Friday's French music break - Jennifer Lopez ft Pitbull, "On the floor" (Air France flash mob)

Friday's French music break this week is just a little different.

As you can see from the title it's a recent single from one of the world's biggest stars, US singer Jennifer Lopez with a little help from rapper Pitbull (Armando Christian Pérez).

Not much French about that, you could be thinking.

Well that might be the case, except that Air France employees decided to use it as the music for a recent flash mob at Roissy-Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.

Not the greatest dancers, but who cares (screenshot Air France flash mob)

 It might not be a good time for either the company with over 5,000 jobs on the line, or its passengers in a few weeks time when staff are threatening to take industrial action (hooray - that'll make a change) to protest the cuts.

But let's not get too serious about that four-letter word that is the "news" for a moment and have a bit of fun courtesy of Air France cabin crew and ground staff.

Flash mobs of course have been around for several years, and perhaps the most famous is the one performed on Oprah Winfrey by the Black Eyed Peas and 21,000 of her fans in Chicago back in 2009.

You haven't seen it? Take a look.

The Air France flash mob might seem a bit pale (to put it politely) in terms of performance and certainly numbers, but the element of surprise for passengers waiting in Roissy's somewhat soulless modern monstrosity that is Terminal E, was clearly still present.

It all begins, just as flash mobs always do, innocently enough, this time with an announcement coming over the public address system paging Lopez.

There's little reaction when it's made in French, but when repeated in English, you can see that some passengers really think J. Lo is "in the house" - so to speak.

And then the music kicks in, the "performers" take their places and "strike their poses".

All right, so it's not the best choreographed routine perhaps (no, definitely) - and some of the participants look as though they've put in less than five minutes training.

But who gives a stuff?

The waiting passengers appreciated it and heck, it's not a bad way to spend your time before you take your flight, is it? at the airport.

In fact if those threatened strikes occur, it could be the only means of whiling away the time.

So enjoy, and here's hoping it brings a smile to your face ahead of the weekend.

And as always, have a good one.

Friday's French music break - Irma, "I know"

Friday's French music break this week is from a young woman whose voice you might recognise but perhaps cannot immediately place.

It's Irma with the single "I know", a song that has had massive exposure by being featured in a Google Chrome commercial in Europe.

Who says advertising can't serve a purpose, especially when it helps promote such a talent?

Irma (screenshot from Google Chrome commercial)

Strictly speaking, of course, Irma's not French.

Born and brought up Cameroon, Irma Pany, moved to France in 2003 at the age of 15 to study at the private Catholic secondary school lycée Stanislas de Paris.

In 2007 she began posting homemade videos of both songs she had written and cover versions on YouTube and it didn't take long for the buzz to build.

So much so, that when the fan-funded music label My Major Company showed an interest in August 2008, it took just 48 hours for the site to gather the €75,000 necessary to finance the recording of her debut album.

What perhaps sets the Irma aside from other My Major Company finds such as Grégoire and Joyce Jonathan is the fact that she not only sings in English but has an appeal which has quickly attracted other established artists both French and international.

Tété ("Hey ya"), Matthieu Chédid, M ("Rolling in the deep") and will.i.am from the Black Eyed Peas ("I want you back") have all joined Irma to make simple acoustic cover versions of songs on her YouTube channel.

Her first album, "Letter to the Lord", released in February 2011, was enthusiastically greeted by most critics who praised her for the maturity of her approach and the refreshingly smooth, simple and effective piano-guitar voice arrangement of what was obviously a multi-talented singer-songwriter.

Before the album's release she had apparently worked in New York with Lenny Kravitz's producer but on returning to Paris decided she wasn't happy with the result and reworked the self-penned songs to make them more folksy.

The result, as far as Radio France Internationale was concerned was an album "full of promise with sensual melodies and a glimpse into Irma's own intimate universe," but one which also "lacked that little extra something to set her aside from other Rhythm and Blues or Soul singers."

There's some truth in that because although Irma has a distinctive and exquisite voice, the one track that really stands out is "I know".

The rest are good - indeed very good for a debut album - but far from having quite the same "I want to know who's singing that right now " allure of "I know" when you first hear it on the radio.

Irma (screenshot from official clip)

Its success, and the fact that it has been used in the Google commercial has given the 23-year-old tremendous exposure and the pace looks set to pick up.

She'll be stepping out of the proverbial shadows of being a warm-up act for other artists or appearing at small venues with two concerts in Paris this year.

The first at La Cigale in Paris in June is already sold out but you can still get tickets for the date at Olympia in November.

In between she'll be appearing at several of the many summer music festivals in France such as Brive Plage or Albi's Pause Guitar.

And then there's the aim - as far as Universal Republic Records, the record label to which she has signed, is concerned: to conquer the States.

Not beyond the realms of possibility perhaps.

For now though here's that single which, in the words of the blurb, illustrates her "immediate charisma and authenticity" and is an example of her songs which are "little gems of melody, a subtle mix of soul and folk music found in texts that tell a story."

In other words - it's a ruddy good listen.

Here's both the one-minute Google Chrome commercial version and, if that has left you wanting more, the longer official single version.

Have a great weekend.

French X Factor, the finale...yawn

Tuesday sees the final of France's X factor with the last two contestants doing battle to determine who'll pick up the contract for an album with a major record company.

But when Marina D'Amico and Matthew Raymond-Barker have finished singing their hearts out and await the viewers' votes, it's highly unlikely that millions will be glued to the box in anticipation.

Because quite simply viewing figures for the show have been consistently appalling.

Since it hit the screens in April with the recorded auditions, ratings for the show have had a hard time climbing above 10 per cent audience share or around two million viewers.

Even the first live show only clocked up a 12.4 per cent share or 2.5 million viewers, and it has been downhill ever since.

So how come a format that has worked so well - and continues to do so - in other countries, fails to capture the imagination of the French public?

After all the show, now in its second season, has had a prime time slot on one of the country's major broadcasters, M6, having switched from the smaller sister channel W9 which aired the first X Factor back in 2009 (yes there was a one year gap).

Oh yes, and let's not forget the guests that have appeared live on the show: The Black Eyed Peas, Lady Gaga, Enrique Iglesias and Nicole Scherzinger to name just some of the international acts.

And it's not as though M6 hasn't promoted the programme - ad nauseam and over-ambitiously perhaps given that it was billed as "The musical event of the year" before it began.

The reasons for the show's "failure" are probably manifold, but two stand out; the calibre of the candidates and the overkill of the TV talent search format in France.

The so-called "X factor" is surely some inexplicable quality a singer or a group has once they appear on stage and open their mouths: that "je ne sais quoi" if you like, that you just can't put your finger on, but it's obvious it's there.

Marina D'Amico (screenshot from M6 video)

Those two finalists, Marina D'Amico and Matthew Raymond-Barker, are supposed to be the cream of the crop but quite frankly there's little "X" and more "Y" factor about them than anything else - as in "Why are they in the final?"

Sure the 17-year-old D'Amico can sing - very well. But that just ain't enough.

She's simply boring to listen to, worse to watch and lacking in personality.

Think block of wood on stage and you just about have her level of charisma.

That's not being "woodist", just stating the obvious.

Then there's Raymond-Barker.

Doesn't sound very French does it?

Not surprising really st the 22-year-old is from the suburbs of London and - get this - failed to make it through to the final stages of the UK equivalent.

Yes that's right, he a British X Factor reject!

Say no more.

Matthew Raymond-Barker (screenshot from M6 video)

Then there's the obvious viewer fatigue the French must surely have with the TV talent show format.

There have been eight seasons of Star Academy (2001-2008) on TF1 and the same number of Nouvelle Star - the French equivalent of Pop Idol - on M6 (2003-2010) and four of Popstars (2001-2003 and 2007) also on M6.

Enough you would think to throw up some real talent with proven staying power.

Sadly that just hasn't been the case.

If you take a look at the number of acts who've managed to establish themselves in the hearts of the French public and record labels in terms of sales - you would be hard-pushed to come up with that many.

Yes there have been exceptions - among the winners of the various shows perhaps Jenifer, Nolwenn Leroy, Matt Pakora, Julien Doré and Christophe Willem and a few "also appeared" that have managed to carve out careers such as Amel Bent and Chimène Badi.

But equally there have been an awful lot of "what on earth happened to them?" winners, such as Magalie Vaé, Cyril Cinélu, Mickels Réa, Steeve Estatof, Myriam Abel and Soan Faya, let alone those instantly forgettable "also appeared"

Don't worry if you haven't heard of, or can't remember, half of those "winners with a record deal". Chances are, neither can most French.

So D'Amico or Raymond-Barker on Tuesday evening?

Well to paraphrase Rhett Butler most French probably "don't give a damn."


Here are the two protagonists in full voice during the semi-final.

Matthew Raymond-Barker murders Coldplay's "Viva la vida"

Marina D'Amico proving she ain't no Bjork and don't you just wish she would stay "Oh so quiet"