Forget about a new president, the French people had far more important voting to do last night. And there was a superbe lot to chose from so and I'm pleased they gave the vote to Les Fatals Picards to represent them in the Helsinki contest in May.The jumpy rocking pop tune with the great accent is a big departure from the traditional grumpy French chansons of recent years which really only work about once every three times.
The Jean Luc Picard link is not the first intergalactic connection for a French entry.
A memorable choice from France was back in 1999 when they picked that spaced out woman Nayah who had ties with the Raelian cult and caused a bit of a stir. Spaceships would come for her (remember it was 1999) and make her the queen of the Universe, or at least win the Galactivision Song Contest.
Je veux donner ma voix was the song, and the greatest thing it did back then was score a # 100 hit (one week) in the French charts. And it scared away the aliens.
Still Nayah's Voix was heard as far as Tahiti and Canada where coverversions of the song were made.
First up there's Maruia from Tahiti. Don't know much about her except she has made quite a few CDs with Polynesian pop mixed with coverversions of ABBA et les chansons pop. She also recorded a version of the Swedish 1999 winner Take me to your heaven. (Find that in this Eurocovers post)
Ginette Reno does a great job on the song and makes it actually quite good.
The Canadian singer was one of the most popular artists in Quebec in the 60's and 70's and even had a fling with the BBC after she won the Yamaha Tokyo Song Festival representing England.
Je veux donner ma voix is on the first CD of a series collecting her work mixed with new and unreleased recordings.
She also recorded a version of Udo Jürgens 1964 entry Warum, nur warum better known as Walk away. (Dis-moi pourquoi)
Read more about her at http://www.ginettereno.com/
Je veux donner ma voix - Maruia - CD Te Ora Hau (Vol. 11) (1999)
Take me to your heaven - Maruia - CD Te Ora Hau (Vol. 11) (1999)
Dis-moi pourqoui - Ginette Reno - LP Ginette en amour (Apex, ALF-1580, 1965)
Je veux donner ma voix - Ginette Reno - CD Mademoiselle Reno (Melon-Miel, 2004)
Related posts: French versions of Sandie Shaws Puppet on a string can be found in this Eurocovers post.
Le dernier qui a parlé (France 1991) in Cantonese is here.
A Lithuanian version of the French 1993 song Mama Corsica is here.
