04/16/08
Text: Nik Mercer
France's 21st century don of the sleazy and soulful disco-infused jam is being scapegoated by the nation's government not for wearing skimpy underwear in his music videos or for displaying his rather bloated and hairy physique in a crude manner but for singing in English! The Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo-produced singer was chosen as France's entry for the Eurovision Song Contest, and while we Tellier fans may rejoice for such a triumph, certain French MPs couldn't be angrier.
"Jacques Myard, of the UMP party, has urged the company that runs most of France's TV networks to reconsider."
"Sebastien Tellier's entry, entitled Divine, combines both English and French lyrics with electro music. Mr Myard told the BBC that allowing an English song to represent France was a fiasco: 'The French language is the tool of a huge industry in terms of cultural influence and if we French give up our language, what do you think the others will say?'"
"Mr Myard, himself a fluent English speaker, said it was not appropriate that, in a European contest, France should 'monkey another's culture.'"
French Schmench, we're just happy to see Tellier's mug on the BBC. Hopefully he'll dazzle the rest of Europe with his bewildering, old-school charm.
