becomes seasoned by them.

I honestly don't think Alizée knows how to manage the situation she finds herself in now. She was never in this position when she was with Mylene, so she never observed how Mylene would have dealt with it. She learned a lot from Mylene, but reviving a struggling career was not part of the curriculum back then. So I think she is just kind of feeling her way along right now.

All I can say is that I know a lot of people involved with music and I know how hard they are willing to work at it, even if they never even come close to achieving the success that someone like Alizée has had. Does she have that same fire burning in her? I don't know. She said she wants to last, and that music is her passion, but maybe she just doesn't want to work that hard. And that's OK, it's her life and her career. But it takes hard work and commitment if one wants to last in the music business. Personally, I hope to see Alizée around for a long time.

[Fenris]

Originally Posted by lefty12357

So I think she is just kind of feeling her way along right now.

Agreed. I also think that part of the "problem" might be her corsican mentality like those little superstitions about not to talk about the future and thus not to plan ahead sufficiently.
She made UEDS and hoped for the best, and "let's see what happens", but there was no really efficient plan or resources for promotion.
Maybe she believed her lucky guardian angel would make things right like it seemed to have happened before in her life.
And as the album flopped she was at a loss of what to do.
Additionally i can imagine that at this point there was little support from her label and Sony Music, because they only go where the money is.

Originally Posted by lefty12357

All I can say is that I know a lot of people involved with music and I know how hard they are willing to work at it, even if they never even come close to achieving the success that someone like Alizée has had. Does she have that same fire burning in her? I don't know. She said she wants to last, and that music is her passion, but maybe she just doesn't want to work that hard. And that's OK, it's her life and her career. But it takes hard work and commitment if one wants to last in the music business. Personally, I hope to see Alizée around for a long time.

Well, as far as i know Lillytown.fr closed it's gates because many french fans thought that she lost her fire, passion and vision.
I don't know if this is true, but i can understand that people think this way.
If it is true, then i hope these qualities only lie dormant at the moment and that she can rekindle them given time.
I think 2011 will be decisive, either she puts together something that can revive her career or she might slowly fade into private life, or she choses to take another job related to the music industry.

I think it would be a terrible waste of talent and potential if she would disappear from the music scene for good, but as you said, it's her life and her career.
Besides, she is not the only french artist that is struggling to survive at the moment, many have difficulties filling concert halls. The french music market has changed a big deal since her ML times, with traditional french pop and chanson loosing market share to rap and english artists.
But this is another topic...

[Deepwaters]

There is no substitute for hard work and dedication. That said . . .

I also believe that Alizée should think of herself as an international singer rather than a French singer -- and in fact, most performers need to think of themselves that way today. It's a global economy and that's as true in music as it is in anything else.

Rather than marketing herself to the French, with the rest of the world as an afterthought, she needs to market herself to Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, and do that from the beginning.

If she had been confined to France in 2008, Psychédélices would have flopped. True fact.

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

There is no substitute for hard work and dedication. That said . . .

I also believe that Alizée should think of herself as an international singer rather than a French singer -- and in fact, most performers need to think of themselves that way today. It's a global economy and that's as true in music as it is in anything else.

Rather than marketing herself to the French, with the rest of the world as an afterthought, she needs to market herself to Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, and do that from the beginning.

If she had been confined to France in 2008, Psychédélices would have flopped. True fact.

Her success in Mexico was honestly pure luck which she did act upon very well. Before she expands though, she has to have a strong base, which, since she is a French singer after all, is France. I'm not saying that she needs to limit herself to just a French audience, but if she does need to have something that resembles a fan base. I mean, that's generally the rule for everything. Before you can expand elsewhere, you need to be strong where it counts first.

[Deepwaters]

Originally Posted by wasabi622

Her success in Mexico was honestly pure luck which she did act upon very well. Before she expands though, she has to have a strong base, which, since she is a French singer after all, is France. I'm not saying that she needs to limit herself to just a French audience, but if she does need to have something that resembles a fan base. I mean, that's generally the rule for everything. Before you can expand elsewhere, you need to be strong where it counts first.

That's exactly what I believe to be the wrong idea. In today's world, one's base cannot be defined geographically. It's going to be anyone, anywhere, with whom one's art resonates. If that means a small percentage of the French market together with a larger share of the Mexican, Chinese, American, whatever market, so what? The only geographical considerations that even apply will be performing concerts in the end. That's a wrinkle, but nothing that can't be worked out.