N°79 MICHEL DELPECH - POUR UN FLIRT

Jean-Michel Delpech, born in 1946 is a French chansonnier who belongs in the great French music history side by side with performers such as Patrick Bruel, Gilbert Bécaud, Gérard Lenorman, Serge Gainsbourg, Mylène Farmer or Charles Aznavour. I’m even forgetting some probably. Sorry about that form y French readers. For his stage name he dropped Jean in his first name and named himself simple Michel Delpech. Apart from being a singer he’s also a talented actor and writer.

His musical career was influenced through high school by the previous named artists Charles Aznavour and Gilbert Bécaud as Michel started a little band with some friends to cover their well known chanson hits. He’d continue his studies at a Paris conservatorium only to score his first song in 1963 at the age of 26. His first single was called Anatole. In 1967 he’s being asked to do the warm-up for Jacques Brel and he’s touring as Mireille Matthieu’s supporting act in the USA and the former Russian republic. They also do a few shows around Europe but in that tour he’s not always the main supporting act.

He also start to compose songs and these become hits as well. Everyone knows the song Wight is Wight by Sandie Shaw. Well Michel Delpech wrote it. He’s an active singer until the late seventies and in 1971 he’d have his biggest hit with Pour Un Flirt. Pour Un Flirt ties in the link since it’s also about flirting. Delpech breaks up with his composer Roland Vincent and instead of performing he starts to work as a song composer and writer himself. Apart from a little comeback in 1983 with Animeaux, Animeaux and the album Loin d’Ici he doesn’t create much for himself. 

Les vois du Brésil, his 1992 album is again written and produced by his old friend Roland Vincent and it appears tob e a pretty succesfull album in France. After this album Michel Delpech says goodbye to performing for 5 long years but suddenly he starts writing again and he’s releasing at an average of 1 album a year between 1997 and 2007. 

He’s always been very open about his personal life. Michel is assumed to be having troubles dealing with his early successes and his divorce in  the seventies from his first wife. He’s suffering with suicidal tendencies and depression at that time. He’d write about this period of his life in his autobiografie L'homme Qui Avait Bâti Sa Vie Sur Le Sable. Later in the eighties he’ll find happiness in love when marrying his second wife and adopting her daughter. Together with his second wife he’d write a novel in 2000 titled De Cendres et de Braises.

Now enjoy his biggest hit and the next one I can tell will be a singer who actually committed suicide. So many to choose from so who will it be? Keep checking the blog to know !

N°59 GIPSY KINGS - SOY

Let's stay spanish since we already got there with Lana's family name. Del Rey = King so the Gipsy Kings were the obvious follow up.

The Gipsy Kings consist of members of two families. The family Reyes who take care of most of the vocals and tha family Galiardo which are just guitar players. Chicko Bouchikhi was also a founding member but he left in 1989.

Although singing in Spanish and bringing a mix of flamenco music with gipsy Romani influences they are actually all French natives. Their ancesters fled Andalucia during the Spanish civil war though in the 1930's. And I always though they were Mexican Americans or something. Big mistake.

In 1982 and 1983 they released their very first two albums but not with the biggest success but the self titled Gipsy Kings album from 1988 boomed their popularity especially with the number 1 hit Volare. Apart from Volare they scored also with songs such as Escucha Me and Bamboleo. And if you liked the Eagles a few posts earlier you definately have to check out their version of Hotel California. Sung in Spanish but with super fast paced flamneco guitars make it a special song. I believe it was used in the cultfiulm The Big Lebowski as well.

Apart from that film they also contributed to Toy Story 3.

Gipsy Kings released about 20 albums in almost 30 years and if you like Spanish flamenco rythms it's most certainly somthing to set yout mind on.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend !

N°23 YAEL NAIM - PARIS

I had no suggestions from either one of my readers so I've chosen a song about one of the most romantic capitals in Europe: Paris. Maybe you don't like the very much because it's in Hebrew but then again you should have helped me find another one. Anyway I could have chosen a Paris Hilton song as well so I think this isn't a bad choice after all.

The song is in Hebrew because Yael Naim was born in Paris to Tunisian parents. At the age of 4 she moved to Israëln her Jewish home country where she spent the rest of her childhood and where she started to play the piano. During her teenagers years she started composing her own songs and after serving for the Israëlian Millitary for two years she started her own band called The Anti Collision. She's asked in Paris to sing at a benefit where she get's spotted by one of the biggest record labels: EMI.

EMI released her first album in 2001 'In a Mans Womb' and the following years she's being casted for musicals and soundtrack releases. A new album in 2007 calles after herself is an instant succes in France and Israël and win's the World Music Album Of The Year in 2008 in the French Victoires de la Musique award. She'd win a second award at the same contest 3 years later winning the Best Female Singer award. In between she got nominated a few times.

In January 2008 her song New Soul got released to support the MacAir Book; a utility created by Apple. The song caught world fame ending up in different billboards. It even reached number one in Belgium for 2 weeks.

Her third album was only released last year, in 2010 and was called She Was A Boy releasing the single Go To The River. It didn't make it to the Belgian Billboards but I'm sure it got picked up elsewhere.

She's inspired by the voice of Aretha Franklin and her piano interests developed after seeing the movie Beethoven (no not the movie with the dog !). She also had a little role in The Simpsons as the voice of the niece of an Israeli tour guide in the episode The Greatest Story Ever D'ohd.

The video is not the official shoot. It's a compilation of photo's taken by someone who visited Paris and combined it with Yael's lovely song and voice, Enjoy,