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Friday 26 August 2011

Friday's French music break - Inna Modja, "French Cancan (Monsieur Sainte Nitouche)"

Friday's French music break this week is in Franglais.

Inna Modja's "French Cancan" uses a simple combination of instantly recognisable French words that everyone will know in an essentially English language song.

Inna Modja (screenshot from official video)

It's a little like telling someone you speak Italian and then stringing together "Spaghetti, ravioli, mamma mia, mozzarella di bufala, Giorgio Armani."

It's a fun and simple technique but a very effective.

And it's helped by mixing in a catchy tune that definitely has something of a 60s feel to it, a video with some extremely big hair, and voilà - guaranteed airplay and a song that has been a hit in France for the best part of the summer.

(screenshot from official video)

Originally from Bamako in Mali, Modja now lives in Paris.

The name "Modja" (she was born Inna Bocoum) meaning "naughty girl" Pulaar is, according to her Facebook page, "A nickname my mother gave me when I was being a nuisance."

Modja says she began singing in a choir when she was six years old and her earliest influences were singers her parents listened to such as Ray Charles, Ella Fitzgerald, Otis Redding or Sarah Vaughan.

Those were followed by music her older brothers and sisters listened to - Punk, Trash, Heavy Metal, Soul and Funk...well just about anything and everything.

"Today my music is the result of all that mix and when I compose, I do so instinctively," she said in an interview on TV5 Monde after the release of her debut album "Everyday Is a New World" last year and the success of the single "Mister H".

"There are a lot of artists I listen to that I like. I wouldn't say it had a direct influence on the album - but certainly on me."

Anyway, enough words. Take a listen to the song.

It's delightful.



1 comment:

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