Thread: Looking for French-influenced tracks

I am auditioning to perform at an event where the theme is 'Folie de Nuit' i.e. 19th century French influenced.
I was just wondering if anyone knew of any artists who have been influenced by French culture, or indeed of any French artists.
I realise that is a VERY niche category, but if anyone has any help/ideas I would be very grateful!
Zoë

I'm not positive but Natacha Atlas is possibly a french artist. She is amazing!

Well, chunks of North Africa and also Lebanon have been quite a lot.

Ooh! I have one. let me go look!!

My brain jumped straight to Lili S'en Fout by Toufic Farroukh Feat. Yasmine Hamdam from Sahara Lounge. It's not a perfect match, but that tune to me matches the theme.

...

How about Lili Boniche, he sings in a mix of French and Arabic.

The soundtrack of "Amelie" is really nice. I've never listened to it with the idea of belly dancing to it, because that's just not my thing, but you might give it a listen.

Rai?

But that's modern.

19th century France? If you want the classical route, that would be Bizet...and [ame="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0010IGJM4/ref=sr_1_album_1_rd?ie=UTF8&child=B0010IGKQY&qid=1 266964852&sr=1-1"]Ganapati[/ame] has the bellydancer-ish take on some of the hit tunes!

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Amelie-From-Montmartre/dp/B001KRWOBU/ref=sr_shvl_album_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1266965558&sr=301-1]Amazon.com: Amelie From Montmartre: Yann Tiersen: MP3 Downloads[/ame]

ME artists singing in French was all the rage in the 60s and 70s. Ginni Gallan, Dalida, Joe Dassin, Adja Pekkan, Mike Brandt, Enrico Macias, Ozel Turkbas, Googoosh... More recent, I'm thinking Khaled (mostly known in French Canada for "Aisha"), Grace Deeb, Sofia Marikh.

That's all I can think of for now... HTH some?

I forget which song it is but Paris Combo has a couple of fun songs I've danced to.

Natacha Atlas has a couple ( at least) of French covers: Mon Amie La Rose & Ne Me Quite Pas. They are both v. pretty.

'Je veux danser' (I want to dance), by Nathacha Atlas.

Alot of music from the Maghreb has some french in it, but unless you know how to dance chaabi, or rai styles I wouldn't try anything traditional.

Some popular danceable modren rai;

Tellement je t'aime (Tellement nbrick) by Faudel and a few other songs by him

Some more recent Khaled songs, not the older stuff.

The Lebanese music artists tend to have a lot of french mixed into their music, try Rola Saad and Nancy Ajram.

Originally Posted by SamanthaFortunata

...
Some more recent Khaled songs, not the older stuff.

Look up "Alech Taadi" by Algerian performer Khaled. It was used in the cab chase scene of the movie "Fifth Element" directed by Luc Besson.

....

Zoe, what type of dancer are you?

And do you just want anything French or would you prefer the 19th century influence?

Aside from the classical I mentioned earlier, the dance halls were becoming popular around this time, so there's that...Beats Antique's album Collide might have something useful - or other music the Vaudevillian Tribals are using!

Another cute song is 'Je voudarit être un fauteil' by French-Maghrebi group Gnawa Diffusion.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4csQxmvCxNE]YouTube - Gnawa Diffusion Je voudrais etre un fauteuil "Ombre elle" clip original[/ame]

He is singing about about he would like to be chair in a women's hair salon.
And also a belt to hug her waist, and a comb to stroke her hair.

<object width="560" height="340"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4csQxmvCxNE&hl=en_US&fs=1&"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/4csQxmvCxNE&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="560" height="340"></embed></object>

well I'm not really sure I've been dancing long enough to define myself as one style or another, I've always done a mix of tribal, indian, cabaret, gypsy, so really anything goes.....
I'm not really sure either how much "19th century influenced" music there would be around, but if you have any ideas that would be great!
Zoe

Faudel is French, lives in Paris. I love his song "Dis-moi"... but definitely not 19th century - lol! That is definitely a challenge.

Like I said, a lot of the music being used now for neo-Tribal is vaudevillian ("Moulin Rouge-y") in nature (accordions, horns, plinky pianos, etc).

In that vein:
Roustabout: Beats Antique
Caterpillar: Beats Antique
Kitten Pig: Pentaphobe

You also didn't mention just how close to "bellydance" music you want it to be...

My favorites are:
Khaled - Aisha
Dalida - her whole Reve Orientale album
Amina - Le Dernier qui a Parle. Also Le Cercle Rouge but it's very sad
Faudel
Fairuz has many songs in French

19th century influenced music
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov - Sheherazade
Berlioz - Ballet music from Les Troyens:
Pas des Almees
Danses des Esclaves
Pas d'Esclaves Nubiennes

Weren't dancers on Bhuz recently using an Arabic violinist's take on a piece by 19th-century French compose Eric Satie? I think Anala was one, you might PM her. If PMs are working now, I'm not sure about that.

Cheb Mami is a good artist... sings in French and Arabic and does the Rai genre of music.

Dis Moi Pourquoi by Amina is a good one.

I also agree with Natacha Atlas... she's got some good French songs.

[QUOTE=SamanthaFortunata;613590]Another cute song is 'Je voudarit être un fauteil' by French-Maghrebi group Gnawa Diffusion.

[YT clip snipped]

He is singing about about he would like to be chair in a women's hair salon.
And also a belt to hug her waist, and a comb to stroke her hair.

I did a translation for this:
Béatrice Curtis - Egyptian Dance - Resources

Not sure how helpful this will be since it's a modern french group but Paris Combo has a song entitled Istanbul... might work.

There is a GREAT version of "Gnossienne" on a Claude Chalhoub album.

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Claude-Chalhoub/dp/B000059ZI7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1267115944&sr=8-1-spell]Amazon.com: Claude Chalhoub: Claude Chalhoub: Music[/ame]

Don't listen to the samples on the Amazon site though because they are wrong. If you need me to I can upload a 30sec sample for your to listen to to see if it is worth buying the album...

Found "Gnossienne" by Claude Chalhoub on Youtube, or at least 1:34 of it. It's very beautiful, maybe for a veil dance or slow introspective piece, but not the usual "belly dance" kind of music:

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfSk-4bXOOc]YouTube - Southern Dogface Butterfly Morning Brew[/ame]

I've noticed that Algerian, Moroccan and Tunisian artists sometimes drop some French into their lyrics.