Salut magazine article from 2002

[Scruffydog777]

Another article that AIFC shared with me...


Salut_10_2002.jpg

SALUT 10 2002
What has become of Alizée?

All of a sudden, she was no longer on TV, we didn't hear her on the radio, and suddenly, pfff! Off she went, the lolita! Impossible to talk to her or see her... She deserted Paris but also, a lot more surprisingly, Ajaccio, her dear city. Kidnapped by an all too eager fan? Left to meditate on the summit of a barren mountain? Committed to a candy factory (her weakness) as a professional taste tester? Of course not! Alizée was simply absent as a result of her huge success. Foreign countries had reserved her a triumph...

Recall the facts!
August 21, 1984, Alizée, a pretty baby with all brown hair, lets out her first cry, pardon, her first note, in front of wondrous eyes of her parents.
At 4 years old, she takes her first dance class.
In November 2000, she signs up for the Graines de star audition in Ajaccio. After waiting for 10 hours, she decides to leave. Michelle, her mom, suggests waiting a little longer. Alizée is chosen.
During the show, she finishes second, in front of one Patrick Bruel, jury member, fallen under her spell.
Not long afterward, Alizée records her first single, Moi... Lolita, produced by Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, and gives up definitively her intention of becoming a dance teacher.

Success is appointed!
Number one in sales, Moi... Lolita is on everyone's lips. Same for l'Alizé, Parler tout bas[/i], and Gourmandises, the other three singles from her first album.
Her success brings her, among other things, recognition at the M6 Awards and NRJ Awards (two years in a row).
She is also nominated at the Victoires de la musique in the category "Revelation of the year."
Results: 1.5 million singles and 800 000 albums sold in France alone.

Her latest appearances in France...
Alizée assured like a pro the promotion of each one of her singles, videos (TV shows, interviews, etc.), and then, little by little, she was seen more and more rarely. Finally, the last time she was "officially" seen was last February, when she participated for the second consecutive year in the Restos du coeur tour.

Now an international star!
The English were the ones who drew first! It hasn't been since Vanessa Paradis that they've been infatuated with one of our young stars. And here they literally couldn't resist Alizée. "She's the French Britney Spears!" they said. "She has the voice of an angel..." wrote one journalist. And when she was invited to the biggest British music show, The Top of the Pops (a kind of Hit Machine), she brought the house down!
In April 2001, Alizée is invited to sing in front of more than 40 000 people in the Netherlands for the queen's birthday.
At the same time, Moi... Lolita enters directly into second place on the charts in Italy before being ranked #1.
The following month, her record is released in Japan and Poland.
In June 2001, it's Israel's turn to fall for our little pet.
Little by little, the entire planet becomes inflamed with Alizée. Her record is a hit in Germany, Holland, Spain, Canada, and even Russia.
In total, she sold 300 000 albums and 700 000 singles abroad. Who can say better?
It was Mylène Farmer herself who announced to her, calling her on her cell phone, that she was ranked in the top 10 in Russia. As a result, Alizée went and spent four days there and received an FM Award.
Last June 26, Alizée performed at the Festivalbar, in Italy, in front of a huge crowd.
Today, in all countries where her record has been released, there are dozens of web sites about her; there's even one in Russian!

And now what's going to happen?
Alizée stopped traveling the world and gave herself a few days of vacation, to celebrate with her family and friends her 18th birthday. And then off to the recording studio. It's not all that, but her French fans are stomping with impatience. When will there be a new album?
As a matter of fact, it's a mystery. In principle, the album, still written by the Farmer-Boutonnat tandem, should have been released at the end of the year (as a Christmas present!), but the record label refused to give a precise date.
Info still to be verified: the title of this album could very well be Vents d'ange [Angel winds]. Clever play on words, huh?
If everything goes as planned, the first single should be released in November, so be patient!

[Mini infos...]:
To better understand her new fans, Alizée is taking English classes. It seems that it's also because she dreams of recording several songs in the language of Shakespeare.
Because of lack of time, she has completely dropped her studies.
In three weeks, she received 18 boxes of fan mail. Some come from very far away, the Pacific islands, for example, but also from California where a fan discovered her thanks to the Internet.

[Not Now]

Thanks, Scruffy, it's always good to read these translations. But the part where they mentioned Graines de star, shouldn't it be 1999 instead of 2000? In November 2000, Gourmandises was released.

[Scruffydog777]

Well at first taking a quick glance, according to the Czech data base, Alizee made two appearances on Graines de Star. The first was on 2/25/2000 and the other on 4/14/2000.

EDIT:
Going into further detail about the dates, quoting the Czech data base..."2000-04-14 She appears again on "Graines de Star", performing once again "Ma Priere" and this time Alizée also sings "Oh Happy Days" alongside three others; Marie and Sydney aged 13 and Claire 16. Claire won, whilst ?Alizée 15 at the time came second. There is some doubt about the exact dates of "Graines de Star" performances by Alizée due to schedule changes on the show. Some videos show Alizée performances as dated in 1999, however Homer feels the above dates are correct. ".

You have to consider too that unless this show was aired live, which I doubt, the filming date, may have been presented as the airing date or vice versa. Could they have been recorded in 1999, then aired in 2000?

So if these dates are right, she made her last appearance on Graines de Stars on 14th of April and Moi Lolita was first played on the radio on May 17th. That's a quick turn around and of course the album came in November.

EDIT:

It looks like Alizee made 4 appearances on Graines de Stars.
The first 2 were auditions, the first being in Corsica, the second in Paris. The one in Corsica has to be the one where she said a friend entered in the competition as a singer instead of what she wanted to do, dancing.

Here is what the Alizee Bible has to say....
"4 2000: Alizée auditions for “Graines de star”. First in Corsica (in the césar palace) and then in Paris interpreting the song “waiting for tonight”. Although for several reasons the precise date of this is not clear for example it appears in some videos that it is actually 19th December 1999. Whilst when Graines de Star was broadcasted, a fragment of the video appears with the label: Audition January 2000.
5 25th February 2000: Alizée on “Graines de Star” performs “Ma Prière” which was originally sung by Axelle Red. In which Alizée comes first (source Nidalizée) However another source states it is the 26th of January (gourmand'alizée).
6 14th April 2000: She returns again on “Graines de Star”, performing once again “Ma Prière” and this time Alizée also sings “Oh Happy Days” alongside three others; Marie and Sydney aged 13 and Claire 16. Claire won, whilst Alizée 15 at the time came second. (source Nidalizée). Claimed on another site it was 27th of February (gourmand'alizée). There is some doubt about the exact dates of “Graines De Star” performances by Alizée due to schedule changes on the show. Some videos show Alizée performances as dated in 1999, however Homer feels the above dates are correct.
7 Spring 2000: L. Boutonnant and P. Soloman do the photo "


We also heard there was supposed to be another appearance on Graines de Stars, but Mylene Farmer, while channel surfing one night, discovered her and by the time that next show was due to be filmed, Alizee was under contract with MF.

[Scruffydog777]

Looking at Graines de Stars a little closer,
I found I have a video I didn't see on Youtube that it looks like some fan put together which will help explain the timing of the Graines de Stars shows.

Her first appearance was an audition in Ajaccio for which there seems to be only a low res still and apparently it took place in December of 1999.
Her second appearance was an audition in Paris and I've also seen it called a casting where she's seen wearing a set of large earphones.

Then she made her third appearance, but first on the 'show' with the date given as 2/25/2000 which I'm sure was the date the show aired. She won this competition.

She then made a fourth appearance, but second on the 'show' in which case she came in 2nd. I'm guessing in the way they determined the winner, by audience cheering, that Alizée might have been at a disadvantage living far away from Paris, that's assuming the other girl lived much closer and may have had a lot more friends and family there. I don't believe this video showed it, but I'm sure this show took place in April of 2000.

These shows may have been filmed live, but I think it's more likely they were taped and actually took place at least a month before the shows aired.
It was said Alizée was asked to make another appearance on this show, but by then, Mylene Farmer had discovered her and had her under contract.

She did make another appearance on this show as a guest and it was aired in September of 2000 and she sang her new single, Moi Lolita.



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