The french lolitas

Starlets or “real singers”?

Paris 

26/12/2002 - 

Their critics decry them as pure marketing products, but thousands of fans up and down the country have adopted them as teen idols. Love them or hate them, there’s no denying that Lorie, Jenifer, Leslie, Alizée, Eve Angeli and all-girl group L5 have become a sales force to be reckoned with! RFI Musique investigates the unstoppable rise of France’s pop Lolitas:

The Road to Fame

Without the power of television – and the prime time audiences who tune into French TV channels TF1 and M6 – the majority of France’s pop Lolitas would still be complete unknowns. All-girl group L5 (born between 1980 and 1972) emerged in the autumn of 2001 after winning the first series of Popstars broadcast on M6. Meanwhile, Jenifer (born in 1982), was busy wooing voters and tutors on Star Academy (broadcast on rival channel TF1). These reality TV pop shows, loudly decried by the French intelligentsia, managed to attract record audience ratings, Popstars pulling 6 million viewers at its prime and Star Academy attracting a staggering 14 million for its final in 2001.

Five years before emerging as the favourite pupil on Star Academy, Jenifer made another bid for fame through the media, appearing on Graines de stars (a TV talent show on M6 which attracts budding Shirley-Temple-age and even younger contestants). The young brunette from Nice failed in her bid for stardom first time round, but since her victory on Star Academy Jenifer has become a veritable media icon. Other budding French pop Lolitas attempted to use Graines de stars as a launchpad too. Leslie was elected “best new discovery” on Graines de stars at the age of 16 and Eve Angeli (born in 1980) made it to the programme’s final in 1999. As for Alizée, she won the “best budding young singer” award in 1999. But, strangely enough, both Eve Angeli and Alizée’s official websites have zapped the Graines de stars appearances from their CVs (and Alizée’s date of birth, 1984, has also been conveniently forgotten!)

Then, of course, there was 14-year-old Cylia who triumphed on Graines de stars in 2001 – and won the much-coveted prize of having blond pop heart-throb David Hallyday pen a special song for her (Un monde à refaire)! The latest little Lolita to emerge on French TV is Priscilla (born in 1989). The precocious young 13-year-old has already released an album, which is currently benefiting from the mega-media support of TF1. The TV channel has brought out its big guns to assure sweet little Priscilla’s marketing campaign – in other words, it’s chart success guaranteed all the way!

Pygmalions and Family Helpers

Look behind the French Lolitas and what do you find? An impressive team of helpers, wardrobe assistants and marketing managers! Leslie’s career is managed by her brother David – aka Little D. – who has also been responsible for writing many of his sister’s hits! Lorie is also keeping things in the family. The popular young blonde is managed by her father, Dominique Pestel, a former assistant director on leading French radio station RTL. But the key character in Lorie’s lightning rise to fame has been one Johnny Williams (son of Harry Williams and grandson of André Verchuren, both star French musette accordion-players). Johnny Williams made a name for himself on the French music scene in 1994/1996 with his group Roman Photo. But, after teaming up with his musical accomplice Louis Element, he soon went on to manage a number of young French hopefuls including Larusso, Nadiya (another Graines de star wannabe) and Allan Theo, who was subsequently ditched when the obviously more commercial Lorie arrived on the scene.

It was Williams who came up with the bright idea of putting Lorie’s single Près de toi on Peoplesound (a website that allows fans to download music for free) and this led to the young Lolita scoring a lucrative record deal with Sony. Williams is now a rich, powerful (and extremely satisfied) songwriter, music publisher and producer.

The most famous French Pygmalion of them all, however, is a woman - Mylène Farmer, who has enjoyed her own chart-topping career as a Libertine French pop diva. Teaming up with her own producerand video director Laurent Boutonnat, Mylène took Alizée’s destiny in hand, penning her the catchy hit single Moi Lolita (which, after its release in May 2000, went on to sell a staggering 3 million copies across Europe!) Farmer and Boutonnat went on to write an entire album for Alizée, creating a syrupy-sweet universe for their protégée which is not always entirely innocent. The formula has proved a big hit with the French public and young Alizée is currently working on a second album. Shrouded in complete secrecy from the very beginning of its conception, the album’s release date has been pushed back countless times (on Mylène’s insistence) – apparently so that poor little Alizée does not have to promote her album on the programmes that launched her Lolita rivals (particularly Star Academy).

As for Eve Angeli, she was also taken under the wing of an established composer and theatre director, Michel Rostaing. The pair met in Montélimar when Eve, from Sète in the south of France, was performing at the “Tremplin de Etoiles” talent contest in 1999 and Rostaing was on the jury. Impressed by the budding young singer’s talent, Rostaing invited her to his home in Vienne, France, for several months where the pair sat down at the piano and wrote Eve’s first hits: Avant de partir, Je sais and Elle. Today Rostaing acts as his young protegée’s official manager.

The Music

France’s league of Lolita pop divas have one major thing in common – and that is their musical style. All their records are designed for maximum FM play (which means very few songs actually exceed the 4 minute mark!) and are based on mainstream French music with an international twist. L5 have gone in for the most international-sounding soul/rock style, adapting a stock of foreign songs. In fact, 8 out of 12 tracks on the girls’ latest album are of international origin – no doubt following the mega-success of their first hit single Toutes les femmes de ta vie, a French adaptation of I Like What You're Doing co-written by Billy Steinberg (responsible for Madonna’s Like a Virgin). L5’s latest album also includes songwriting contributions from the likes of Andy Marvel (of Diana King fame) and Paul Rein (who writes for Christina Aguilera).

Star Academy winner Jenifer has released an album featuring an impressive range of songwriters, the majority of whom are French. (N.B. Star French singer/songwriter Marc Lavoine has made his own contribution). No surprises as far as Eve Angeli’s album is concerned – most of the tracks are co-written by Michel Rostaing and Ms. Angeli herself. As a general rule, French pop Lolitas tend to go in for syrupy-sweet songs about love and unrequited teenage crushes. As another general rule, their lollipop lyrics are set to some very average musical arrangements – apart, that is from Jenifer, whose arrangements have proved to be a little more smoothly polished.

As for Laure Pestel – better known to fans by her cute little nickname Lorie – she hasn’t even reached the love stage yet. Her innocent pop ditties revolve around
harmless boy/girl flirting (c.f."My heart leaps /When you take me in your arms /That’s enough for me/ That’s what makes me happy!"). Curiously enough, there is little difference between the lyrics of Lorie’s songs and those of her mini rival, Priscilla, who is actually seven years younger! But then Lorie, who prides herself on the fact that she has never uttered a swear word in her life, continues to evolve in a totally sanitised environment – and consequently remains utterly out of touch with young people of her own age (her fanbase is considerably younger!) Even 21-year-old Britney Spears, the “squeaky-clean” American idol to whom Lorie is so often compared, has been trying to shake off her purer-than-driven-snow image in recent months while her French counterpart remains relentlessly stuck in pre-pubescence.

Alizée is a little more daring when it comes to playing with her image. Indeed, Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat deliberately play up their protegée’s Lolita side Nabokov-style, with risqué lyrics along the lines of "the only kind of Latin I’m interested in is the one with a shirt on his back!" As for 17-year-old Leslie she powers out a musical repertoire that is remarkably mature for her age – and all the more impressive when you consider she writes most of it herself! Leslie’s lively r'n'b even ventures into real adolescent territory bringing up relevant teen issues such as drugs.

Sales Figures

However, despite their varying images and songwriting capacities, one thing that France’s pop Lolitas all have in common is they sell – and how! Alizée tops the sales charts, having pulled off the no-mean feat of selling 4 million records across Europe! But Lorie is currently hot on her heels. Yes, young Laure Prestel managed to sell 750,000 copies of her first CD album, Près de toi, and 1.5 million copies of her single Près de moi. (Meanwhile, her other singles have all reached Gold Disc status, largely rocketing over the 100,000 mark required for that award). As for Tendrement, Lorie’s latest CD album (released in September 2002), that has remained firmly positioned in the top 5 of the album charts. There’s no doubt about it, Alizée and Lorie have made an enormous impact on French export sales, their albums scoring a huge hit not only in other European countries, but also in Canada and Japan (where Lorie is currently doubling her bets by releasing a special version of her first album while starring in an ad. campaign for a leading brand of French mineral water!).

Jenifer had previously rocketed to the top of the French charts with a collective album recorded with fellow Star Academy graduates (which sold a staggering 1.5 million copies!) And she is now enjoying impressive solo success with a first album (which has sold over 600,000 copies in less than a year), not to mention 500,000 copies of her latest single Au Soleil (which proved to be THE summer hit of this year!) As for French all-girl group L5, they continue to follow their yellow-brick road up the charts after selling more than 1.3 million copies of their first album (released in December 2001). Meanwhile, the group’s first hit single Toutes les femmes de ta vie sold a phenomenal 200,000 copies in two days and final sales figures were around the 1.5 million mark! As for Retiens-moi, L5’s latest CD album (released in September 2002), it has sold around 300,000 copies in just three months!

The Lolitas Live!

Live concerts are the ultimate test for singers who have been ‘pre-fabricated’ on TV, as if the stage were a rights-of-passage route to respectability. Recently, after several months non-stop touring by Jenifer, French daily Le Parisien gave us the headline news that "Jenifer is a real singer!" (And no, they weren’t trying to be ironic!) In fact, the Star Academy winner, like her TV-manufactured sisters L5, has made a brilliant transition to the live circuit, performing non-stop two-hour shows without the slightest hint of play-back or choreography cock-ups. Lydy from L5 proved to be the surprise revelation of the group’s 2001 tour, bringing the house down with an impressive cover of the Janis Joplin classic Piece of my Heart.

Lorie, on the other hand, has had a tougher time of it in recent months. The French media have not always been kind about her mini tour (kicked off in the autumn of 2001). Indeed, the critic from Le Parisien (10/01/2002) went so far as to mutter the word "rip-off" in reaction to the singer’s brief concerts performed in play-back. Lorie has somewhat made up for things since, but her live appearance at the “Victoires de la musique" Awards in 2002 proved to be a complete disaster. Singing and dancing at the same time isn’t always as easy as it looks– and that’s why most of the songs on her current best-selling tour at all France’s top venues are performed in play-back!

As for Eve Angeli, she has not yet achieved the status of singing at major French venues like Le Zénith! This year Eve performed a mini-tour of some 15 shows (at much less trendy venues than her Lolita sisters). Meanwhile, Alizée has barely set foot on stage this year – apart from appearing at a collective fund-raising concert for French charity Les Restaurants du Cœur in Marseilles in January 2002. Leslie has not exactly been hitting the road either! Apart from a showcase in November, her live appearances were limited to supporting Congolese group Magic System (who guest on a duo on her CD) at their concert at the Olympia on 1 December. As for that young upstart Priscilla she has already announced a tour of 30 dates in 2003 – including two shows at the prestigious Olympia!

Looks like the pop Lolitas are set to maintain their reign at the top of the French charts for now! After all, despite the fact that it’s difficult to glimpse a human side to the over-hyped, over-groomed teen stars at times, there’s no denying that these new arrivals can actually sing and dance - and mostly both at the same time! The only thing that remains to be seen is whether Alizée, Lorie, L5 and co. can maintain their success in the long-term. We predict that the French teen divas who can will be the ones who shed the superficial hype and let their real talent (if they have any) shine through!

Catherine  Pouplain - Pédron

Translation : Julie  Street