Friday’s French music break - Céline Dion, “Encore un soir”

You know you’re in trouble when you have to admit that a song from a singer you normally can’t stand actually catches your fancy.

It happened several months ago when…er…(hang head in shame time) Justin Bieber’s “Love yourself” ear-wormed its way into this listener’s head.

A catchy, gentle number that, once Shazamed, revealed itself to be by the 22-year-old Canadian and ergo (apparently) totally inappropriate to anyone over the age of 15.

Still, it’s never a bad thing to admit to having questionable taste, and besides, it would have been churlish (in the ungentlemanly sense) and feeble to have pretended the song no longer appealed simply because it was from The Biebernator.

And…gulp…it has happened again.

No not another Bieber song, after all there’s only so far an adult man can accept to have become (albeit temporarily) a “Belieber” (where’s this vocabulary coming from) and this is Friday’s French music.

This time around it’s…wait for it…from his fellow Canadian and global super shrieker , Céline Dion.

Céline Dion (screenshot Celine Dion - Live in Montreal - “Encore Un Soir”)

OK, so she’s not French either, but “Encore un soir” (the title track of her soon-to-be released album) marks a return to her working together with the Grammy Award-winning French singer-songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman.

Now, you might be expecting the usual wailing, belting Las Vegas high notes from the 48-year-old mother of three. But no. This has Goldman’s talent written all over it, even if it was reportedly Dion who approached him rather than the other way around (as had been the case in 1996).

Best perhaps not to read too much into the death of her late husband René Angélil in January 2016 and the impact it might or might not have had on her choice of tracks on her new album OR her discernible fashion “relooking” or “transformation” (and let’s be frank, that could only take an upwards direction)

“Encore un soir” is unadulterated middle-of-the-road adult listening…and not unpleasantly so either.

So, sit back. Forget all those pre(mis)conceptions you might have about Dion (or Goldman, come to that), stop being so incredibly snooty about your musical taste credibility…and enjoy!

After all, the worst that could  happen is that you might like it….and if you don’t, you can always hit “stop”

Bon week-end.

Cora Vaucaire dies - "the end of an era"

You know when you're sitting there, doing nothing in particular while listening to the radio when all of a sudden a song is played that blows you away?

Such was the case this past weekend, and a quick Shazam revealed it to be " La complainte de la butte" performed devinely by Cora Vaucaire.

Cora Vaucaire (screenshot from YouTube video)

Off to Google for more information and sadly it transpired that the song was being played in memory of Vaucaire who died on Friday night at the age of 93.

In an official statement the French prime minister, François Fillon, paid tribute to the woman nicknamed, because of the clothes she wore when performing, "la dame blanche de Saint-Germain-des-Prés" and noted the sad coincidence that Vaucaire had died the weekend the country was celebrating its national heritage as part of Les Journées Européenes du Patrimoine.

"She was a delicate woman whose figure was as fragile as her voice was powerful, clear and subtle," he said.

"It's sad that on the day we're celebrating the beauty of our patrimony we should lose one of the greatest interpreters of French musical heritage of the 20th century."

As he always does when a great French artist dies, the minister of culture, Frédéric Mitterrand, also paid tribute to Vaucaire saying that, "She had been the last representative of an era of French music, and that her death marked the end of that era."

More digging quickly disclosed just why Vaucaire earned such praise from both men.

"She was" wrote Agence France Presse, "one of the main ambassadors of the so-called 'rive gauche' (left bank) music from the 1950s; an advocate without concession of music from the Middle Ages to contemporary French poets such as (Jacques) Prévert, (Louis) Aragon, and (Charles) Trenet."

Born July 22, 1918 in Marseille, Geneviève Collin (her real name) was the widow of French lyricist Michel Vaucaire (1904-1980) the man who, together with Charles Dumont, composed "Je ne regrette rien".

Perhaps the one song that stands out from her complete repertoire, and the one for which she is best known, is from Jean Renoir's 1954 (Italy) 55 (France) film "French Cancan".

Anna Amendola might be the woman you see performing in the role of Esther Georges, but when it comes to singing "La complainte de la butte", it's Vaucaire's voice you hear.

So just for a moment, forget all that modern day warbling that passes for singing and mindless songs probably requiring less than a moment's thought as they're thumped out for mass consumptions.

And instead wallow in some "real" music, a sublime voice and a time gone by which somehow, although it no longer exists, will surely remain forever.

Oh yes, and it doesn't matter one jot if you don't understand a word.