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Female Vocal

Translation of Si J’avais Su by Jalane

September 8, 2009

You know me – if I had my way I would just write blog entries about La Ruda and Mademoiselle K. But tonight I only have about an hour to write this entry so I have chosen a song which is very simple lyrically but contains some common, useful French phrases. The sort of phrases [...]

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Translation of Ça Sent L’été by Mademoiselle K

June 30, 2009

It’s baking here in London – I’ve just been driving with my elbow out the window (I opened it first) and with this song belting out as I got home and figured that was a good a reason as any to choose it as the next translation. And happily the title is Ca Sent L’été which means “feels like summer” – too hot if you ask me, but then I’m British.

You’ll learn some good vocabulary here on the subject of stuffing your face with food…

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Translation of C’est pas toi qui m’auras by Pauline

June 1, 2009

Sorry for the long absence – I’ve been in France for a week watching some tennis.

Here is another track from Pauline’s Allô le monde. C’est pas toi qui m’auras might be translated as “You’re not going to have me” – with the emphasis on the “You’re” to mean something like “not you mate” but in French they don’t really use emphasis like this.

In English we might say “In the end, I did it”, if we were trying to point out that there were other people who may have done it instead. In French to create the emphasis on the “I” you would say “Enfin, c’était moi qui l’ai fait” as opposed to placing the emphasis on the “je” in “Enfin, je l’ai fait“.

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Translation of Le Petit Caillou by Amélie Les Crayons

May 19, 2009

Here’s a slow, melodic song about a pebble, a little reminiscent of Thomas Fersen’s La chauve-souris. Nothing too clever or tricky in the lyrics but quite a lot of good vocabulary that may be new.

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Translation of Allô le monde by Pauline

May 4, 2009

This is the title track from the Pauline’s debut album Allô le monde. Pauline (Pauline Vasseur) is a young, classical trained pianist from Lens in France.

Quite unlike the previous post, this is a quite a straightforward translation.

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Translation of On Savait (Devenir Grand) by La Grande Sophie

April 20, 2009

I caught an interview with La Grande Sophie on TV5 Monde last night (Sky Channel 799 in the UK) on a show called Acoustic where she was talking about her latest release La grande Sophie en acoustique toute seule comme une grande. This song, On savait (devenir grand) “We knew (to grow up)” is from the 2003 album Et si c’était moi “And if it were me”.

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Translation of Pendant que les champs brulent by Niagara

April 14, 2009

Niagara were quite a poppy band in the 80s but their last two albums Religion and La Vérité had something of a harder edge. This track J’ai vu “I saw” is from the 1990 album, Religion.

I’ve been listening to both albums for free on Spotify – go and get it if you haven’t already.

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Translation of Assis par terre by Louisy Joseph

April 4, 2009

This a great sounding song, more so if your sub-woofer can do it justice. La saison des amours is Louisy Joseph’s debut album, released in 2008. And it’s a cracker. I generally don’t fall for this genre of music, but here is one of the exceptions.

The last three translations have been slightly off track in terms of what I would normally be posting here – we’ve wandering into the past and into the theatre, but the next few posts will see us back in the mainstream of French rock and pop.

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Translation of Ella, elle l’a by France Gall

April 1, 2009

This is a very famous song from the 80s – not particularly up my street but will be nostalgic for some. Ella, elle l’a “Ella, she has it” was performed by France Gall and written by her husband, Michel Berger, as a tribute to Ella Fitzgerald. Michel Berger also wrote the music for Starmania in which France Gall starred. I’ll be posting the translation of another song from Starmania – the song Belle, shortly.

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Translation of Ça ma vexe by Mademoiselle K

March 30, 2009

The second female vocalist right on the heels of the first This is the title song from the album Ça ma vexe. If anyone has any idea what the singer means by les soirées watchi watcha then please let me know.

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