Une Enfant Du Siècle News/Discussion!

[Scruffydog777]

[QUOTE=TheBarrett;144207]It's not because they sucked, but because it was not fluent. QUOTE]

I think you hit the nail right on the head. I think Mylene Farmer is great at what she does, with the exception that and I've read this from the internet on more than one occassion, she has not done well when it comes to interpreting either her own songs or the songs sung by Alziée into English.

[ALS]

It's not the singer but that song writer. You just can't translate the lyrics to English and expect them to flow as well as they did in the writers native language.

Listen to Alizée's versions of La Isla Bonita and Hung Up by Madonna. She sounds great doing them because they were written to sung in English. If you were to translate them into French for Alizée to sing, it just wouldn't flow or sound like it should.

[Deepwaters]

I'm Fed Up, I'm Not Twenty, and Youpidou (English version) are not translations of J'en ai marre, J'ai pas vingt ans, and Youpidou (French Version). They are original song lyrics written by Mylène Farmer to the same music. Look at the lyrics in both sets of songs and this will be obvious; for example, one does not find the French words for "bubbles and water" anywhere in JEAM. So the problem isn't difficulties of translation. Nor is it that Mylène isn't fluent in English, because she is.

I've seen some opinions expressed that the English Youpidou is actually better than the French Youpidou, and honestly it's the only one of those three that I can stand. I'm Fed Up and I'm Not Twenty just plain aren't very good song lyrics. Although the music, of course, is great.

[ALS]

In my case I like all the French versions better. Myleen may be well versed in English but as I said before it isn't her native language. If she had been writing most of her lyrics in English and living in an English speaking country instead of France over the last twenty or so years it would make a big difference in lyrical style.

In those English versions as I said before the words are correct in meaning but they just don't flow well when the same song is sung with English lyrics.

Alizée was part of a group sing of Locomotion at Les Enfoires 2009 a French version of an American hit. It sounded a little out of sync to the English version. It's not bad it just doesn't have the smooth lyrical flow it does in English.

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A really good example of a song correctly re-written for an English market was
the German band Nena's 99 Luftballoons or 99 Red Balloons English version.

Here is where someone was on the ball and made it work in both languages.

I'm not criticizing Myleens work because she is so very good at what she does. I'm just making a point that it is very hard to make a great sounding song in one language work in another language.

For example If the German Metal band Rammstein sung their songs in English it would lose all the depth, intense attitude and emotion of their music.

[Deepwaters]

I see what you mean now. I thought you were saying that you thought the English songs were translations from the French. I agree that, with the possible exception of Youpidou, they're just not as good as the French versions. I find those lyrics rather awkward.

No, English is not Mylène's native language, although as a Quebecois she would probably have grown up bilingual. Certainly her English is excellent, but it's unlikely I will ever be able to write poetry in any other language as well as I can in English, so it's probably the same for her and French.

But I would hope that this experience would not permanently sour Alizée on the idea of performing in the U.S. and other English-speaking countries. We love her singing in her own beautiful tongue. If she wants to sing original music in English, though, there are wonderful songwriters in our language who would be delighted to work with her. It would be a shame if the poor reception of that rather mediocre effort of Mylène's (certainly it's no fault of Alizée's) should make her mentally close the door. That would be America's great loss.

Am I to understand that Institubes is replacing Wisteria Song as the studio production company for this new album?

[wasabi622]

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

I'm Fed Up, I'm Not Twenty, and Youpidou (English version) are not translations of J'en ai marre, J'ai pas vingt ans, and Youpidou (French Version). They are original song lyrics written by Mylène Farmer to the same music.

oh yes. i've noticed!

I'm fed up doesn't have that cute little hiccup/cough thingy in J'en Ai Marre!

aaannndddd.. there's videos on youtube of her singing in french with subtitles. very different lyrics.

[user472884]

Originally Posted by ALS

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Alizée

[Ben]

Yeah I don't know what Mylene was thinking with the I'm Fed Up and especially the I'm Not Twenty English lyrics, but the others aren't bad. As stated, Youpidou may even be better!

Originally Posted by Deepwaters

Am I to understand that Institubes is replacing Wisteria Song as the studio production company for this new album?

Dunno, Wisteria's still listed on her MySpace. No reason she can't use both. I was also under the impression that anything Alizée records these days is, by default, a "Wisteria Song Production"? Like how anything either Mylene or Laurent does falls under Requiem Publishing, even if not worked on together. Though I'm not even sure I'd rule out Jérémy's participation on this album yet either.

[Roman]

Originally Posted by ALS

In my case I like all the French versions better. [Mylène] may be well versed in English but as I said before it isn't her native language. If she had been writing most of her lyrics in English and living in an English speaking country instead of France over the last twenty or so years it would make a big difference in lyrical style.

In those English versions as I said before the words are correct in meaning but they just don't flow well when the same song is sung with English lyrics.

Alizée was part of a group sing of Locomotion at Les Enfoires 2009 a French version of an American hit. It sounded a little out of sync to the English version. It's not bad it just doesn't have the smooth lyrical flow it does in English.

A really good example of a song correctly re-written for an English market was
the German band Nena's 99 Luftballoons or 99 Red Balloons English version.

Here is where someone was on the ball and made it work in both languages.

I'm not criticizing Myleens work because she is so very good at what she does. I'm just making a point that it is very hard to make a great sounding song in one language work in another language.

For example If the German Metal band Rammstein sung their songs in English it would lose all the depth, intense attitude and emotion of their music.

See, I have to disagree. Right now, that French version of Locomotion seems to flow pretty well as for the sound of it. While (in my hazy recollection) 99 Luftballoons sounds significantly better than the English version. Alizée's original Isla sounded significantly better than the 2008 partially because her English was better. A hint of French accent when singing is fine and maybe even all the more charming, at least in some circumstances, but at least on first listen is not as appealing if it sounds like she doesn't know the language. All my own opinions.

None of this is relevant, however, because there's been no indication that she's going to try again with English. And frankly, in 2008 she said when answering questions once, I haven't forgotten about my America fans, but when asked if she'd sing in America, 'why not spread the French language in the US'. Frankly, that sounded more like, 'what the hell, if they really want me there that much, I guess I'll go. Look what happened in Mexico. I suppose it's possible.' But it didn't sound much like, 'I'd love to share my music with them and will try to work out he opportunity'. 'Spread the French language'. It's a nice sentiment, but sounds very impersonal. It's weak speculation to try to figure out what she meant and maybe she was just being humble (wouldn't put it past her), but I think she does not see it as an actual goal and has always felt she has more pertinent fish to fry (to make a strange analogy).

I agree that Wisteria Song will probably still be on the labels. I'm going to guess that in any case, it's attached to the ownership of the song or something like that. I feel like, she feels like it's not worth doing if she can't retain control, whatever the chances for success. So, she'll have Jive/Epic, Institubes, and Wisteria Song now? We'll see.

Originally Posted by wasabi622

I'm fed up doesn't have that cute little hiccup/cough thingy in J'en Ai Marre!

That's of course because the word hic does not exist in English (unless you're pretending to hiccup, but that's not the same ). And so, it got replaced with sexual sounding moans I guess. It's odd if that didn't get anyone's attention! I think part of the problem though is that, as with me, I got used to the French version and then heard the English version which then had to compete with the French. I don't know. Some of the lyrics come off a bit goofy at first and as with IFU, maybe less subtle and more inscrutable at the same time - Mylène's intentions twisted a bit? I think Mylène's intentions were maybe just too ambitious for what she was able to pull off in English. That song in particular has multiple layers and a delicate balance that could easily slip into an interpretation much less impressive than what the song achieved with us (fans). The trio were exercising brinksmanship with that one (to use a ridiculous analogy). The song and it's presentation attempted to be frivilous enough to not be serious and appeal to young audiences, but not be so childish and be interpretable in a way that would be sexy so as to appeal to adolescent audiences. It was the transition to adulthood song. It had to be delicate, provocative, attempt to be somewhat meaningful. I think Mylène even failed to quite get her intention across to the French public. Maybe it just wasn't even possible. But, if it had been played on the radio a lot and then people got to see what Alizée looked like, hmm, how could they resist her? I don't get it.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by ALS

I'm not criticizing Myleens work because she is so very good at what she does. I'm just making a point that it is very hard to make a great sounding song in one language work in another language.

I do agree that Youpidoo is the best of her English songs, but in that song too, there seemed to be so many simple mistakes. What exactly does "fried days of something that I lost" supposed to mean? Maybe something deep and profound but to the average person just trying to listen to her song, it just doesn't make sense.
With Jam, there was the word ecstatic. It just didn't sound right. I think she could have easily fitted the word ecstasy (not the drug) into the song and it would have sounded so much better.

There were so many simple mistakes that if they had someone from this country or England or any English speaking country would have known, these songs needed work.