Alizee

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Biography

Alizée Jacotey (; born 21 August 1984) is a French people|French singer, known professionally by her Christian name Alizée She was discovered by Mylène Farmer , following her winning performance in the talent show, Graines de Star , in 1999. While collaborating with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat , Alizée released two albums, both of which were hits inside and outside of France.

Alizée entered the music business in 2000. She has since released four studio albums, the first two of which were composed by Laurent Boutonnat and written by Mylène Farmer . Her first album was Gourmandises , which received RIAA certification|Platinum certification within three months of release. After its international launch in 2001, Gourmandises was a success both in France and abroad, earning Alizée the distinction of being the highest selling female French singer in 2001. The album featured her most successful single " Moi... Lolita " which reached number one in several countries in Europe and East Asia. Gourmandises was followed by a second studio album, Mes Courants Électriques , in 2003. Following its release, Alizée toured during the fall of 2003, performing in 43 concerts throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland. (Now offline. .)

Alizée married fellow French singer Jérémy Chatelain in late 2003. Following her marriage, she took a hiatus from singing before returning with a new album, Psychédélices , on 3 December 2007. Her fourth album titled Une Enfant Du Siècle was released on 29 March 2010.

In early 2011 she published her participation in a new album of Alain Chamfort and announced plans for a back to the roots studio album for spring 2012.

Biography

Early years

Also known by her nickname "Lili", Alizée started dancing early in her life, and by age four was already proficient. A year later, she was enrolled in Ajaccio's Ecole de Danse Monique Mufraggi dance school, and trained there until she was 15. In 1995, at the age of eleven, she won a coloring competition organized by the French airline Air Outre Mer . Her design won first prize and was reproduced on the cabin of one of the airline's aircraft. The aircraft was subsequently named after her, and Alizée won a trip to the Maldives for her efforts.

In 1999, she appeared on the TV talent show " Graines de Star ", broadcast on Métropole Télévision|Métropole 6 . She initially intended to sign up for the programme's dance contest, but that category was reserved for groups only. Alizée therefore joined the singing category instead, performing the song Ma Prière (a single released by Axelle Red in 1997). She went on to win the " Meilleure Graine " award for most promising young singing star of tomorrow.

Her winning performance was seen by veteran songwriters Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat , who were looking for a young, fresh voice to partake in their new project. They approached Alizée, and she was selected after studio auditions. The duo arranged her debut with a meticulously orchestrated launch, controlling her image and public appearances. In 2000, they produced her maiden album, Gourmandises which was a great success in France, Belgium, Germany, Mexico, and the United Kingdom. The first single was " Moi... Lolita ", which some say portrayed Alizée as a Lolita (term)|Lolita who was capable of "melting the hearts of the local male population". Others recognized her great variation in tone and artistic talent. Alizée won the M6 award in 2000. She returned with a follow up album, Mes Courants Électriques , in 2003. This second album was also quite successful, though not to the same extent as Gourmandises . It was followed up with a live album of her countrywide tour.

Personal life

Even though the albums have portrayed her in a sexy, Lolita fashion|Lolita -like image, Alizée had a "squeaky-clean public image as the perfect teenager" during her teens. Though described as a very shy and a reserved person, she likes performing in front of audiences. (Now offline. .) Although she is most famous as a singer, Alizée prefers dancing, and is quite proficient in classical dance, jazz , Italy style ballet , Tap dance|tap and flamenco .

Alizée is actively involved in charity work through Les Enfoirés , a group of French celebrities who organize fundraising concerts every year. The proceeds from these concerts go to Restaurants du Cœur|Les Restaurants du Coeur . The organization, set up by French comedian Coluche , helps feed the poor. Alizée participated in these concerts in 2001, 2002, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012.

Alizée married fellow French singer Jérémy Chatelain in late 2003, with whom she has a child, Annily.

In the 2010 'Sexiest Women in the World' poll, run by the French edition of FHM magazine ,. Fhmmagazine.fr. Retrieved on 2012-04-30. readers voted Alizée as the second sexiest woman.

Career

Alizée debuted in 2000 with the album Gourmandises . It went on to become a hit both in Europe and outside. The album reached top five in charts in France, Italy, Greece, Germany, Mexico, and others. It was followed up with a studio album in 2003, Mes Courants Électriques , and a live album Alizée En Concert in 2004.

She has sold nearly five million albums and singles around the globe. She has taken part in various stage shows and live performances throughout Europe, everywhere from France to Russia. She also starred in a Japanese commercial. More recently, she has been becoming just as popular in North America as she is in much of Europe; the latest concert tours together with earlier promotion leading to a very strong fan base, particularly in the United States and Mexico. She is also very popular in parts of Asia, especially India, China, Bangladesh and Japan.

Following her marriage in late 2003, Alizée took a hiatus from singing and avoided appearing in the media; her own official website went offline in the summer of 2005. She returned with a new television appearance on MTV France on 18 February 2006, and resumed media appearances in 2007 for the promotion of her third studio album, Psychédélices .

2000–2002: Gourmandises, Moi... Lolita and World Success

Alizée made her debut with the single " Moi... Lolita ", her most successful to date. It enjoyed success throughout most of Europe and parts of East Asia, reaching number one in several countries. The official music video showed Alizée as a village girl visiting a night-club. (Now offline. .) The song was later used in the UK trailer of the 2006 film, A Good Year , and was a part of the film's soundtrack.

The single was from her debut album, Gourmandises ("Delicacies"), released in 2000. The album, written by Farmer and composed by Boutonnat, sold over 788,000 copies in France – it reached RIAA certification|Platinum status in just three months. In 2001, the album was launched internationally and Alizée became the highest-selling female French singer ever. The album went on to sell over two million copies worldwide. Farmer and Boutonnat kept a tight rein how the album was marketed and controlled the image in which Alizée was portrayed. In the meantime, Alizée gave very few interviews, and even when she did, they did not stretch beyond 20& nbsp;minutes per journalist. Neither did she agree to any photoshoots.

Her second single " L'Alizé " (2000), also from the same album, followed soon after. It was also successful in hitting number one in France, and gained some success internationally. The video of the "sexily alliterative" song shows Alizée amidst soap bubbles against a pink backdrop singing about herself. The video was shot in a studio in Brussels , which had a 25 metre by 10 metre painted canvas to serve as the background, with real bubbles. This single was followed up with another single from the same album – the title song, " Gourmandises (song)|Gourmandises ". The video, which shows a group of young boys and girls out on a picnic, was shot in a day. The last single from this album was " Parler tout bas ", which deals with the theme of dreams and a loss of innocence. In France, "Parler tout bas" was the third single, then followed by the release of "Gourmandises".

2003–2004: Mes Courants Électriques, Alizée's First Tour

In 2003, Alizée returned with her second album Mes Courants Électriques ( My Electric Currents ). With the release of this album, she changed her image from a "Lolita" to that of a more toned-down teenager. This album was also written by Farmer and Boutonnat. While it had some success in and outside France, this second album, featuring English versions of four tracks, was not as well-received as her first one, Gourmandises . It sold 400,000 copies in France.

The first single from this albpxum, " J'en ai marre! " (also known as "Mon bain de mousse" in Japan) was released in 2003. The music video for this shows Alizée in a glass cage, singing while having water splashed on her. The plexiglass cage, 3 by 3& nbsp;meters in dimension, was constructed in a Parisian studio, and the shooting of the video took two days. An English-language version of this song, titled " I'm Fed Up! ", was also released, and featured similar visuals for the music video.

The other singles from this album were " J'ai pas vingt ans " and " À contre-courant ". Like "J'en ai marre!", "J'ai pas vingt ans", "Youpidou" and "Amélie m'a dit" also had English versions. The video for "J'ai pas vingt ans" ("I'm Not Twenty") resembles the ambience of a concert with Alizée dancing in the midst of several other dancers. "À contre-courant", the last single from this album, was shot in an abandoned coal factory.

Alizée En Concert '
Following the release of Mes Courants Électriques , Alizée went on a countrywide tour of France, along with a performance each in Belgium and Switzerland, during the second half of 2003. The tour started off with a performance on 26 August 2003 in Paris. It concluded with her performance on the eve of 17 January 2004 at the Le Zénith concert hall in Paris and had covered major cities including Lyon , Rouen , Lille , Grenoble and Dijon .

A live CD and DVD, titled Alizée En Concert , composed of selected performances from her tour, was launched a year later in the fall of 2004. The audio CD contained tracks, taken from her two studio albums. The DVD featured video footage of the same performances as on the CD, along with bonus footage of her rehearsals.

The compilation was re-released in early 2007 in Mexico by Universal Music Group|Universal Music as a CD+DVD release, following the featuring of the songs in local radio stations. With the re-release and renewed interest, the songs climbed up the music charts in the country. The album became a hit, peaking at number four in the International Chart on 28 May 2007, and number eight on the main albums chart. En concert has a Gold certification for shipments over 50,000 copies only in Mexico.

2007–2009: Psychédélices, the Return and the Latinamerica and Asia new success

After a four-year hiatus, a time spent out of the media limelight, Alizée returned in December 2007 with a new album, Psychédélices , the first one to be made without the creative supervision of her former mentor, Mylène Farmer. The album, which features 11 tracks, was made available for digital downloads 26 November 2007, with a full release on 3 December 2007 on the RCA Records|RCA label. The album includes collaborations with Bertrand Burgalat , Daniel Darc , Oxmo Puccino , Jérémy Chatelain , Michel-Yves Kochmann , and Jean Fauque .

The first single from the album was " Mademoiselle Juliette ", officially released on 30 September 2007. It was accidentally released early on the Virgin Megastores|Virgin Megastore website on 23 September 2007, but was taken down later citing an error on the part of Virgin Music, France. The single was later made available in online music stores as well as radio stations, and went on to capture the #13 spot on the legal music downloads charts. To promote the single, Alizée appeared on the French radio station, NRJ Radio|NRJ , on 27 September 2007. The video for the single was released for broadcast on 19 November 2007, though it was made available on List of MSN Services|MSN France on 16 November 2007. It was released on physical media, both CD and vinyl, on 21 January 2008.

Another track from the album, " Fifty-Sixty ", was leaked two months before the album was released. Though the song was not mentioned by name, the leak was confirmed in a press release which revealed the title and release schedule of the album. . "Fifty-Sixty" later launched as the second single from the album in February 2008. The lyrics to "Fifty-Sixty" tell, in personal and metaphorical manner, of a young model under the guidance of Andy Warhol , possibly inspired by real-life story of Edie Sedgwick . The song ends with a reiteration of how she foolishly believed Andy that she was the most beautiful model of all. Three music videos were released for the single – one for the album version of the song and the other two for two remixes. An Alizée website, Psychedeclips.com , has become a redirect page to the main site, (2011). was dedicated to the video series, the first of which was released on 5 May 2008.

Coinciding with the new album, a new official website was created, which, despite being announced on 11 September 2007, was kept under wraps until 28 November 2007. The album was also promoted via an official artist profile at MySpace. Advertising and marketing campaigns for the album began 22 November 2007 with ad campaigns on NRJ Radio, TF1 -TV, and the web.

In March 2008 Alizée visited Mexico for the first time in a short promotional tour. On 5 March she was supposed to hold the second-ever public autograph session of her career but it was cancelled due to problems with the store's security. Alizée held an improvised press conference to apologise to all her Mexican fans and to explain that it was not her fault. Sony BMG Mexico also released a statement saying it was not Alizée's fault, that it was the store who had problems with the security, and that they did not expect so many people in attendance; fences had been broken and kids were in danger. Alizée also promised to make amends by having another autograph session when she returned to the country on the following tour. She also stated that her tour would start on 18 May in Moscow, followed by concerts in Mexico and then France. She also commented that piracy in music has two sides "one good" and "one bad" saying that sometimes it's good because her music reaches places that she never thought to reach. After the success of Alizée's tour in Mexico and in an attempt to amend the damage caused during her first promotional visit, Alizée announced an autograph session with fans on 26 June 2008 in Mexico City , over 300 CDs were signed and the record label executives of Sony BMG Mexico presented a Gold certification for shipments over 50,000 copies of Psychédélices – Mexican Tour Edition . A new cover singing in Mexico was Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna's cover, " La Isla Bonita "; it has gone on to become Alizée's first top ten on the airplay chart.

Tout Alizée
Following the success of Alizée En Concert and Psychédélices in Mexico, Alizée's former music label, Universal Music Group|Universal Music released a compilation album, titled Tout Alizée . The compilation, which is a Mexico-only release, consists of 15 tracks (with 4 remix es) from her first two studio albums. It is augmented with a bonus DVD featuring some of her music videos. The compilation debuted to #62 on the AMPROFON|Mexican Top 100 Albums Chart and #20 on the Mexican International Top 20 Albums Chart.

2010-2011: Une Enfant du Siècle, new image and music style

In the beginning of 2009, Alizée had to cancel a concert in France. She announced then that she was already working on her future album, which would sound very different from all of her previous recordings. The album is called Une Enfant Du Siècle and it was released in France on 29 March 2010. A teaser can be shown on the Internet, called Une enfant du siècle ("A child of the century"). According to British website Popjustice , the first single is partially in English and it is called "Limelight". On 15 February 2010 they uploaded the full version of the song and a clip from the music video. The Special Collector Edition of the album was made available for pre-orders on 4 February 2010. However, it was later confirmed by Popjustice itself that "Limelight" was a teaser single, and the official single from Alizée's fourth album is "Les Collines (Never Leave You)".
Alizée while traveling to Israel to participate in the tribute to Serge Gainsbourg on 28 July of that year in Tel Aviv in which I play the single cover version of "Dis-lui Toi que Je t'aime" by Vanessa Paradis and do promotion of her fourth album who became in a success in that country being the number one in the Israeli charts for two weeks. The music video of the first single "Les Collines" was released on 19 March 2010 by Alizée's official YouTube channel, which then peaked as the daily most-viewed musician's channel worldwide.

2011-present: Fifth Studio Album, collaborations & Philanthropy

Alizée participated for the sixth time the Les Enfoirés show in "L'œil des Enfoirés" edition at the Arena in Montpellier. Alizée participated in the single "Des ricochets" with more than 44 artists, the title of the single lacing by the Collectif Paris-Africa group founded by UNICEF in the fight against malnutrition similar to " We Are the World " by USA for Africa . It is also part of the artists who recorded a duet with Alain Chamfort , the best of the latter, whose release of her collaboration single "Clara veut la lune" was released 29 April in 2012. During Alizée participated in several shows on French television. She announced a new album is scheduled for spring 2012, marking a return to roots music which will be released with the label of Sony Music Entertainment|Sony Music . Sony recently announced that the album will be delayed till the fall of 2012. From 1 to 6 February 2012, Alizée participated in Enfoirés with the new show "Le bal des Enfoirés" in the Halle Tony Garnier auditorium of Lyon , which sold out.

Artistry

Music and voice

Alizée possesses a mezzo-soprano vocal range, she started her musical career with songs that she described as "soulful pop music". In 2000 she erupted in the musical world, becoming an international sensation because she was the most successful female French singer in a long while. Alizée is known for blending Electronic sounds with Pop music|Pop , such as Psychedelic Pop and most recently, mainstream Euro Pop .

At the time of her debut, NRJ|NRJ Radio referred to her as "The Queen of Euro Pop is a French Lolita", in her debut album Alizée used Euro Pop with mellow sounds, World Music and the classic French Chanson .
The second album was primarily House (music)|house sounds, instrumentals and electronic sounds mixed with the sounds from her last album, The third album marked a change of style replacing her earlier styles with Psychedelic sounds and World Music with a very rhythmic music, the single Fifty-Sixty is dedicated to the memory of dead model Edie Sedgwick .
For her fourth album she had another radical change in musical style with a new genre for her career – Mainstream , with strong rhythms compared with her previous three albums, Alizée makes clear that the renewal is a big part of her contribution to music.

Influences

Alizée has named Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna a great influence, and said she wants to sing with her sometime. Alizée also cites Whitney Houston as a big influence; another big influence is her ex-artistical godmother, Mylene Farmer . She has also mentioned loving Gwen Stefani 's style and hair.
Her musical influence comprises Pop music|Pop in all of its forms, World Music , House Music , Mainstream and Hip-Hop .

Public image

Alizée, from the beginning, did have a free, light and very sensual style that captivated the world, up to a point where it even got her a World Music Award . On her second album she mostly kept the same style with even more electrical influences. She'd have her hair in capes and never wore too much make-up that characterized to have a natural and nate beauty.

After two years of silence, there she was again with a sweet psychedelic and classy album with her trying to captivate a new public in her career.
For her fourth album she changed her style radically both musically and regarding her image with a more mature performance, very fancy make-up, clothing and hair style. For the promotion of the album Alizée posed for a French magazine, Technikart , using the " Like a Virgin " style of her idol Madonna (entertainer)|Madonna .

Critical response

Name !! Year
M6 Music Award	2000
DMX Music Award	2001
NRJ Music Award	2001
World Music Award cite news	2002
SACEM Prix Vincent Scottocite web	2003
Lunas del Auditorio cite web

Despite the marketing hype and commercial success, there were mixed critical responses to the launch of Moi... Lolita , Alizée's first single. The critics felt that the similarity in style to that of Mylène Farmer was too striking. Some felt that her Lolita image overshadowed her singing prowess, describing her as "desperately trying to be sexy", and many were ready to write her off. Some of her songs have been described as "sweeping, atmospheric ballads" whose "melodies are so sparkling and beguiling", and from which Alizée manages to "squeeze more emotion than the usual pop package". Alizée's three albums include a wide range of songs, from catchy pop tunes to soulful ballads. Radio France Internationale featured Gourmandises as their CD of the week, stating:

Discography

Albums

Gourmandises (2000)

Mes Courants Électriques (2003)

Psychédélices (2007)

Une enfant du siècle (2010)

TBA (2012)

Tours

Alizée En Concert (2003-2004)

Psychedelices|Psychedelices World Tour (2008)

Collaborations

" Collectif_Paris-Africa_pour_L'unicef#Track_listing|Des ricochets " for album '' Collectif_Paris-Africa_pour_L'unicef|Collectif Paris-Africa pour L'unicef (2011) by Collectif Paris-Africa

" Elles_%26_Lui#Track_listing|Clara veut la lune " for album Elles_%26_Lui|Elles & Lui (2012) by Alain Chamfort

Filmography

Live Albums

* Alizée En Concert (2004)

* Psychédélices|Psychédélices (CD+DVD) (2008)

TV Shows

* Mimie Mathy|Amimicalement Show (2011) - France

* Serge Gainsbourg|Serge Gainsbourg Hommage (2010) - Israel

* Charles Aznavour|80, Bon Anniversaire Charles (2004) - France

* Top of the Pops (2003) - UK

* The Dome (television program)|The Dome (2002) - Germany

* Les Enfoirés (2000 - present) - France

* TV|Granies de Star (1999) - France

''Alizée has been appeared in a lot of TV shows around the world and even her music has been part of the soundtracks of movies, the tv shows who appeared in the list it's some principals who her was appeared.

Copyright Citations

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Alizee Photo by: www.tv5.org

Pop & Rock Music Artists

Alizee

Biography

Biography

Early years

Personal life

Career

2000–2002: Gourmandises, Moi... Lolita and World Success

2003–2004: Mes Courants Électriques, Alizée's First Tour

2007–2009: Psychédélices, the Return and the Latinamerica and Asia new success

2010-2011: Une Enfant du Siècle, new image and music style

2011-present: Fifth Studio Album, collaborations & Philanthropy

Artistry

Music and voice

Influences

Public image

Critical response

Discography

Albums

Tours

Collaborations

Filmography

See also

References

External links

Copyright Citations