France s first lady, model-turned-singer Carla Bruni, drops the folk-song flavor of her debut years for a decidedly 60s pop sound in her latest album – the talk of the town even before its release.
Due out more than a month away on July 21, Bruni s third album is already making headlines as political and celebrity-watchers wait to see whether the lyrics of the 14 songs are a give-away to the life of the country s pre-eminent couple.
Among the brow-raising titles on the 14-track album is a song called Ma came, a reference to drugs that is in fact a love song written more than two years ago, but which has already drawn a protest from Colombia.
And in an interview this week, the 40-year-old said she was aware that the response to the 42-minute album will not just be musical and risks being scrambled by her recent marriage to President Nicolas Sarkozy.
A supermodel turned singer in her mid-30s, she wedded the just-divorced president in February after a whirlwind three-month romance.
Back then, both her agent and Naive record label admitted her new status would affect her old career.
Though most of the songs were written before the wedding, agent Bertrand de Labbey said concerts or singles were unlikely.
What will change is the way we release the album to the public, he said at the time. The release will not be routine.
Titled Comme Si De Rien N Etait (Simply), Bruni wrote the lyrics of all the songs bar four – one a poem by novelist Michel Houellebecq, one co-written with her former partner, one by Bob Dylan, and a last by an anarchist singer from Italy.
The song titled You are my drug and comparing love and addiction, says: You are my drug. More deadly than Afghan heroin. More dangerous than Colombian white.
That was too much for Colombian Foreign Minister Fernando Araujo.
From the mouth of the wife of the French president, this statement is very painful for Colombia.
Bruni s first album of soft melodies backed by her own guitar, released at the end of 2002, Quelqu un m a dit (Someone Told Me), wowed both the critics and the public, selling two million copies worldwide.
But her second album, last year s No Promises in which she put the words of English poets to music, did no better than 80,000 copies sold. -AFP
