Friday's French music break - Cats on Trees and Calogero, "Jimmy"

This week's Friday's French music break is from two artists previously featured.

The first is Calogero, is a stalwort of the French music scene who needs little or no introduction to readers in France as he has been around, writing and recording, for the past couple of decades.

Calogero (screenshot RTL performance)

The other is the Toulouse duo of Nina Goern and Yohan Hennequin who are better known as Cats on Trees and rose to prominence with their 2013 hit "Siren's call".

Nina Goern and Yohan Hennequin - Cats on Trees

 Together they've come up with a seamless match in the form of the single "Jimmy".

The 44-year-old Calogero's music is instantly recognisable and he has won several awards including three Victoires de la musique - the French equivalent of the Grammys - for best male artist (2004) and twice for Best original song (2005 with "Si seulement je pouvais lui manquer" and 2015 for "Un jour au mauvais endroit").

Throughout the years, Calogero has teamed up with, and/or (more often) written for,  a number of artists, among them Grand Corps Malade, François Hardy, Pascal Obispo and (inevitably perhaps, as just about every French composer has) Johnny Hallyday.

Given his track record as a successful writer, it's perhaps surprising, if not unusual, that Calogero agreed to accompany the duo on their own composition.

Especially as it failed to make its mark on the charts first time around when Goern and Hennequin released it in 2014.

But Calogero was definitely "up for it" as, according to Cats on Trees' official site, the trio became friends following several joint television and festival appearances.

Goern and Hennequin (who normally write and record in English)  reworked the song to include some French lyrics...et voilà, quoi.

The result - not only a delightfully melodic recording but fitting hit material too.

http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Cats-on-Trees/Jimmy-s36254.html

Enjoy et bon week-end.

Friday's French music break - Calogero, "Le portrait"

Friday's French music break this week comes from an artist who needs little or no introduction to the French.

It's Calogero (Calogero Maurici) with his latest single "Le portrait".

Calogero (screenshot live performance of "Un jour au mauvais endroit" le Grand Studio RTL)

The song is another melodic masterpiece from a man who has well and truly made his mark on the French music scene.

Once again, Calogero delivers an instantly recognisable tune which is more than pleasing to the ear with a voice that matches perfectly.

It's in the tradition of what he describes as pop-rock: another memorable and moving melody along the lines of  "En apesanteur", released in 2002, "Si seulement je pouvais lui manquer" (2004) "Pomme C" (2007) a couple of duos,  "Face à la mer" (2004 with rapper Passi) and "La débâcle des sentiments" (2008 with co Circus band member Stanislas), and, and, and.

Hit on the links to take a listen.

Now, there's a lot of material out there about Calogero and his career including inevitably Wikpedia in French and English (it's worth comparing the two, if you can).

From his beginnings as Charlie, lead singer of the 1980s band Les Charts, his re-emergence at in 2000 as a solo singer and the path which has seen him become an established member of mainstream French music scene.

So there's no need to repeat it all here.

You can simply search the Net, and you'll come up with something.

But it's worth perhaps pointing out just how respected and prominent Calogero has become over the years.

He has written for a number of artists including, Jenifer, Patrick Fiori, Françoise Hardy, Pascal Obispo, Florent Pagny and...of course (because just about every French composer has)...Johnny Hallyday.

And a fair number showed up for a recent edition of the France 2 Saturday evening entertainment programme "Le Grand Show", dedicated to to the 43-year-old and to celebrate 15 years (as a solo artist) as well as the release of his most recent album, "Les Feux d'artifice".

Which brings us back nicely to this week's Friday's French music break - "Le portrait" - the fourth track from the album to be released as a single.

Enough words.

Just listen - and enjoy.

Oh yes...and if you get the chance, try to see him live. He's on tour until April 2015.

Friday's French music break - Calogero, "La fin de la fin du monde"

Friday's French music break this week is far from being a recent song, but over the past couple of weeks it has been receiving a fair bit of air play - and not just because it's a spirited little number with a catchy riff.

It's the 2009 single "La fin de la fin du monde" by Calogero, taken from his album of the same year "L'embellie"

Mayan predictions aside, the sound is quite typical of Calogero's "pop rock" musical style as a solo artist.

Calogero (screenshot YouTube video)

He has had a string of hits over the years such as the 2001 "En apesanteur" "covered recently by Shy'm), his 2003 homage to Soeur Emmanuelle "Yalla", "Face à la mer" in 2004 with hip hop artist and rapper Passi and another duet in 2007 with fellow composer and singer, Stanislas, "La débâcle des sentiments".

Calogero's bio on his official site doesn't exactly tell you much about the man (although there is quite a revealing video interview which focuses mainly on his new project "Circus") apart from promoting his most recent album and tour in which he re-interpreted some of his own songs with a symphony orchestra.

But pop over to the ever faithful and admittedly not always entirely accurate Wikipedia and you'll discover a rather sketchy profile of a man whose, "Moving lyrics and tender voice (in other words he can sing but it's nothing extraordinary) have made him one of France's top pop/rock singers."

For a more complete profile you can check out Radio France International's biography of Calogero (in English) or the TV5 Monde's archives (in French)

It's perhaps not so much the "tender voice" that has guaranteed Calogero a faithful fan base, but rather the instantly appealing and memorable melodies he composes as well as lyrics that are far from being banal.

Both have contributed to his success and helped him pick up the best male singer award at the 2004 Victoires de la Musique - the French equivalent of the Grammys.

Next up for the 41-year-old is the "Circus" project: a band of sorts made up of fellow established artists, Stanislas, Philippe Uminski, Elsa Fourlon and Karen Brunon.

If you want to see them in concert watch out for them next year when they'll be performing songs from their debut album written by the likes of Jean-Jacques Goldman (don't barf - even if you don't like him, you have to admit he's talented and successful), Dominique A and Marc Lavoine.

There again we might not all live that long...which brings us back nicely to this week's Friday's French Music break, "La fin de la fin du monde".

See ya around again soon...or maybe not.

Friday's French music break - Florent Pagny and Pascal Obispo "Je laisse le temps faire"

It's two for the price of one this week as Friday's French music break is actually a duet with Florent Pagny joined by Pascal Obispo in "Je laisse le temps faire".

Pascal Obispo (left) and Florent Pagny (screenshot from official clip)

And even if there were no lyrics to the song you would probably be able to tell from the opening bars that it was French.

It's the accordion that gives it away; not an instrument that features regularly in French pop songs, although if you're a lover of Bal-musette you might beg to differ.

Pagny, now 49, released his first album back in 1990 and since then has tried just about every musical (and hair) style.

They (musically-speaking) have included (among others) the dreadful faux-opera "Baryton" album, one dedicated entirely to Jacques Brel songs - "Pagny chante Brel" (he should have known better) and most recently "Tout et son contraire".

But his biggest - and arguably best - songs have come from the pen of Obispo.

It's not the first time the two men have worked together - far from it.

They go back a fair number of years and Obispo, along with his longtime songwriting partner Lionel Florence, has provided a fair number of songs for Pagny including his biggest hit to date, "Savoir aimer" in 1997 and the cleverly catchy "Ma Liberté de penser" in 2003.

In fact Obispo has been a prolific singer-songwriter since the 1980s, recording songs himself such as "L'important c'est d'aimer" (1999), "Millésime" (2001) and "Fan" (2004), a tribute to Michel Polnareff, that have become firm favourites with not just the French but other artists too - given the number of times they've been covered.

The 46-year-old has also written for a host of other singers including Calogero, Johnny Hallyday, Patricia Kaas, and Canadians Natasha St Pier and Garou.

His 2000 hit musical" Les Dix Commandements" (music by Obispo and lyrics by Florence, and Patrice Guirao) spawned several hits including "L'envie d'aimer" sung by Daniel Levi and Yael Naïm's "L.I.B.R.E".

Prolific, as you can probably tell, is something of an understatement when it comes to Obispo, and what's the betting that his new musical, "Adam et Eve, la seconde chance" won't also spin off a hit or two when it opens in January 2012.

In fact the first track from the show "Rien ne se finit" by Thierry Amiel and Cylia is already getting plenty of airplay.

Anyway that has given you some background to the two men.

You can check out Pagny's official website and (an unofficial) one dedicated to Obispo for more info. They're both in French.

In English there are also the rather incomplete Wikipedia entries for the two men: Pagny and Obispo.

And finally there's an excellent biography on Pagny on the Radio France Internationale site, which also includes a little info on Obispo.

For now though, here they both are performing "Je laisse le temps faire" a jolly boozy breeze of a number. HEY!