Saturday 28 July 2012

La Negra

This is another of the posts that was mainly written by my sister.

La Negra's real name is Amparo Velasco. She's a gypsy from Elche Alicante in Spain. She records Jazz, Latin-Jazz, Tango, Brazilian and flamenco music. Her singing is slightly flat but the twist of tango and linguistic mix give La Negra the charm she needs.



 

Thursday 26 July 2012

Christophe Willem

I know that this is the longest time for which my blog has been abandoned. My apologies once again, it all started with exams, as there was so much revision to do for them but since the holidays started, I've been so busy with internships, a funeral and job applications. The paragraphs below were actually largely in part written by my sister in order to help me during the exams but I've only just got around to uploading these posts.

Lately, my listening has been branching out into all sorts of strange places thanks to the peculiarities of Youtube, which enjoys throwing wildcards my way and the French radio station, RFI Musique Monde . This is how I came across the quite wonderful french pop hit Double Je by Christophe Willem, a very catchy tune absolutely stuffed with puns that had me pushing repeat on a far too frequent basis.

Christophe Willem won the fourth series of Nouvelle Star, which is the French edition of Pop Idol. His interest in music began at a young age, when he learnt to play the piano. He developed this interest by joining a gospel choir, which could very well be the inspiration for his song, Double Je. He also demonstrated an interest in becoming a singer at the age of 14, when he began to compose songs. He enjoyed an incredible level of success in 2007, when Double Je became the number 1 hit in Belgium and France and he was listed as one of the top ten highest earning musicians in France. He joined the jury of the French equivalent of X Factor in 2010, so it is clear to see that he is a well respected musician.