What Could've Been for Alizee in the U.S.

[JoeNY]

I know it's crying over spilled milk and hindsight is 20/20, but Alizee could've been huge in the U.S. in the early 2000s. I think Alizee would have been an international star because she alone transcends the language barrier and music genre. You cannot help but love her image, voice, and personality even if you don't understand French or like pop music. I don't think Mylene Farmer even imagined that potential with Alizee, or maybe she felt tackling the big fish in the U.S. was too much to ask from a 16-year old. I have sifted through the music of other contemporary French artists, and I cannot see anyone other than Alizee who could succeed in the U.S. - not Jenifer, not Mylene, not Superbus. There was an anti-French sentiment in the U.S. around 2003 because of their anti-war stance on Iraq. I don't know if that had any effect on Mylene's decision to keep Alizee out of the U.S. Our loss. Even though Alizee is only 26 and far from finished in the music industry, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity in the U.S. that may have passed her.

[lefty12357]

I know what you're saying, but I would also point out that the future isn't written yet. Alizée's situation may not be as solid as it was back in 2003, but I think all options are still open to her, even if they may be harder to achieve. And who knows, maybe she is better equipped to deal with things now that she is older.

I'm not saying that having Alizée come to the US is likely, I'm just saying that no doors are closed to her, yet. And of course we don't know for sure what she wants to do. She has made comments that one could argue either way.

[Scruffydog777]

I agree she could've been huge here and though the anti French sentiment in this country was a big factor, epecially in 2003 (this was the year the name Freeom fries replaced French fries in many restaurants) when four of Alizee's English song were released, I still believe the main factor was the poor job Mylene Farmer did in re-writing the French songs which seems such a shame because she was so immensely talented at everything else.

If it wasn't for that sentiment, I think she could've made it here with just her French songs, it they had just made an attempt at it, after all Moi Lolita did very well in the U.K.But another factor that probably put the nix on that was a lot of parents would have taken much interest in a little French girl who was wore a dress with the cheeks of her rear end hanging out and singing about being a Lolita. That probably wouldn't have gone well at all. Even though we seem to have many rap songs that have lyrics that are far worse by comparison, I think they would've looked at her in a different light and not a favorable one.

I think the release of the 4 English songs in 2003 was meant to target the U.S. market, after all they had already made it into the U.K. market. But then they saw the reaction to these songs and decided it wouldn't work. Alizee said herself in an interview that her English songs were laughed at. I wonder if she knows the reason why?

I think Alizee could still make it in the U.S. First it will take her next album to have one or two good English songs on it. Of course to become a hit here, she'd have to come over here to release and promote them here. A lot more people here would then find out about her older songs and love them and maybe would want to hear them on the radio, but if by chance that happened, would radio stations be willing to play songs that were released years ago. I'm inclined to think not.

[Mon Maquis]

Alizee could of made it in the US with the right people backing her.

Alizee has to have the motivation to come to the US and meet with people. If she does not, then people will know she is not serious.

Many times I was asked when setting up promotions, well when your French artist be in the US? If they come to the US, then we will meet...Its nice to tell them, they are here in the US right now, what time are we meeting...

[babyblue558]

Same goes for Alizée in the UK. Although there was a bit of an effort to get her established over here (TOTP performances, UK interviews etc) I really feel that getting to #9 in the UK charts should've just been the beginning of much more. Instead, it was the peak of her appreciation by the British public, and from then onwards she rapidly disappeared.

Originally Posted by babyblue558

Same goes for Alizée in the UK. Although there was a bit of an effort to get her established over here (TOTP performances, UK interviews etc) I really feel that getting to #9 in the UK charts should've just been the beginning of much more. Instead, it was the peak of her appreciation by the British public, and from then onwards she rapidly disappeared.

Same can be said about all those places where she made a breakthrough with her previous albums. If I'm not wrong then in Korea, her songs reached top of the charts, but that proved to be just one time achievement.

If you notice the kind of promotion of first two albums then you'll see that her image was a major part of it. But now there is only album and her image remains in the background. This has been case for both Psychedelices and UEdS.

For intentional success, a good album would be essential for the base, decent promotion to maintain it and a strong image to convert it into something.

It's hard to speculate, but I guess for a French artist all those factors will give better result in non-French European countries than in US. If she couldn't have got huge success in US, then at least she could have always got a decent constant support there. Such a support is always good for long-term objectives of the career.

[Rev]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

...I think the release of the 4 English songs in 2003 was meant to target the U.S. market, after all they had already made it into the U.K. market. But then they saw the reaction to these songs and decided it wouldn't work....

Keep in mind that English is the most common second language in Europe (at least according to a Norwegian I spoke with when I was in France many years ago - who also said he could travel all over Europe and always use English). Therefore, if you wanted to reach a larger audience in Europe then writing songs in English could help.

[Junkmale]

I strongly believe that Alizee has the talent to 'make it' in any part of the world she wants to.
Unfortunately being a success means hard work and an enormous amount of effort.
I see no signs of that happening, but always hope and wish that things will change.

[ALS]

The problems was or appears that they didn't even try to break into America.

If some one could have gotten her on Saturday Night Live back in 2003 in that J'en ai marre out fit, she would have been the talk of the town after performing J'en ai marre and J'ai Pas Vingt Ans.

[babyblue558]

It's true. The issue isn't that English-speaking countries wouldn't accept a French-speaking singer - in fact it's quite the opposite - most of my friends I've shown Alizée and other French singers to love the fact they sing in French. The issue is that nobody was prepared to take the risk of promoting Alizée in a big way in English-speaking countries. With hindsight we can see that that was a mistake, but I guess at the time it seemed to be the obvious decision.