Alizée, Queen of the desert?

[Bigdan]

The right pic is from Priscilla Queen of the desert, the musical...

Who influence who?

[woohoo]

They might have never even seen each others shoe. Just google image "giant shoe" you find a lot of giant high heels.

[AlizéeInspired]

I'd say Alizée's En Concert performance influenced them, whether they know it or not and regardless of which came first .

[Deepwaters]

Don't know about "queen of the desert," but I could see Alizée as Scheherezade.

[FanDeAliFee]

FINDING LOST SHEEP

When I saw Alizée's big high-heel-shoe in the En Concert DVD, I could only think of ONE thing - where is the OTHER shoe? And how could anyone be so careless as to lose one THAT big!

But rather than cry over spilled milk, I decided it would be much better to assemble a posse and launch a world-wide search for all of Alizée's missing shoes - of which there must be many more. Find the related thread at Other shoes Alizée has lost: EZ-DIY fan-art

MAKING MONEY WITH MUSIC VIDEOS

On a more serious note, I write this as the recorded music business has become so bad that Institubes is being shuttered. In response, the subject of this thread, combined with a <a href="http://twitter.com/mellealizee/status/1709348154">tweet</a> Alizée made the other year about a Chanel perfume video ad featuring Audrey Tautou (see below), inspires me to offer a peek at what may be the future for music videos.

<iframe title="YouTube video player" width="640" height="390" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6ljQDJ4EILc?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

As JoeNY recently observed at AAm, Alizée's most popular YouTube videos have together racked up nearly 100 million views online! And that's not counting any times they have been downloaded and played offline. If only one could make money from such popularity! But how?

In recent years, the "product placement" strategy has shown that one need not ruin the artistry of an entertainment film when delivering a commercial message which generates revenue. Can this be taken to the next step?

TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from three worlds: Technology, Entertainment, Design. Since then its scope has become ever broader...

Now TED has created their Ads Worth Spreading Challenge, explaining that:

An ad worth spreading is an ad that people truly want to see and share. It might be hilariously funny or stunningly beautiful or wickedly clever. It might encapsulate a killer idea, promote an inspiring cause, or tell a captivating story.

and elaborating that they:

...want to nurture ads so good you choose to watch. On TED.com, ads run after our talks, not before. This means they can run longer than the TV-standard 30 seconds. And that's the key! In 2-3 minutes, there's enough time to really tell a story, share an idea, make an authentic human connection, become unforgettable. Instead of ambush, they offer pleasurable, intelligent engagement.

This month they announced their first contest winners here.

Notice that 2-3 minutes is the duration of a music video. Perhaps in the future, rather than create songs and then hopefully license them for use in ads, some musicians and filmmakers can themselves undertake making ads. Thus I now submit a hypothetical Alizée creation of that sort!<table width="289" cellpadding="10" align="center" border="10" color="black" rules="none"><tr><td width="36"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti" target="_W"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_F35.png" width="36"></a></td>
<td width="36"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti" target="_W"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_M18.png" width="36"></a></td>
<td width="48"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti" target="_W"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_Z4.png" width="48"></a></td>
<td width="69"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nefertiti" target="_W"><img src="http://en.wikipedia.org/w/extensions/wikihiero/img/hiero_B1.png" width="69"></a></td></tr></table>

Serge Gainsbourg's song Néfertiti celebrates the mysterious glamor of this ancient Egyptian queen - and even makes a reference to perfume! If a Nefertiti-brand perfume did not yet exist, creating one sounds like a good idea. And anyone offering up a fantastic NEW perfume might well try to license exclusive use of the name from any existing commercial proprietor. (More on this in the APPENDIX.) And if the name Nefertiti could not be acquired, the existing song lyrics suggest one could instead advertise a fragrance called <i>Eau(x) du Nil</i> as well! The Gainsbourg song is a great candidate for use in a commissioned music video which sells the fragrance.<table cellspacing="10"><tr valign="top"><td>The song was recorded - in French, of course - by France Gall in 1968, and her performance is linked at the right. I offer the following English translation of the lyrics:

Nefertiti, barbarian queen,
Nefertiti, take thy harp
So your song flies over
the waters of the Nile.

Nefertiti, pagan queen,
your midnight swims, beautiful Egyptian
Dream about the crocodiles
in the waters of the Nile.

Nefertiti, Queen of Egypt,
Nefertiti, sleep in your crypt
So your soul may fly over
the waters of the Nile.

Nefertiti, do not be worried,
beautiful mummy, your bandages
Retain their subtle fragrance
until the year two thousand.

</td><td align="left"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfvW0vk1pgE" target="_YouTube"><img src="http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Alizee/PlayN%E9fertitiVideo.jpg"></a></td></tr></table><table cellspacing="20"><tr valign="top"><td width="425"><object width="425" height="349"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/FGy9_ma_224?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-nocookie.com/v/FGy9_ma_224?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US&amp;rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="349"></embed></object><br><small>In the hypothetical music video outlined at the right, it is not impossible for the modern-day museum docent to demonstrate a move or two from a pharaonic dance, such as the one shown above performed to the composition Hatshepsut. An 18th dynasty monarch like Nefertiti, Hatshepsut better deserves to have a perfume named after her, because it was during her reign that foreign myrrh trees were first transplanted in Egypt! Alas, her name is neither terribly musical, nor enjoys the brand equity of Nefertiti, whose bust-style statue has spread the fame of the latter for an entire century now.</small><hr size="2" color="black"><table cellpadding="10"><tr><td><a href="http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1211081091130&set=a.1448246900127.2 063015.1651848604"><img src="http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc3/13568_1211081091130_1651848604_30945668_3463376_n. jpg"></a></td><td>Expert choreography could be provided by a <a href="http://www.ecole-du-spectacle.com/monique-mufraggi-professeur-de-danse.html">famous dance professor</a> (left) from Corsica!</td></tr></table></td><td>Now, France Gall was very lovely, but she did not make a perfume ad, nor do her looks much suggest Egypt, ancient or contemporary. But our friend Alizée, while not Egyptian, is certainly Mediterranean. Perhaps we can allow her any remaining required artistic license - just like we allowed Gainsbourg the same in his use of modern Middle Eastern musical themes to represent an ancient era that surely had no familiarity with them.

I would propose a music video ad in which Alizée sings the entire song, but is unseen doing the performance. Instead, she stars in two different interwoven mute video story-lines, as different characters. In one, set in ancient Egypt, she is Queen Nefertiti, largely dramatizing the loose plot of the lyrics. In the other, she is a contemporary woman - the docent of a museum exhibit on ancient Egypt. This latter woman ends up using the product after dismissing the group she has guided, suggesting that the modern woman can capture some of the mystical romance of Nefertiti by using the fragrance.

As we know, Alizée favors historical themes built around a glamorous woman. And one even finds Captain Hook's "old friend" the crocodile in this video! Finally, who wouldn't remember an ad in which Alizée takes a midnight bath in the Nile? (Poisson rouge optional, LOL. Heck, one could always anomalously stick one into a cartouche up on a wall in one of the other scenes. It might even spawn a bit of "buzz" about the ad, like the Tinkerbell statue in MJ.)</td></tr></table>

APPENDIX - Nefertiti, perfume and branding

Surely many folks have already tied Nefertiti and perfume together. I cannot the first person listening to the 1968 song, among others, who has had such an idea. And indeed, Google backs me up.

The Google Web search string:
+Nefertiti +perfume
yields about 829,000 results

while the Google image search string:
+Nefertiti +perfume
yields about 21,600 results

The Web page here claims the following:

P[e]rfume Recipe...

Nefertiti's perfume. Few people know that Nefertiti's daughter had her
own perfume line, and was the ancient day equivalent of a Paris Hilton!

*One quarter cup coconut oil
*6 drops of essential oil of spikenard
*6 drops of essential oil of frankincense

Each of these oils would be blended together as liquids and then left in
a jar to harden at room temperature. The resulting mixture was known as
an unguent, and would have been worn behind the neck, ears and over the
wrists.

A piece of inexpensive (A$13) contemporary Egyptian-made artwork for sale, done in the ancient style on 33cm x 43cm papyrus, offers up an image titled: Nefertiti offers gift of perfume to [the goddess] Isis



One existing perfume using the Nefertiti name is:
CBD NEFERTITI PERFUME OIL ROLL-ON SENSUAL AMBER MYRRH

$7.50
:... This is a 1/3 (.33) oz. glass roll-on bottle containing CBD Nefertiti Perfume Oil... The essence of sensuality is captured in this fragrance with it's aromatic...

Epinions finds 550 products for the search string "Nefertiti". In the personal care items section there are Nefertiti-named fragrance products by Yakshi, such as a perfume here. (0.3oz. for $7.46).

Alibaba indexes 1652 products using the Nefertiti name, with 1567 firms located in Egypt. A total of 9 are beauty & personal care products, including 1 perfume, the following:
NEFERTITI'S GREAT SECRET DESIGNER PERFUME

Designer perfume, jewel[]ed perfume bottle inside an acrylic nested box
decorated with a bust of queen Nefertiti Made in USA....
Min. Order: 12 Pieces
FOB Price: US $1000

<img src="http://i01.i.aliimg.com/photo/v0/103725679/NEFERTITI_S_GREAT_SECRET_DESIGNER_PERFUME.summ.jpg " width="150" height="200">

Sadly, some products are in much more urgent need of promotion than others! A perfume using the Nefertiti name is reviewed (with scorn) here, reporting that:

~Queen Nefertiti Perfume~

The exact copy reads 'This beautiful queen of ancient Egypt, Nefertiti,
1340 BC was the symbol to all of beauty, grace and mystery. "Queen
Nefertiti Perfume" is a re-creation of the perfumes of her time. It is
hand-made of the same aromatic materials the ancient Egyptians used ~
myrrh, frankincense, cassia and many others. It is based in a
lightweight oil, not alcohol. It is spicy and warm in character.' Queen
Nefertiti smelled like cassia in rancid oil. Too much cassia. Very bad
oil. Very sad reviewer. I hope and pray that what I received was a bad
batch and not the product 'as is'.

<hr size="3" color="black" width="75%">

Perhaps Alizée <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trPbqYBFvWk" target="_YouTube">remembers the time we walked like an Egyptian!

<img src="http://bellsouthpwp.net/d/o/docdtv/Alizee/EgyptCat.jpg"></a>

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