I feel that I have been an exceptionally cultured individual this week. I have admired architecture and murals at historical sights such as the Pont d'Avignon and the Palais des Papes in Avignon. I have witnessed a Baroque concert in the charming Aix en Provence. I saw a French film, Mademoiselle Chambon, at the cinema. And then, to top it all off, I went to a French Pop concert.
I have not been to many normal (i.e. non-classical) concerts in my lifetime. The only one of those that even meant a whole lot to me was Amy Grant (who will forever and always be my favorite singer) and if you know Amy, you know it wasn't a jump around in the mosh pit kind of concert. So, that being said, I didn't really know what to expect for any type of pop concert, much less one in France.
At one point during the night, I feared I may never find out. I went with my host parents, Anne and Julien. We were meeting people once we got to Marseille. There are tons of people in the city on Saturday nights so it took a while for Julien to find a place to park. He had dropped Anne and me off in the Metro station where we were waiting semi-patiently for him, her sister Cathy and Cathy's fiance, and Anne's friend Delphine (whom I had met during our notorious outing to see District 9. I've heard good things from friends in the states about that movie but believe me, it's not something you want to see in French.)
Gradually, the members of our party trickled in. But apparenly, it is always a contest whether Anne or Delphine will be latest. This time, Delphine won by a landslide. I was beginning to fear she would never show up...and she had our tickets. Finally, right as the train was pulling up, we caught sight of her sprinting down the stairs. We all made it and were only minutes late for the opening show. *insert sigh of relief here* We ended up sitting on the stairs, rather than in seats, but that just made it more fun.
The opening act was a band named Coming Soon. They were a vintage, folk, rock, indie, etc... kind of band. I was positive they were American, or at least British. I mean, they were singing in English and one was even wearing a cowboy hat. But alas, I was informed that they were French. I was ashamed to not even have recognized their accent when they sang in my own language. They were cool though and they made me want to join a fun band, rocking out on my electric violin.
Finally it was time for the real show. The lights went down and an artsy cartoon danced on the scrim. Then the lights changed and the shadows of the band behind the scrim shown through. And the scim dropped, revealing Olivia Ruiz standing high on the stairs in front of a huge flowered mirror. It made me think of Snow White. There were bird cages full of flowers hanging from the ceiling and the backdrop was black with silver stars. It was enchanting.
The concert was fantastic! She uses a really interesting mix of instruments and has a unique voice. I recognized a few songs from the radio and my iPod. I had done some research after I was invited to the concert because I didn't even know who she was. I'll give you links to some of my favorite songs on YouTube at the end. It was frustrating to know the tune but not the lyrics. She sang in French, Spanish, and English but even in English I couldn't understand her. That made me laugh.
One of my favorite moments of the night was when she sang Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend. I couldn't stop laughing the whole time. Not because it was bad because she did a really excellent job (and I could understand her words that time), but because my second favorite movie in the world is Moulin Rouge, and this song is in Moulin Rouge, and I was in France, hearing a French girl sing that song, on a stage with a swing like in the movie. I don't know the word I'm looking for. It was sort of like irony but that's not it. It was just perfect.
And my favorite song was saved for the first encore. (If you refer back to my Baroque post you'll see that they really will not stop clapping here until they physically can't do it anymore.) I'd been waiting for it all night and finally they played it: La femme chocolat!
So now I've written too long about a singer you probably have never even heard of. But I hope you check out these links to her music. Some of it's even on our iTunes if you're interested but I had to get French iTunes to find her newer stuff.
La femme chocolat: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tntp-_yKwyA
Belle a en crever: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtdW6YQ9EpQ
And you can search my two other favs: "J'envoie valser" and "J'traine des pieds"
Oh, and after the concert, we went to one of Marseille's first "chic" restaurants and ate sushi (come to think of it, I've eaten a lot of raw things lately: fish, beef, ham, ...), skewered chicken (not raw), and a crepe stuffed with bananas and caramelized orange. What a night!
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