Every day in the summer we talk about a great love song. Friday, July 7, the meeting with a beautiful woman from the West Indies, David Martial’s first hit in French.
If dancing is loving, France loved Célimène. Not by the coquette with whom Alceste falls in love in The Misanthrope by Molière, but this Célimène who makes David Martial sing: “I’m swimming in the middle of madness / This madness is life / Since I love her madly / And she’s as beautiful as life”. At that time, it was necessary to help the French public to hear tropical music. We are not yet at Kassav’ or Ceseria Evora who, later, will conquer Europe without changing anything in their music or the language in which they express themselves. David Martial, he started like that.
In this episode of These songs that make the summeryou hear excerpts from:
David Martial, Celimene, 1975
David Martial, Paris-the West Indies, 1963
David Martial, Ernestine, 1972
Raoul de Godewarsvelde, The Little Tonkinoise, 1906 (1968 recording)
Serge Gainsbourg, Sea, Sex and Sun, 1978
David Martial, Celimene, 1975
David Martial, Celimene, 1975
Serge Gainsbourg, Caouette Friend, 1975
Maxime Le Forestier Born somewhere, 1988
David Martial, Celimene, 1975
You can also follow the news of this column on Twitter.
And you can also find on this link the podcast Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.