Youpidou

[mzracing76]

just curious, i am still learning. What does the song YOUPIDOU represent, and what is the definitiion of YOUPIDOU ?

I love the song.

MZ

[Scruffydog777]

I could be wrong, but I don't think the word existed before this song. As far as the meaning of it for the song, I would say it means the same as yippee or hooray. She is breaking up with her boyfriend. A guy who's a real hooligan.

In the song she sings "Mais la je m'intoxe...........et lui que son maque", which if I'm correct means if I poisoned myself............he would just mock me, which shows you what a moron he is and why she's so happy to be rid of him.

I found another translation of the song where it says this line stands for that she is intoxicated and he makes fun of her but whichever one is right, it's conveying the same message, she's in a bad state and he's making fun of her.

You really have to look at the French version of the song to get the better meaning of what the word youpidou is trying to convey because it's one of the songs that when Mylene Farmer rewrote the French version into the English version, the song didn't make a whole lot of sense. It certainly didn't convey the same story the French version did.

Maybe one of our French speaking members like Bigdan can help out with a better translation of this song.

Here's a translation I have on file, but it's far from perfect. Problem being people interpret things different ways.



Take a look at the line J'ai le moral au grand zero, which they translate a I am feeling really down which is close but a more literal translation is my moral is a big zero. I usually try and find a translation of a song, then I'll look up the words individually in a French to English dictionary and then I can pretty much figure out for myself exactly what message the song is trying to convey.

I myself would like to have a better understanding of what the line g'noux cailloux means.

[SlipshodDread]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

I could be wrong, but I don't think the word existed before this song. As far as the meaning of it for the song, I would say it means the same as yippee or hooray. She is breaking up with her boyfriend. A guy who's a real hooligan.

In the song she sings "Mais la je m'intoxe...........et lui que son maque", which if I'm correct means if I poisoned myself............he would just mock me, which shows you what a moron he is and why she's so happy to be rid of him.

You really have to look at the French version of the song to get the better meaning of what the word youpidou is trying to convey because it's one of the songs that when Mylene Farmer rewrote the French version into the English version, the song didn't make a whole lot of sense. It certainly didn't convey the same story the French version did.

"Mais la, Je m'intoxe, Youpidou, Et lui qui s'en moque"

"But there, I poison myself, Youpidou, And he who does not care"

I added this before you added the picture, so yeah >.>

[Bigdan]

Originally Posted by Scruffydog777

.

une grande personne = a grown up

je suis sur la route = I'm on the road

que je fais le vide = that I make peace in myself

Genoux, cailloux = that's a hard one ! A few word, in french language, ends in "X" in place of the usual "S" when on plural mode.
To remember it, pupils learn a list " Hiboux, genoux, cailloux...."

and that's it.

[JoeNY]

I'm actually glad that I don't know the English lyrics to any of Alizee's songs. I know I would find them juvenile and horrid, and Alizee's songs would lose their mystique for me. Ignorance is bliss. I like the catchy tunes and I love Alizee's voice. That's good enough for me.

[Scruffydog777]

Thanks for the help Bigdan.

I have to correct myself on one point. Where I said "
Take a look at the line J'ai le moral au grand zero, which they translate a I am feeling really down which is close but a more literal translation is my moral is a big zero.", I should have used morale in stead of moral near the end of that sentence.

JoeNY, I have to disagree with you about not trying to know the lyrics to her French songs. I had 2 years of French way back in junior high school. That was over 30 years ago. It's been a long time, but still it was a tremendous help in me trying to learn some of her French songs, but then again it's been a slow long process with some of her songs.

I've learned 12 of her songs and I am working on Tempete right now and will work on Coeur deja pris after that.

With Youpidou, at first I thought the title sounded so juvenile, I never really listened to it. Then a couple of my co-workers that I had given dvds to in which I put Youpidou on as just kind of a filler at the time, told me it was a beautiful song, so I gave it a good listen and it is one of my favorites. It's kind of a simple story but at least it's understandable which some of her English versions aren't.

I know the all the words to the French version of Youpidou, but not so the English version and that's mainly because I find the most important part of remembering the words to a song whether it be in English or French is I have to be able to remember the story it is telling. The Englis version does not tell a smooth, easy to follow story.

The French version of the song tells a simple story, but it's easy to remember and so it was easy for me to learn the French lyrics.

Gourmandises, J'ai pas vingt ans, moi lolita and some others tell relatively simple stories but stories that are relatively easy to remember which makes them relatively easy to learn.

Songs like Lou ou toi and L'Alize are a little more involved especially the latter. Took considerably longer to learn L'Alize but it was well worth it. It is an awesome song to sing along with as is ACC.

I tried to learn PLP but found it was written in such poetic terms I'd guess you'd call it, that I had a very difficult time remembering the stoy and therefore a tough time learning the song. I gave up on it, but may revisit it at a later date.

[mzracing76]

Thanks, this puts the song into perspective for me.

although, now it raises a new question. your guys' english lyrics dont match the lyrics on her 2nd ALBUM that has the English version. could that just be a translation thing or do the words come out different depending on who (myself, you all, etc) translate the message.

but.....I do agree. The English Versions of her songs are "NOT" as great as the French Version and yes, they do lose their context when sung in English.

MZ

[Azhiri]

Anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that rather than literally translating songs from french into english on the official english singles, the basic gist of the song is considered, and then new words are written to the music using the author's best understanding of which english words would best illustrate the concept. You might notice that the english singles Alizee has sung are kind of strange (or, to be blunt, even poorly written). I think that's why.

[Scruffydog777]

Originally Posted by Azhiri

Anybody feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I imagine that rather than literally translating songs from french into english on the official english singles, the basic gist of the song is considered, and then new words are written to the music using the author's best understanding of which english words would best illustrate the concept. You might notice that the english singles Alizee has sung are kind of strange (or, to be blunt, even poorly written). I think that's why.

Yes unfortunately 3 of her 4 early songs that were re-written from French into English were poorly done.

Well you can just look at the direct English translation of the song Youpidou above. It certainly would have not sounded good if she used a direct translation and it would have probably have been a real problem to try and come up with words to match if not exactly, at least something pretty close to the original meaning of the French song.

So the English versions may have kept the general gist of the French version as you said, but that about all it kept. So instead of interpreting her songs, she chose to re-write them instead and she really didn't do a good job of it. Look at some of the lines of the English version.
Fried days of something that I lost
Got some something under
I see you talking to the bees
Three days of something much too fake.
Sure they are lines that we can probably come up with what we think she's trying to say, but they are the type of lines that if you asked 10 different people, you'd get 10 different definitions of what she's saying. They just plain aren't easy to follow. Which is a dam shame because if she had done a better job, I think these songs would have kicked butt in this country.

This is also true of the songs J'en ai marre and J'ai pas vingt ans. Mylene just did a poor job or re-writing these songs. But they were Farmer's songs so she had the right to do with them what ever she wanted to.

But Amelie M'a dit was a different story. It was a song about a character in a movie and I think she had to stay true to that character and though the song was almost totally re-writtena as the others, with some weak spots, the fact that she kept true to the character, made it a beautiful song, making it in my mind the best of those 4 English songs.

[Aragorn97]

Hi, I've a doubt about Youpidou: I've always wondered what this word means but I've never found nothing about it. But I just remembered where I heard this word before: a song of Adriano Celentano, a famous Italian singer, and I'm referring to the song "Yuppi du", which is also the soundtrack of the movie of the same name (1974). The pronunciation of "Yuppi du" and "Youpidou" is the same.

So, the movie Yuppi du is about a very difficult love, I'll try to briefly sum up the plot. The protagonist's a poor man, Felice. His wife apparently committed suicide, but some years later she decided to come back because of her love towards him. But then she realized that she didn't want to leave her new husband and her new luxurious life, so she left again Felice.

Now, I read Alizée's song lyrics and probably there is nothing in common between this two songs, apart from the end of the protagonists' love. But anyway that's still something! At least for a word that, from what I know, has been used only in this two works.

About what yuppi du means, Celentano said: "Tutto e niente. E’ un grido d’amore, di gioia e di dolore. In tutte le lingue. E’ un grido universale”.
In english it should be: it means everything and nothing. It's a shout of love, happiness and heartache. In every language. It is a universal shout.
I put the original phrase, because I don't trust much my translation.

So what do you think? Is it possible that Mylene Farmer was inspired by Yuppi du? This movie was also nominated at Cannes and Venice film festivals, so she could know it