Alizee

Alizée and Grégoire Lyonnet in a live performance on the tour Danse avec les stars.

Alizée Lyonnet (born Alizée Jacotey; Ajaccio, Corsica, August 21, 1984), known as Alizée, is a French singer and dancer. After her participation in the talent show Graines de Star in 1999, she was discovered by the singer Mylène Farmer and by the musician Laurent Boutonnat who produced her first two albums, Gourmandises and Mes Courants Électriques.

In 2000 she achieved worldwide success with her single "Moi... Lolita", which managed to sell more than 1.1 million copies in 2001 alone. She is recognized as one of the most iconic and successful French artists of the XXI century. by FHM magazine, her songs are known around the world beyond the French-speaking borders, topping the charts on five continents.

In 2004, after marrying musician Jérémy Chatelain, Alizée separated from her artistic mentors. In 2007 she returned to music with the album Psychédélices , which gave her great popularity in Latin America, especially in Mexico. Her fourth album, entitled Une Enfant Du Siècle , was released in March 2010. It was a critical success among specialists, but it went largely unnoticed by the public. Her fifth studio album, titled 5 , was released on March 25, 2013. It included the singles "A cause de l'automne" 3. 4; and "Je Veux Bien". Later, she was the winner of the program Danse avec les stars ( Dancing with the Stars ), where she met her current husband, Grégoire Lyonnet, with whom she she starred in the dance numbers.

Biography

Alizée was born on August 21, 1984, in the city of Ajaccio, Corsica. Her name refers to the feminine form of trade winds.She grew up with her younger brother Johann, her mother Michelle (businesswoman) and her father Joseph (computer scientist). She began as an artist at L & # 39; école du Spectacle .At the age of 4 she began to become familiar with show business, and took theater and singing classes, supported by Monique Mufraggi, the teacher of her, and directed by Patrick Fiori.

In 1995 a French airline held a contest inviting children to draw an airplane so that the most original design would be reproduced to the scale of a real airplane. Alizée, 11, entered the contest and inspired by the book The Little Prince made her design. Her drawing was the winner and she was rewarded with a trip to the Maldives, as well as seeing her drawing reproduced on a plane they named Alizée.

In 1999, Alizée auditioned at the César Palace in Ajaccio for a young talent show called The Star Academy, singing the song La vie ne m'apprend rien by Daniele Balavoine. Her second audition after passing the first round was on December 16, in Paris, with the song Waiting for tonight by Jennifer López. On February 25, 2000, she appeared on the show performing the song Ma prière by Axelle Red with which she placed second.

That same year, Alizée met Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, thanks to her performance at Graines de Star, when they were looking for a young artist to interpret the song they had composed, Moi… Lolita. After carrying out tests in recording studios and obtaining revealing results, Alizée was chosen to interpret this theme. They soon recorded the first single that would later go on to sell more than two and a half million units in France alone.

From 2004 to 2007 Alizée took an artistic break due to the birth of her daughter Annily, whose name was chosen in honor of Annie, the mother of Jeremy Chatelain (her first husband), who died shortly before the birth of the little girl.

Recording career

2000-2002: Gourmandises, Moi... Lolita, L'Alizé and international success

Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat produced their first album, titled Gourmandises (Candies), with lyrics inspired by Alizée's experiences, desires and tastes. Her songs speak of adolescence, doubts, love and her desire to live. In three months it went platinum with 300,000 copies sold. The second single, L'Alizé, was released at the same time as the album, it also achieved great success and quickly rose to the top of the sales chart with more than 700,000 copies. sold.

The success of her songs crossed borders, so that she was already known in many European countries in 2001, as well as in Japan, South Korea and Canada. She received her first M6 Awards award and later won the NRJ Music Awards, as French Revelation of the Year . In Germany and the Netherlands she received a Gold Record for staying on the sales charts for many weeks. He also received a Best Website award for his website. His songs are known beyond the borders of French-speaking countries, topping the charts in Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Poland, the Netherlands, Russia and Mexico, frequently being number one in sales for several weeks.

2003: Mes courants électriques and the recognition of Asia

Mes courants électriques is the second album by Alizée, which was released on March 18, 2003. This album includes English versions of four of her songs. It was marketed in different regions with different content. The French version does not contain any of the English versions, which were included in the international version. The Japanese version changes the name from J'en ai marre to Mon bain de mousse. In Hong Kong and other parts of Asia it was released as a double disc including an interactive disc with the video clips of Moi Lolita and I'm fed up (English version of J'en ai marre). The album sold 259,000 copies in France and was certified Double Gold Disc, although this is a low figure when compared to Gourmandises, which sold 800,000 copies in France alone.

The first single, J'en ai marre, was released on February 21, 2003, reaching fourth place on the French charts, selling more than 200,000 copies, and was certified Gold Record. The following singles, J'ai pas vingt ans and A contre-courant, peaked at number seventeen (#17) and number one. twenty-second (#22) places, respectively.

2004: Alizée in Concert

Alizée at an autograph firm in 2008.

With the release of her second album, Alizée went on a concert tour of France and some in Belgium and Switzerland. The tour began with a concert on August 23, 2003 at the Olympia and concluded at Le Zénith, both venues in Paris, on January 17, 2004. A compact disc and DVD, titled Alizée En Concert (featuring selected scenes from her 43 concerts) was released in the fall of 2004. The disc contained songs from her two albums, the DVD included live performances by the songs, rehearsals of one of his songs and the making of some of his music videos. The disc was positioned in the thirty-eighth (#38) place of the best sellers in France while the DVD reached the first place.

Alizée acting in 2008.

The CD and DVD (along with her two other albums) were re-released in 2007 by Universal Music Mexico (due to Alizée's popularity in this country) as a DVD+CD package. Compact discs and DVD reached the top of the sales charts on May 28, 2007, staying in that position for quite some time.

2007-2009: Psychédélices and the conquest of the Latin American market

Her third album called Psychédélices was released on December 3, 2007 with Mademoiselle Juliette being the first single from the album. The single was broadcast on French radio NRJ on September 27, 2007 for the first time and came out digitally on the 30th. The video clip for the single was released in November.

Alizée decided to leave her artistic godparents, Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, on this album, with the idea of abandoning her lolita image and showing a more mature image. For this new album, musicians such as Bertrand Burgalat, Daniel Darc, Oxmo Puccino, Jean Fauque and her first husband, Jérémy Chatelain, collaborated with her. The second single from her is Fifty-Sixty , with a video clip that officially premiered on the internet at the beginning of May, and made its debut on French television during the month of June. Said video is part of the Fifty-Sixty trilogy, made up of two more videos based on Remixes of the single.

After the moderate success of Fifty-Sixty, the release of La Isla Bonita, her cover version of Madonna's hit, was announced as the third exclusive single for Mexico, achieving consolidate on the radio nationwide.

Alizée went on a world tour that took her to different countries. The first concert of this tour was held in Moscow on May 19, followed by 5 concerts in Mexico during the month of June, which were held in important cities, including: Mexico City, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Puebla.

Psychedelices Tour Dates

There was also a special presentation at the San Marcos Fair in Aguascalientes outside of the official tour. "Ki M´aime Me Suive" French production company in charge of organizing the tour, estimated that the public had exceeded 50,000 spectators.

The Track List of this Tour is made up mostly of the songs from the album Psychédélices, although it also included songs from her two previous albums, of which Alizée had to modify the music of songs as J'en ai marre and Moi... Lolita, since Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat did not grant copyright permissions so the lyrics remained original while the musical arrangement had to change.

Alizée as a guest DJ at the Hotel Ritz in Paris in 2010.

2010: Une enfant du siècle, new style and critical success

Their fourth album, Une enfant du siècle, was released on March 29, 2010. Critically acclaimed for its radical change in style, the album brings together young producers with the label &# 34;Institutes" (Chateau Marmont, Rob...). The album only peaked at #24 on the French top chart and immediately fell out of it a few weeks later, selling just 5,000 copies in France. Une enfant du siécle was distributed in only a few countries, while Alizée traveled to Israel to participate in the tribute to Serge Gainsbourg on July 28 of that year in Tel Aviv, where she performed her cover version of the single Dis-lui Toi que Je t'aime by Vanessa Paradis and the cover Dieu fumeur de havanes with the promise of that country's memento Harel Skaat To promote this CD, Alizée posed in the magazine of French origin Technikart, in which he appeared with the look of the singer Madonna in her single] Like a Virgin. Les Collines (Never Leave You) was the promo single, from which the video clip of the same name was derived, which was published a week after its release. After her success, the singer was pre-nominated by Les Victoires de la Musique for Album of the Year.

2011: participation in the show "Les Enfoirés"

Alizée participated in the sixth edition of the show by Les Enfoirés "L'oeil des Enfoirés" at the Montpellier Arena. He participated in the single Des Ricochets with more than 44 artists, the title of the single released by the Paris-Africa group, founded by UNICEF to contribute to the fight against malnutrition, similar to We Are the World of USA for Africa. She was also part of the artists who recorded a duet with Alain Chamfort on the studio album Elles & amp; Lui the simple Clara veut la Lune, Alizée has participated in several TF1 shows such as the Generations 90 and 2000.

2012: Cinq (5), fifth studio album

Alizée at a charity concert in Lyon in 2012.

From February 1 to 6, 2012 Alizée participated in Les Enfoirés with the new show "Le bal de Les Enforiés" at the Zenith auditorium in Lyon, which sold out tickets. On June 27, 2012 Alizée announced in live chat that the first single from the new album would be released on June 28, 2012 through the AlizéeVEVO account on YouTube. on September 2 of the same year, a French version of Dear Darlin' by Olly Murs and Alizée was published on Amazon.com. In general, it had positive comments from music critics. Although, commercially it did not achieve good reception, except for the United Kingdom, Poland, Australia and Mexico. The music video was posted on YouTube on December 5, 2012 but blocked for viewing outside of France, remaining so until January 3, 2013 when it was released to the rest of the world. The name of the single is À cause de l'automne (in Spanish: Because of autumn). Alizée also revealed that for the new album she was working with Jean-Jacques Goldman, with the BB Brunes and Thomas Boulard (singer and guitarist of the French rock band & # 34; Luke & # 34;). A limited collector's edition of the album was released on July 12, initially available for pre-order.

The actual release date of this new album was October 1, 2012 but due to unknown reasons it was postponed, being announced in January 2013 that the album would be released on February 25, but finally on January 15 the release was postponed again for the fifth time, announcing that the last release date would be March 25, 2013. During a presentation by Alizée at Star Academy on January 3, 2013, the official cover of the new record production was revealed, which was entitled 5, making reference to the fact that this was the 5th album by study of her The day the new album was released, it was placed among the top positions on iTunes in countries such as France, Italy and Saudi Arabia, among others. On April 8, 2013, the second single from the album, called Je Veux Bien , was released, which Alizée communicated through her Twitter account.

2014 - Blonde, new studio album

After a year of promotion with her album 5 and her participation in Dance with the stars, Alizée returned with the single Blonde, which marked her return to the commercial music and which achieved acceptable success among its audience. At the end of December 2013, the singer had started recording this sixth album with the participation of Pascal Obispo, Lionel Florence and Zazie. The aforementioned single, Blonde, composed by Pascal Obispo himself, was presented in March 2014. And the self-titled album was published on June 23, 2014.

On June 4, 2014, during the open-air concert organized by Kiss FM, Alizée revealed the release of the song Alcaline, which was the second official single

News

Alizée has stayed away from the stage when it came to music. Currently, she runs a dance school with her husband Grégoire in her native Ajaccio. Despite having ruled out a new album, the Frenchwoman has expressed her desire to return to the stage.

Art

Music and voice

Alizée in Les Enfoirés in 2008.

Alizée has a mezzo-soprano vocal range. She began her musical career with songs that she described as "soul pop music". In 2000 she broke into the music world, becoming an international sensation for being the most successful French singer in a long time. Alizée is known for mixing electronic sounds with Pop styles, such as psychedelic pop and, more recently, Euro pop.

At the time of her debut, NRJ Radio referred to her as "The Queen of Euro Pop is a French Lolita," and that Alizée on her debut album "used Europop sounds mixing soft tones, World Music and the classic French chanson". The second album was mainly "house" sounds, instrumentals and electronic sounds mixed with the sounds from her last album. The third album marked a change in style by replacing their previous styles of psychedelic sounds and World Music with highly rhythmic music. The theme Fifty-Sixty is dedicated to the memory of the late model Edie Sedgwick. For her fourth album she had another radical change in her musical style moving to a new genre of her career Pop Mainstream with strong rhythms compared to her previous three albums. Alizée has made it clear that continuous reinvention is a big part of her contribution to her music.

Influences

Alizée at the Point Ephémère in Paris in 2010.

Alizée points to Madonna as a major influence, and has said she would like to sing with her sometime. She also cites Whitney Houston as a big influence on her. Other major influences on her include her former artistic godmother Mylène Farmer, as well as French Chanson Hall masters Serge Gainsbourg and France Gall, American artist Andy Warhol, and her muse Edie Sedgwick. She has also mentioned that she loves Gwen Stefani's style and hair. Her musical influence includes Pop in all its forms, World Music, House Music, Mainstream and Hip-Hop.

Public Image

Though records have portrayed her with a "Sexy Lolita' image, Alizée had an immaculate public image as "the perfect teenager" during her teenage years, with a free, light and sexy style. For her second album, she maintained a similar style but with more electronic influences. Her hairstyle was usually a simple bob and her makeup was designed to highlight and enhance her natural beauty. After two years of silence, she returned with a third album, whose style was more "psychedelic", in her search for a new and broader audience. Alizée is known to be very fond of tattoos and in recent years she has gotten several new ones on her arms. Possibly the most famous of her tattoos is a large one of Tinkerbell on her back, which could be seen many times during her promotion for Psychédélices For her fourth album, her style radically changed, both musically and in regards to her image, with a more mature and more elaborate makeup, clothing and hairstyle. In the survey "The most attractive women in the world" In 2010 and 2011, by the French edition of FHM magazine, readers voted Alizée the second sexiest woman out of a selection of 100.

Actress

Alizée participated in a chapter of the series Nos cher voisines (Our Dear Neighbors). She has also mentioned on more than one occasion that she would like to be a theater or film actress but, as he is terrified of the cameras, this small performance has been the only one he has done so far throughout his career.

Alizée did the dubbing in Disney's Tinkerbell movie "Clochette et la créature légendaire" (literal translation: "Tinkerbell and the Legendary Creature"). The English version is titled 'Tinker Bell and the Legend of the Neverbeast'. on April 8, 2015, playing the fairy Nyx in said film

Legacy

Alizée in a show in Strasbourg in 2008.

Alizée became an international pop culture icon immediately after launching her music career.

NRJ referred to her as: "One of the most controversial singers of the XXI century who broke through in the world of music at the age of 17 with a worldwide success that makes her the "Europop Queen" spearheading the rise of post-millennial euro pop...", "Alizée cultivated a mix of sweet Lolita innocence and experience that made her break the bank". She is on the SACEM and SNEP list for having "The best-selling French album by a solo female artist in the last 20 years"; for his debut album Gourmandises which sold 700,000 copies in three months in France alone, almost 3 million in Europe and 4,250,000 worldwide in 2001 alone, making it the third best-selling French album of all time. times, second only to D' eux by Celine Dion and L'Autre... by Mylène Farmer.

She has the #31 best-selling single in French history for Moi... Lolita and two other singles topping the Top 100 French singles of the 2000s and the list of best-selling singles in the history of France, respectively. In 2002 the newspaper Le Figaro announced that Alizée's music was the top of French music in recent years, having won, thanks to in part to his already mentioned ex-mentors, more than 10.4 million euros.

The video of Mademoiselle Juliette released on November 19, 2007 is part of the 150 most important videos of the last 15 years in the Latin American region of the MTV channel. Alizée is best known for her most successful single to date 'Moi... Lolita', which was a worldwide sensation and made the singer a phenomenon and a national obsession in France, and is well known in general for her rapid rise to fame, and because she is described in the media as "The most famous of the Lolitas". When the phrases "Lo ou bien Lola" (Spanish: También vale Lola) and "Mon poisson rouge dans mon bain de mousse " ( Spanish : My golden fish in my foam bath), which appear in her lyrics, is a direct reference to her and her songs & # 34; Moi... Lolita & # 3. 4; and the sailor suit with a red fish on her pants from the live performances of her single 'J' en ai marre!'.

Alizée is definitely known for being the most successful French singer of recent times, since other important singers of the same generation, such as Jenifer, Lorie or Chimene Badi have not managed to find similar recognition outside the French-speaking markets.

Awards and nominations

Discography

Albums

• 2000: Gourmandises
• 2003: Mes courants électriques
• 2007: Psychedelices
• 2010: Une enfant du siècle
• 2013: 5
• 2014: Blonde