PIAF to POP Christine Bovill Queen's Hall Edinburgh 10th August 2023 Review
Piaf to Pop, the new show from Christine Bovill at the Queen’s Hall Edinburgh tonight, could be considered a follow up to her award winning show “Paris”. Many of us who have followed Christine’s homages to the great singers of “Chansons Française“ and in particular Edith Piaf, will however see this show as the latest part of a journey exploring the wonderful history of French songs from the 1920s/1930s onwards that Christine has taken us all on over the years in her own unique vocal and presentation performance style.
This show covers a period of roughly 10 years of music from the late 1950s to the late 1960s and how the birth of rock’n’roll in the USA and to some extent Britain influenced forever not only French music but French youth-culture.
As Jennifer Redmond (piano) and Charlie Stewart (violin, but also playing double-bass later) introduce Christine Bovill to the stage with the opening bars of "La Vie en rose", we are obviously starting this show in classic French chanson style and that opens up the door for these wonderful songs which were like little three minute operas full of wonderful stories, wonderful characters and no subject matter off limits.
More importantly these were songs that were musically written for the very phrasing, the very sound of the French language itself. The introduction of this new music taking English lyrics and translating them to French meant now that the music and the words/language were often no longer in perfect harmony, in perfect synchronisation with one another and this troubled many people. Still to the youth of France it was a breath of fresh air, almost a counter-culture sign of rebellion and for many, leading this French rock’n’roll movement was iconic singer Johnny Hallyday. If Elvis, Gene Vincent or many of the other rock n roll stars of the day had a huge hit with a song, the chances were high that Johnny Hallyday would sing a French language cover of it and have a huge success with it too.
It is this transition period of songs known collectively as “le yé-yé” that this show is really about. Many people associate the terms with the Beatles and “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, but the movement had its origins a little earlier than this in a 1959 radio programme called “Salut les copains” (loosely translated as "hello mates" or "hello pals") and the music it played (and the later magazine) had a huge influence on the youth market it targeted with this new music. The radio show and the magazine could make almost instant stars of new French singers and up and coming young girl vocalists in particular.
In her own classic style, Christine Bovill, singing in a mixture of French and English, gives us a taste of this movement with some of the most popular singers and songs of the time. The early 1960s French pop-charts belonged to Claude Francois, Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, France Gall (and many more), but the most iconic French singer of them all, Edith Piaf, firmly refused to become part of this movement, in fact pretty much ignored it completely up until her death in 1963.
It was good to see Christine Bovill step outside of classic “Chansons Française“ here with her own take on "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (France Gall) and Françoise Hardy’s English language hit “All Over The World” and many more. This period also saw the unexpected rise of not only a true French pop-star but also one of the great songwriters of his generation, Serge Gainsbourg.
Of course, no Christine Bovill show is complete without homage to some of the great singers and songwriters of classic “Chansons Française“ – Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Becaud, Charles Aznavour, Michel Legrand and of course no Christine Bovill show would be complete without her always wonderful performance of the now iconic Charles Dumont song for Edith Piaf, “Non, je ne regrette rien”.
Christine Bovill also has a new show at this year’s Fringe –Kiki Deathbed Cabaret. This show based on iconic French singer, actress, model (the one in the classic Man Ray photograph Le Violon d'Ingres) and painter is on at The Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Chambers Street) 21 to 27 August.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This show covers a period of roughly 10 years of music from the late 1950s to the late 1960s and how the birth of rock’n’roll in the USA and to some extent Britain influenced forever not only French music but French youth-culture.
As Jennifer Redmond (piano) and Charlie Stewart (violin, but also playing double-bass later) introduce Christine Bovill to the stage with the opening bars of "La Vie en rose", we are obviously starting this show in classic French chanson style and that opens up the door for these wonderful songs which were like little three minute operas full of wonderful stories, wonderful characters and no subject matter off limits.
More importantly these were songs that were musically written for the very phrasing, the very sound of the French language itself. The introduction of this new music taking English lyrics and translating them to French meant now that the music and the words/language were often no longer in perfect harmony, in perfect synchronisation with one another and this troubled many people. Still to the youth of France it was a breath of fresh air, almost a counter-culture sign of rebellion and for many, leading this French rock’n’roll movement was iconic singer Johnny Hallyday. If Elvis, Gene Vincent or many of the other rock n roll stars of the day had a huge hit with a song, the chances were high that Johnny Hallyday would sing a French language cover of it and have a huge success with it too.
It is this transition period of songs known collectively as “le yé-yé” that this show is really about. Many people associate the terms with the Beatles and “Yeah Yeah Yeah”, but the movement had its origins a little earlier than this in a 1959 radio programme called “Salut les copains” (loosely translated as "hello mates" or "hello pals") and the music it played (and the later magazine) had a huge influence on the youth market it targeted with this new music. The radio show and the magazine could make almost instant stars of new French singers and up and coming young girl vocalists in particular.
In her own classic style, Christine Bovill, singing in a mixture of French and English, gives us a taste of this movement with some of the most popular singers and songs of the time. The early 1960s French pop-charts belonged to Claude Francois, Johnny Hallyday, Sylvie Vartan, Françoise Hardy, France Gall (and many more), but the most iconic French singer of them all, Edith Piaf, firmly refused to become part of this movement, in fact pretty much ignored it completely up until her death in 1963.
It was good to see Christine Bovill step outside of classic “Chansons Française“ here with her own take on "Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (France Gall) and Françoise Hardy’s English language hit “All Over The World” and many more. This period also saw the unexpected rise of not only a true French pop-star but also one of the great songwriters of his generation, Serge Gainsbourg.
Of course, no Christine Bovill show is complete without homage to some of the great singers and songwriters of classic “Chansons Française“ – Charles Trenet, Jacques Brel, Gilbert Becaud, Charles Aznavour, Michel Legrand and of course no Christine Bovill show would be complete without her always wonderful performance of the now iconic Charles Dumont song for Edith Piaf, “Non, je ne regrette rien”.
Christine Bovill also has a new show at this year’s Fringe –Kiki Deathbed Cabaret. This show based on iconic French singer, actress, model (the one in the classic Man Ray photograph Le Violon d'Ingres) and painter is on at The Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose (Chambers Street) 21 to 27 August.
Review by Tom King © 2023
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com