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Carla Bruni in Paris
She makes her live premiere
Paris
17/02/2004 -
Carla Bruni's first "proper" concert dates back to the beginning of this year. On 23 January the willowy brunette took to the stage at La Ferme du Buisson in Marne-la-Vallée, ending her show with a luminous smile and a timid apology. "We're really sorry, but the album's only thirty-seven minutes long!" Despite the brevity of her set, Ms. Bruni's performance (twelve songs from her debut album together with a stack of perfectly-executed covers) went down well with the audience gathered at Marne-la-Vallée. The concert lasted just over an hour, but this was enough to transform the usually confident catwalk star into a timid young thing, unsure of her public reception. However, Carla fared better than other young chanteuses who have literally quaked with fear at the thought of performing in public for the first time. Everyone remembers Beth Gibbons' debut with Portishead where poor Beth stood on trembling legs, barely raising her gaze from the floor throughout the entire concert!
Carla emanated slightly more assurance as she took to the stage at La Ferme du Buisson, seating herself at a tall stool behind the microphone to announce, "This is our very first concert. And we're all really moved – especially me!" Limbering across to croon her covers closer to the piano, the long-legged beauty radiated an irresistible and natural charm. And this was only enhanced by her embarrassed apology for the shortness of her show, a touchingly sincere apology delivered with a disarming smile. What's more, Carla remained on stage after her mea culpa, savouring the applause and trying to make amends with two covers of Rolling Stone songs (Wild Horses and I Got the Blues), squeezed round her superb version of Georges Brassens' Marche nuptiale. Ms. Bruni finally bowed out with a sweet Italian lullaby, Buena Notte Fiorelino, thanking the audience for their "indulgence" and promising "Next time we'll be back with two albums!"
Released in November 2002, Carla's debut album, Quelqu’un m’a dit, proved to be a surprise hit on the music scene with sales rapidly topping the million mark. Thanks to her original vocal style, Carla, the ultimate "bobo muse," became a popular mainstream success story – a result nobody, not least of all her record label, had bargained for! As a result, tickets for Ms. Bruni's "première" at Les Bouffes du Nord tonight have been sold out for weeks and fans are already queuing to snap up places for her three-week run at Le Trianon in May.
Carla has certainly not been spared the media gaze as she has struggled to learn the ropes of her new profession in the public eye. Journalists rushed to file reports each and every time she took to the stage, reporting on her first guest appearance at a concert by Canadian singer Daniel Lanois (at the Elysée Montmartre on 24 October 2003). Carla joined Lanois on stage for a duet of Sometimes (a song from his latest album Shine). Her voice hovered, trembling and unsure, during the opening bars, but soon smoothed out into a softly assured interpretation. A few days later, Carla re-emerged on stage at Le Trianon for the Prix Constantin awards ceremony. She was one of the ten finalists in line for an award, but it was the group Mickey 3D who walked off with the trophy that night. Carla, who had never performed any of her songs live on stage before that night (having only done TV appearances up to that point), brought the house down with Tout le monde. And she chose the same song to open her set at the "Inrockuptibles" festival at La Cigaleon 6 November 2003. Taking to the stage in jeans and a simple black T-shirt, she went on to give a delicious performance of Le toi du moi, Buena Notte Fiorelino, Raphaël, Quelqu’un m’a dit and La Dernière Minute, wiping her hands on her jeans in between songs. Her short but sweet set went down a storm with an enthusiastic audience.
Following these preliminaries, Carla honed her live skills further at La Ferme du Buisson in January in preparation for her upcoming mini tour. She was joined on stage at La Ferme by the trio of musicians who had accompanied her at the "Prix Constantin" awards and the "Inrockuptibles" festival (namely Antoine Massoni on double bass, Taoufik Farah on guitar and Sébastien Buffet on drums). The team was completed a few days later with the arrival of classical pianist Pierre Demarty and Louis Bertignac, the leading French rock guitarist Carla has known since her teens (and who stepped in to produce her best-selling album Quelqu’un m’a dit). While the former Téléphone star played a backseat role in the studio, giving priority to sober acoustic guitar arrangements and Carla's slender vocals, Bertignac's old rock demons returned to haunt him at Carla's first concert at La Ferme du Buisson. Indeed, the ex-Téléphone star got so carried away on slide guitar that by the third song (a cover of the Jacques Higelin classic Cigarette) Carla joked to the audience about how Bertignac liked to "make his presence felt!" The collaboration between Bertignac, the extrovert live veteran and Carla, the delicate-voiced chanteuse with her fragile, nuanced songs hangs on the former's willingness to take a backseat on stage as well as in the studio – and this will be one of the artistic challenges at Carla's concert at the Bouffes du Nord tonight!
After all, the charm of Carla Bruni live lies in the singer's soft-timbred vocals – which send such a delicious little thrill up the spine – her touching confessions about the state of her nerves and her fervent efforts to kick off her songs at the right rhythm and pitch. Tonight, ladies and gentlemen, Carla Bruni will be making her real "première" – the Parisian debut that will make or break her reputation. And rumour has it the crooning chanteuse may well have put the finishing touches to a few new songs by then. So her concert at Les Bouffes du Nord may well last more than thirty-seven minutes. No apologies required this time!
Bertrand Dicale
Translation : Julie Street
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