Choose me by Maxime Le Forestier is aimed at a salad on the shelf but it comes back with each election – moreover, it came out in 1995, the year of the presidential election. And, today, we are almost 49 million French citizens registered on the electoral lists and therefore called upon to vote for the first round of the eleventh presidential election by universal suffrage.
“Choose, marry, such is the king’s good pleasure, choose, marry!”, such is the injunction of the choirs in Act II of the opera Cinderella by Jules Massenet. In this case, it is not the king who invites us to choose, but the Republic. And on this day of truth, the language of politics, the language of citizenship is not very far from that of love – the language of Sylvie Vartan, for example.
In the second episode of These songs that make the news airing this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Maxime Le Forestier Choose me1995
Ambrosian Opera Chorus (cond. John McCarthy), Choosein Act II of Cinderella by Jules Massenet, 1899 (1978 recording)
Sylvie Vartan, It’s necessary to choose1963
Eve, Why choose1963
Hash 5, Why choose2002
Emily Loizeau, I don’t know how to choose2005
Bali Murphy, I hesitate2008
Johnny Hallyday, The one you prefer1964
Eliane Embrun, I chose you1951
Paul Person, You choose2011
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Remember: during the summer of 2019, La Playlist de Françoise Hardy was a crossing of the musical baggage of an author, composer and performer considered as the arbiter of the elegance of pop in France.
In July and August 2017, we spent A Summer in Souchon, during which Alain Souchon guided us on a tasty walk through a lifetime of love for song.
All summer 2016, in the company of Vincent Delerm, we wandered around in La Playlist Amoureuse de la Chanson, truant exploration of popular heritage. You can also extend the delicacies of this summer chronicle with the French song lovers dictionary, co-published by Plon and franceinfo.