Friday's French music break - Les Victoires de la musique 2014

Yes, this week's Friday's French music break is a bit different as it's dedicated to this year's Victoires de la musique, France's equivalent of the Grammy Awards

And here's a thing to kick off. The very (French) group which cleaned up at the recent edition of the Grammys in Los Angeles, won't just be absent, they haven't even been nominated.

The motorbike helmeted duo (no, not François Hollande and his bodyguard) of Thomas Bangalter of Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. aka Daft Punk, apparently declined the offer preferring to take their chances Stateside, where they picked up five awards including album ("Random access memories") and record ("Get lucky") of the year.

Organisers sent out a second invitation to the duo to perform but, as yet, there has been no reply.

So without arguably France's most successful international act at the moment, who has been persuaded to appear and who's up for a possible gong?

Well, you can see all the details here, but the most notable inclusion is not a French artist at all, but...ta da...Belgian Paul van Haver, better known by his stage name Stromae.

Stromae (screenshot from interview with Marie Drucker on France 2 television, August 2013)

The 28-year-old has picked up six nominations in four different categories (huh?) including (deep breath) Male artist of the year, Album of the year (the excellent "Racine carrée") and twice for Original song of the year and Video of the year (both times for "Papaoutai" and "Formidable").



Should he not pick up at least a couple of awards, those voting (which, in some categories include the general public) will need their heads examined.

And especially when you take a look at who he's up against for Original song of the year: ageing rocker Johnny Hallyday for "20 ans" and Maître Gims with "J'me tire de".

Nominated against Stromae in both Male artist of the year and Album of the year (for "Les chansons de l'innocence retrouvée" is Étienne Daho, whose low, almost whispered voice (in other words, he's not much of a singer) has been boring some of us with variations of the same song since the early 1980s.

Zaz, Vanessa Paradis (yet again) and peculiarly enough the male-female duo of Lilly Wood and the Prick (Nili Hadida and guitarist Benjamin Cotto) (winners of the 2011 Best newcomer award) are the three acts nominated in the category Best female artist of the year. Perhaps nobody realised that Cotto is a man and Lily Wood and the Prick are actually a group.




Lilly Wood and the Prick (screenshot from  Where I Want To Be (California) official video)

And there are strange things over in the Album revelation of the year category which includes HollySiz (Cécile Cassel) with "My name is", La Femme and their album "Psycho Tropical Berlin" as well as (here comes another silly name) Cats on trees (duo Nina Goern and Yohan Hennequin) with their album of the same name...er "Cats on Trees".

Yes it's Goern and Hennequin's debut album, but they've been performing together since 2007. Some revelation!

Anyway, the awards will be broadcast live on France 2 and transmitted on France Inter and France Bleu radio on February 14, in what promises to be its usually overdrawn luv-in with Virginie Guilhaume at the helm,

Yes, the same woman who hosted the whole shebang (with Laurent Ruquier) in 2013 and who also presents "Qui sera le prochain grand pâtissier?"
Enjoy!

Plagiarism claims levelled against French Eurovision hopefuls Twin Twin

France hasn't even chosen its contestant to place poorly in this year's Eurovision Song Contest, but already one of the contenders is creating a buzz.

And not for the right reasons.

The confusingly (purposefully) named trio Twin Twin are being accused by many of having "plagiarised" one of 2013's biggest-selling songs in France in an effort...well presumably to make it through as France's representative at this year's songfest to be held in the Danish capital Copenhagen in May.

Twin Twin (screenshot from France 3 television)

Their group's song, "Moustache", bears more than a passing resemblance to Belgian singer Stromae's (excellent) "Papaoutai" with a dash of former child star Jordy's 1992 hit (the ghastly) "Dur dur d'être bébé!" thrown in for good measure.

If you need a bit of convincing, close your eyes and take a listen to Twin Twin and Stromae back-to-back or you could listen to all three titles (just click on the links provided) on the mashup made by DJs on Virgin radio.





The group has admitted there is some (!!!) similarity at the beginning of both their song and that of Stromae, but has denied accusations of plagiarism saying that the song was written a year before the release of Belgian singer's album ("Racine carrée").

"We're flattered to be compared with Stromae," the group said. "He's a great artist but the word 'plagiarised' isn't really appropriate."

All right. How about "copied" then?

France hasn't won the Eurovision Song Contest since 1977 and in recent years has placed (to say the least) poorly.

The usual method for choosing the country's entry has been for the execs at France Télévisions to choose an artist and then the song.

All very democratic and hugely unsuccessful producing a string of also-rans with last year's entry from Amandine Bourgeois finishing in 23rd place.

So a change of strategy this year with three artists and three songs being put to a public vote.

They are of course "Moustache" from Twin Twin, a semi-finalist in a past edition of Star Academy Joanna, singing "Ma liberté" (you can listen that here) and "Sans toi" - an English-French mix from the group Destan

All three acts have already performed at the so-called National Finals televised on France 3 and it's now up to the public to decide which one will represent the country in Copenhagan in May.

The "winner" will be revealed towards the end of February.

Friday's French music break - Yseult Onguenet, "Roar" and "Ne me quitte pas"

Friday's French music break this week is a double whammy from a singer who is just beginning her career.

It's Yseult Onguenet with her version of Katy Perry's "Roar" and Jacques Brel's "Ne me quitte pas".

Onguenet is one of the contestants this year in the TV talent show Nouvelle Star (the French equivalent of Pop Idol) currently being broadcast weekly on D8.

Now before you start groaning, give the format - and in particular Onguenet a chance.

Yseult Onguenet singing "Roar" (screenshot from D8 Nouvelle Star)

The 19-year-old is probably one of the favourites to win and she certainly seems to be the judges' pick.

But they've got it wrong before (and so has the viewing and voting public come to that).

Because the "collected works" of Star Academy, Nouvelle Star, X  Factor (which only ran for two seasons in France) Popstars and most recently The Voice have allowed some complete non-entities their proverbial 15 minutes and plus of fame.

But they've also provided the launching pad for some successful singers. Jenifer, Nolwenn Leroy, Élodie Frégé and the late Grégory Lemarchal from Star Academy.

While Nouvelle Star has, down the years, given us Christophe Willem, Julien Doré (both winners) as well as Amel Bent.

And Matt Pakora (winner) and Chimène Badi (eliminated because the producers thought her voice unsuitable to be part of the group they were looking to form) both owe their initial exposure to Popstars

Anyway back to Nouvelle Star, now down to the last five...including Onguenet

And it's not difficult to see why.

She opened the first prime time show with a rather rushed and not totally inspired version of Stromae's "Papaoutai". But that could perhaps be put down to nerves.

Since then though, Onguenet has blossomed, putting in one stunning performance after another

Sure, her choice of songs has sometimes been more than audacious, maybe even conceited, with renditions of Brel's "Ne me quitte pas" and "Comme d'habitude" by Claude François.

But it has also been varied with her tackling Lana del Rey's "Summertime sadness", Radiohead's "Creep" and Benjamin Biolay's "Ton héritage".

Yseult Onguenet singing "Ne me quitte pas" (screenshot from D8 Nouvelle Star)

Yes, this is a young woman who seems able to turn her vocal cords in whatever direction she chooses.

Her voice is distinctive. She has a great timbre and range and there's also the flavour of her Cameroonian roots (yes that sounds ridiculous, but listen) in some of her interpretations.

And each performance (even if it has been enhanced and produced for TV in spite of being live) has been a revelation.

Anyway put away any preconceived ideas you might have about TV talent shows and judge for yourselves.

Here are those two performances which (so far) stand out.

First up Katy Perry's 2013 hit "Roar" - which is exactly the full throttle approach Onguenet takes in her interpretation

And then Jacques Brel's much-(over) covered "Ne me quitte pas", into which she breathes ...well take a listen.

Un très bon week-end à toutes et tous!