42point1

VM 2008: Album de musiques urbaines

Which would be, en anglais, "Urban Music Album"; that is, yer hip-hop, yer rap, yer slam...

The Victoire was won by MC Solaar, but I was particularly taken by this performance of "Smile" by the Nantais rap group, Hocus Pocus.  I am *dying* to get their album!

Hocus Pocus "Smile" [live] @ VM 2008
Uploaded by fullhdReady

P.S.  There's another video available, also a live version, performed on Taratata, and it's just wonderful, too, and features British artist Omar.

les victoires de la musique 2008

That's what the French call their music awards:  "Les victoires de la musique", and the award show was on television last night. 

I've got a few interesting bits to share, but thought I'd start with the song that won the Victoire for the "Best Original Song" of the year -- this is a category that's voted on by the public.  Four songs were nominated, and there was a phone in vote all evening.

Now, I've waited a long time for Christophe Willem's album to turn up on iTunes -- for those who don't know of him, he was the winner of the 4th edition of "Nouvelle Star", the French version of "Pop Idol".  I love his voice, I love his music (at least a couple of the songs on the album were written by one of my favourite singers/song-writers, Zazie, including "Double Je", which took the prize for "Best Original Song".

Thanks to YouTube, I can show you his performance last night:

(Did I mention I also love his gold shoes?  I love them...)

L'homme au bouquet de fleurs

Maxime Le Forestier is a magnificent songwriter, and this song was running through my head today:

(Yes, that is Daniel Auteuil.  Yes, that is Venice.  It's not only a wonderfully crafted song  -- if you speak French, you'll get the pun at the end of the song -- it's a really nice video, too.)