Alizee had studied dance from the age of 4 and that was her main interest, though she had sung in many school plays. At 15, a freind of hers talked into entering into a talent contest. She entered the dance competition but when she got there, she found out the dance competition was for teams, and she was by herself, so she entered the singing competition instead and finished second, but more importantly, tapes of her performance were noticed by the two French artists I had discussed before; Mylene Farmer and Laurent Boutanant.
I may have mentioned before, that Mylene is the most successful female singer in French history. Alizée, when she was discovered by Ms Farmer, had thought her future would be in dance and had never realized her singing potential and therefore had never tried writing any songs of her own. So most of the songs for her first two albums were written by Mylene Farmer. After writing most of the songs for Alizee's first two album, Mylene then wrote 2 more albums for herself. She went on a 4 country, 36 stop tour last year. Every one of these performances sold out. In fact, 2 of the performances were at an 80,000 seat stadium. The first of which sold out in less than 2 hours, and the second one was close behind.
The point I'm trying to make is like Laurent Boutanant, Mylene Farmer is a tremendously talented and gifted artist. Some of the lyrics to her songs are fairly simple, others a little more complicated and others quite deep. In fact I've read that one of the problems people in this country have run into in trying to interpret Alizée's songs into English, is some of the lyrics of her songs can have 2 or 3 meanings in French, making it almost impossible to interpret into English with out really guessing at what she is trying to say.
Here's a couple of videos of two of Alizée's songs, that have subtitles with the lyrics.
The first L'Alize.
I believe I mentioned before that her parents loved to wind surf. They decided to name her after a trade wind that blows through parts of Africa and the Caribbean called and Alize. Well with the French, everything has a gender and the trade wind Alize is masculine, so you add and e to the end it becomes the feminine Alizée. So this song is about that wind and about Alizée.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8Qckk_Uu3sThe second is is L'e-mail a des ailes ( The e-mail has wings).
It's about a relationship that takes place via e-mail.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wy6gXJcLr4I think these 2 songs will show you that the songs do have some substance to them.
I would like someone to explain to me what is it about a person who knows little about this singer jump to the conclusion that her songs are not deep?
As far as a 250 lb woman singing these songs in English? Well a lot of people say that French is the most beautiful language. I believe it is and believed it long before I heard about Alizée and I think it definitely adds to the reason why I like her music.
As far as a 250 lb woman? I think beauty of the individual most definitely adds something to a performance and to one's marketability. Look at Lady Gaga. She turned herself into a freak show. Why? Because she's not that good a looking woman. She needed a gimmick and she found one that's working for her. So even though I think it's a factor, I don't think it's a key factor. I listen to her music far more than I watch her videos.
There are many factors as to why I like Alizée's music. The three most important are her voice, the music of Laurent Boutanant and the lyrics of Mylene Farmer. I think if you took away Laurent's music, she may never have been discovered. The same may be true of Mylene's lyrics, but that's a much tougher thing to judge. But I think these 3 were just a perfect fit for one another. His music complemented her voice and vice versa. Then you throw in the great lyrics of MF and it was a great combination imho.
So the main thing is the songs, you throw in the fact that I think she's a beautiful young woman, not to mention a great dancer too, plus the songs are in French, well it's like having your cake and eating it too.
For those who are keeping a running total of how many times I've used the word beautiful or some form of it in conjunction with the beautiful Alizée, it's up to 234 now. Ooooops! Make that 235.
[This message has been edited by Dustoff123 (edited 11/13/2010 2:43p).]
[This message has been edited by Dustoff123 (edited 11/13/2010 2:45p).]
