Advertisement

Why Carla Bruni swapped Italian for English

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
Why Carla Bruni swapped Italian for English
Carla Bruni performs in New York on June 13, 2017. Photo: Angela Weiss/AFP

Multilingual pop star Carla Bruni has spent most of her life speaking Italian and French – but English is the language she prefers to sing in.

Advertisement

In her native Italian, she explains, reading a simple menu sounds like poetry, but the words can be hard for non-natives to decipher.

French, her main professional language, is wonderful for writers but lacks tonality – "Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr!" she explains for emphasis, exaggerating the Gallic uvulars.

But English, in which the singer, model and former first lady of France recorded her latest album, is the language of rock'n'roll.

"It has a rhythm and it has a sort of tempo that Latin languages don't have," Bruni told AFP.

"English is a natural singing language."

French Touch, which comes out on Friday, consists entirely of covers, including Crazy by Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man, Miss You by The Rolling Stones and Enjoy Your Silence by Depeche Mode.

It is Bruni's second English album following 2006's No Promises, in which she adapted poetry. Bruni composes music on guitar but says she doesn't feel comfortable writing lyrics in English.

Bruni said she was not so much offering an alternative interpretation of The Stones or others as she was performing songs she loved.

"It has no logic and no reason," she said of her album with a laugh. "All of these covers were made with a lot of fun – but also with a lot of modesty."

Photo: Bertrand Langlois/AFP

Carla Bruni sits by her man, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Photo: Bertrand Langlois/AFP

More

Join the conversation in our comments section below. Share your own views and experience and if you have a question or suggestion for our journalists then email us at [email protected].
Please keep comments civil, constructive and on topic – and make sure to read our terms of use before getting involved.

Please log in to leave a comment.

See Also