French music seen from abroad February 2011

Controversy

Paris 

15/02/2011 - 

Does music make for mellower morals? The answer is, not always. The closed world of French music also has its controversial moments, and some of them have nothing to do with being an artist.

Artists and politics don’t always marry well in France. The next presidential election is due in a year, and the event has always attracted celebrities keen to use their media profile to boost their chosen candidate. Whether they are motivated by conviction or opportunism is not always clear. Although Carla Bruni has never outwardly supported the French socialist party, she clearly portrayed herself as a bit of a lefty luvvie after moving into music – she is currently preparing a new album due for release next September.

Since becoming France’s First Lady, the woman who “has been cited as a major handicap to Mr Sarkozy’s reelection” admitted that she “didn’t really feel left-wing anymore after three years of marriage to the country’s conservative president”, and “only two years after claiming that she felt ‘instinctively left-wing’”, reported the Paris correspondent of the British Telegraph (31/1). Evidently, the heart has reasons that reason cannot know.

One artist who hasn’t fallen for Nicolas Sarkozy’s charms is Charles Aznavour. The singer and musician of Armenian origin, who is also the Armenian ambassador to Switzerland, was quoted on the Times Armenia (24/1) website expressing his anger in response to Wikileaks diplomatic cable revelations, “…in which the Armenians of France learned that president Nicolas Sarkozy, one month after having promised to support the law penalizing denial of Armenian genocide, retracted (…) promising to Ankara that this law will die to the Senate.” Charles Aznavour declared that the French president acted “wrongly. (….) If this continues, I will be fully committed. Me, I’m not political, but I have a very important political power,” declared the star. Aznavour, a still sprightly 86-year-old, was recently awarded the Prix Scopus 2011, decreed by the University of Jerusalem. 

The “zealot” and “maddening” eighties singer, Renaud, has steered clear of politics for a while, but not of controversy. He recently stirred things up at the charitable soup kitchen, Restos du Coeur, and in particular its annual concert that gathers some of the top French stars. “Politically, it’s a heresy and a disgrace that it’s still going after twenty years! The government should have done something about the disadvantaged by now,” he ranted, calling the programme a "great grotesque circus”, as reported in the La Libre Belgique (4/2). “The whole showbiz world participates in the Enfoirés – actors, top models and footballers. Personally, it doesn’t interest me anymore… I don’t want to sing with Mimie Mathy, Christophe Maé or Patrick Timsit, or dress up as a clown to sing Aznavour’s La Mamma.” Renaud, whose last album, Molly Malone, came out in 2009, also described himself as “depressed” and “lacking inspiration”.

There’s another particularly Gallic controversy that amuses the country’s Belgian neighbours: the NRJ Music Award, which takes place alongside the MIDEM in Cannes. The TV correspondent on the daily paper Le Soir (25/1), was particularly virulent about Jenifer, “the multi-mega star who doesn’t sell anything” but who was nevertheless voted female artist of the year. “The French press and web claim it was rigged by the TV channel and radio station that organised the awards (…) and report the words of a record professional heard in Cannes: ‘It’s the Jenifer Music Awards.’ But all is made clear by the director of NRJ: ‘We never said this vote was representative. It’s the kids who vote, not the people who buy the records.’ The award is worth absolutely nothing, except for tonnes of overpriced SMSs and 6 million viewers for TFI (ed. French TV station).”

There’s been an upset in the Israeli press: Vanessa Paradis won’t be coming! “French chanteuse Vanessa Paradis has cancelled her scheduled February 10 show at the Tel Aviv Performing Arts Center,” reported the Jerusalem Post (16/1). “Paradis’s management notified Stern (ed: the show’s promoter) that the singer and actress had to be in the United States on the concert’s date for an important event regarding her film career.” The Jewish Chronicle went even further, evoking political pressure (17/1) after “the Boycott Israel campaign wrote to Ms Paradis demanding that she cancel.”

Will music win in the face of controversy? We’ll have to wait until next spring to find out.  

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Anne-Marie  Harper