Does Alizee Need France to Be Successful? I Say No!

[JoeNY]

I have said all along that Alizee would have been very successful in the U.S. during the Mylene Farmer years...had Americans even known she existed. And even though Alizee had dozens of French TV appearances during her heyday from 2001 to 2003, it seems Alizee never really captured the French market. Even today, it seems the French do not know her or dismiss her.

But look at Youtube, and you'll see Alizee has thousands of videos posted by fans with tens of millions of views - more than any big-name French artist I can think of. Then you read the glowing comments - mostly in English or Spanish as well as Russian, Polish, Chinese, Japanese, and even Arabic. Noticeably absent are French fans. And the few French comments I read are derogatory and dismissive. It's the same pattern on Alizee's Facebook. This pattern is the exact opposite of any French artist I've seen on Youtube where most of the comments are in French including Mylene Farmer.

My point is that Alizee seems to have that "it" factor which makes her extremely appealing to people outside of France. It would be a mistake for Sony to ignore her following in the U.S. and Mexico as well as South America, Asia, and Europe. Most artists would kill to capture a piece of the American market which is 5 times the size of the French market (330+ million to 60+ million). It would be alot easier to sell a million CDs to 300 million people than 50 million much less the fact that the 300 million will probably be more receptive to her than those 50 million in her home country. So my marketing strategy for Sony.... in 2 words: F@#! France

[Aldighieri]

Ok...but there is a point.She speak( and sing) french.You can't get on chart in USA if you don't speak english(american?).It was difficult for U2 to get it in 1987, can you imagine how much can be for Alizee.What make a poin for her? She is a little goddes...but global showbitz is full of beauties..younger also. To be on youtube is far different to sell big amount of music.

[Scruffydog777]

I agree that Alizee would have been successful, in fact I think she would have been huge if she came here in her early years. Does she need France to be successful? Maybe not. She might be able to generate enough sales to make some money outside of France, but I think it would be a difficult task and not all that rewarding financially.

I think she does need to have success in France for her own happiness though. It's gotta be tough for her to be around her peers and have to explain why this or that album didn't do well. France is her home. I'm sure it's where she most wants to succeed and I think there is still a good chance for that with this album.

[Jenny_HRO87]

I think she needs France. Because she needs a place where to start.

Sure, she has a lot of fans all over the world. Forums - not only AAm but also others - are full of enthusiastic fans. But you need more than only a couple of fans to have success.

If you release an album and it's a flop why would you go further? Why would you do a lot of promo somewhere else if you aren't 90 % to 100 % sure that it's going to work? Like in Mexico for example... the success Alizée has there is outstanding. Of course youtube had a major role in this. And every time I think of Mexico and the fans I'm overwhelmed how devoted they are. That they are running around, promoting Alizée all by themselves. I think they simple have a different attitude towards their idols. I call it great but "crazy" because I couldn't imagine anything like this in Germany. Or perhaps in general. My mexican friend said that it's a totally normal thing.

Germany is right next to France and Alizée is nearly forgotten. I have heard they played "Mademoiselle Juliette" on some German radio stations near the French border. That was it. That doesn't mean French music wouldn't work in Germany at all. A few recent examples - Zaz and Nolwenn Leroy. Both of them had an enormous success in France. Zaz with her debout album. Nolwenn with "Bretonne". Nolwenn's album was in the charts recently (no idea if it still is), same with Zaz's. Well ok. These albums are a bit different perhaps that's why it worked so well. Zaz music always reminds me a bit of a mix of gypsy and street music. A lot of people say she's like the new Edith Piaf. Her voice is different. A bit smoky. Nolwenn's new album isn't only in French. it's in Breton, Gaulish, English. It's melancholic and happy the same time. It's something you can listen to, close your eyes and it brings you into all kind of different places. So it's not only that you need an album that is successful in your mother country. There are a lot of successful singers in France but mostly they "stay" in their country. So they don't really promote there stuff outside France or better the French speaking countries (talking about the french part of Switzerland, Belgium etc.) because it simply wouldn't work. Being different works. And of course it works when you have a brilliant and ultra successful single like Alizée with Moi Lolita. Which was the perfect summer song, it made you move, it made you happy. It was the kind of song you don't need lyrics for. You just enjoy it. I think a lot of songs on Psychédélices had this potential too.

So you need a place to start. That would be France. And then you can try and go further. I also don't think Alizée would do well in the US. Not anymore. I know you are all very devoted but how many inhabitant does the US have? If things wouldn't work out here like in Mexico you would need a miracle to get Alizée in the charts. Or more than just a miracle. Especially with her recent songs. I mean "A cause de l'automne" for example is a wonderful song but it wouldn't be a hit. It's not catchy enough. It simply wouldn't work. Alizée knews about her fans all over the world but it's all about the money. You need promotion. You need a positive feedback from the general audience. You need high sales figures. You can't just throw an album (even if it's beautiful) on the market and hoping for the best. You need to know that people are going to buy it or the discs will only get dusty in their shelves.

And about her fame on youtube: In my opinion (I can be wrong of course) most of these fans who watch her videos (especially the international fans) know her from the "golden" days, from her time with Mylene, from her success with ML and JEAM. She still has a strong fanbase from these days. Or the Mexicans because of her success during the Psychédélices era over there. Also you can not tell me that her old tunes and also the famous JEAM video don't play an important part when people discover her. I don't say that you can't fall in love with her because of her new songs. But her old stuff is still very important. But as I told before - a "few" fans aren't enough. Also having a lot of clicks on youtube doesn't guarantee an enormous success in the charts.

Somewhere in this post I tried to make a point, not sure if I was successful...

[melovelily]

Mexico pretty much loves her as much as we do
And i wouldn't say the french don't care about alizee anymore because if you checked her twitter followers ( that map status or whatever it's called ) most of them are from france
Her fans are almost from everywhere and it is still growing so she'll be fine
P.s. i wouldn't say alizee is not as popular as before because of her leaving mf its probably because she took a long hiatus ... Either that or half of the french guys are really gay
Seriously alizee would have made in the u.s just by her looks
There is a one thing that im glad that it happend and that thing is that atleast alizee stayed at the top for 4 years so you can't say that she was always forgotten about

[Aldighieri]

Does anyone know where can I find the right selling scores numbers about her past albums?

[SpanishFan]

I don't think she is as popular as we may think... Sure she is well known over the world, on youtube, twitter... but a popular artist should be able to do at leastt 30 concerts in his/her country and another 30 around the world...

[lefty12357]

Originally Posted by Jenny_HRO87

I think she needs France. Because she needs a place where to start.

Sure, she has a lot of fans all over the world. Forums - not only AAm but also others - are full of enthusiastic fans. But you need more than only a couple of fans to have success.

If you release an album and it's a flop why would you go further? Why would you do a lot of promo somewhere else if you aren't 90 % to 100 % sure that it's going to work? Like in Mexico for example... the success Alizée has there is outstanding. Of course youtube had a major role in this. And every time I think of Mexico and the fans I'm overwhelmed how devoted they are. That they are running around, promoting Alizée all by themselves. I think they simple have a different attitude towards their idols. I call it great but "crazy" because I couldn't imagine anything like this in Germany. Or perhaps in general. My mexican friend said that it's a totally normal thing.

Germany is right next to France and Alizée is nearly forgotten. I have heard they played "Mademoiselle Juliette" on some German radio stations near the French border. That was it. That doesn't mean French music wouldn't work in Germany at all. A few recent examples - Zaz and Nolwenn Leroy. Both of them had an enormous success in France. Zaz with her debout album. Nolwenn with "Bretonne". Nolwenn's album was in the charts recently (no idea if it still is), same with Zaz's. Well ok. These albums are a bit different perhaps that's why it worked so well. Zaz music always reminds me a bit of a mix of gypsy and street music. A lot of people say she's like the new Edith Piaf. Her voice is different. A bit smoky. Nolwenn's new album isn't only in French. it's in Breton, Gaulish, English. It's melancholic and happy the same time. It's something you can listen to, close your eyes and it brings you into all kind of different places. So it's not only that you need an album that is successful in your mother country. There are a lot of successful singers in France but mostly they "stay" in their country. So they don't really promote there stuff outside France or better the French speaking countries (talking about the french part of Switzerland, Belgium etc.) because it simply wouldn't work. Being different works. And of course it works when you have a brilliant and ultra successful single like Alizée with Moi Lolita. Which was the perfect summer song, it made you move, it made you happy. It was the kind of song you don't need lyrics for. You just enjoy it. I think a lot of songs on Psychédélices had this potential too.

So you need a place to start. That would be France. And then you can try and go further. I also don't think Alizée would do well in the US. Not anymore. I know you are all very devoted but how many inhabitant does the US have? If things wouldn't work out here like in Mexico you would need a miracle to get Alizée in the charts. Or more than just a miracle. Especially with her recent songs. I mean "A cause de l'automne" for example is a wonderful song but it wouldn't be a hit. It's not catchy enough. It simply wouldn't work. Alizée knews about her fans all over the world but it's all about the money. You need promotion. You need a positive feedback from the general audience. You need high sales figures. You can't just throw an album (even if it's beautiful) on the market and hoping for the best. You need to know that people are going to buy it or the discs will only get dusty in their shelves.

And about her fame on youtube: In my opinion (I can be wrong of course) most of these fans who watch her videos (especially the international fans) know her from the "golden" days, from her time with Mylene, from her success with ML and JEAM. She still has a strong fanbase from these days. Or the Mexicans because of her success during the Psychédélices era over there. Also you can not tell me that her old tunes and also the famous JEAM video don't play an important part when people discover her. I don't say that you can't fall in love with her because of her new songs. But her old stuff is still very important. But as I told before - a "few" fans aren't enough. Also having a lot of clicks on youtube doesn't guarantee an enormous success in the charts.

Somewhere in this post I tried to make a point, not sure if I was successful...

I agree with everything you said, Jenny. I don't think American fans can do in the USA what Mexican fans accomplished in Mexico. But I will say that the record companies should make it easier for markets like the USA to easily buy CDs and/or downloads, and not block content that could promote Alizée and other artists.

One other thing is that there have been foreign language songs that have been very successful in the USA, but it is fairly rare. But it's not impossible. Either way, Alizée may never be big in France again and may have to depend on sales from fans scattered all over the globe. But there's no doubt in my mind that Alizée would be much better off if she could re-establish herself in France and have a home base from which to work from.

[JoeNY]

Originally Posted by Aldighieri

Does anyone know where can I find the right selling scores numbers about her past albums?

I ran across these sites with sales and chart rankings:

http://www.chartsinfrance.net/commun...zee-2000-2010/

http://alizeeblog.skyrock.com/

[Euphoria]

Sorry to say it, but if J'en Ai Marre never existed, I think Alizee's career would have been over a long time ago. Jenny is right, her old material is what is bringing in new fans.