Biography,Early years,Personal life,Career,Concert

Birth name Alizée Jacotey
Born August 21, 1984 (1984-08-21) (age 23)
Origin Ajaccio, Corsica, France
Genre(s) World, Pop, Electro-Pop, Rock
Occupation(s) Singer
Years active 1999-present
Label(s) Polydor (2000-2007)
RCA Records (2007-present), subsidiary of Sony BMG



Alizée Jacotey (IPA: [a.li.ze]) (born August 21, 1984) is a French singer. Born in Ajaccio, Corsica, she goes by the stage name Alizée — the feminine form of alizé, the trade wind.[1] She was discovered by Mylène Farmer, a successful Quebec-born French singer, following her winning performance in the talent show, Graines de Star,[2] in 1999. While collaborating with Mylène Farmer and Laurent Boutonnat, Alizée came up with two albums — both of which were hits inside and outside of France. Alizée is considered the protégée of Mylène Farmer.

Alizée entered the music business in the year 2000. Since then, she has released two studio albums, composed by Laurent Boutonnat and written by Mylène Farmer. Her first album was Gourmandises, which received Platinum certification within three months of release. Gourmandises was a success both in France and abroad — after it had its international launch in 2001 — earning Alizée the distinction of being the highest selling female French singer in 2001.[3] The album featured her most successful single "Moi... Lolita" which reached number one in several countries in Europe and East Asia. The marketing campaign around the single affixed Alizée's image as that of a seductive lolita. Gourmandises was followed by a second studio album, Mes Courants Électriques in 2003, which was also quite successful, though not as big a hit as Alizée's debut album. Following its release, Alizée toured France during the fall of 2003, performing in 43 concerts throughout France, along with Belgium and Switzerland.[4]

Alizée married fellow French singer Jérémy Châtelain in late 2003. Since her marriage she has taken a break from singing, but is returning with a new album, titled Psychédélices on December 3, 2007.[5]
Biography

Early years
Also known by her nickname Lili, Alizée started dancing early in her life.[6] By the age of four, she became quite proficient in it. A year later, she enrolled herself in Corsica's renowned dance school, Ecole du Spectacle de Monique Mufraggi, and received her training there until she was 15.[7] In 1995, at the age of eleven, she won a coloring competition organized by Air Outre Mer, a former French airline now partly acquired by Swissair. 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 for her efforts, Alizée won a trip to the Maldives.

In 1999, she appeared on the TV talent show "Graines de Star", broadcast on Métropole 6.[2] She initially intended to sign up for the programme's dance contest. However, the dance category was reserved for groups only. Alizée therefore participated in the singing category instead, performing the song Ma Prière. She went on to win the "Meilleure Graine" award for most promising young singing star of tomorrow.

Her winning performance was seen by veteran Canadian-born French pop diva 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 architected 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. The first single was Moi... Lolita, which set the tone of the album, portrayed Alizée as a Lolita who was capable of "melting the hearts of the local male population".[3] 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-like image, Alizée had a "squeaky-clean public image as the perfect teenager" during her teens.[3] Though described as a very shy and a reserved person, she likes performing in front of audiences.[8] Although she has a singing career, Alizée prefers dancing,[8] and is quite proficient in classical dance, jazz, ballet, tap and flamenco.[9] Alizée also likes football.[10] She is a supporter of AC Ajaccio (Corsica), and was once invited to kick off one of their matches.

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

Alizée married fellow French singer Jérémy Châtelain, whom she met at the Eurobest awards function in 2003. They were married on November 6, 2003 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA. The couple had their first child on April 29, 2005 — a girl they named Anny-Lee (Annily). She currently resides in Paris, France.

CareerAlizée debuted in the year 2000 with the album Gourmandises. It went on to become a hit both in Europe and outside. It was followed up with a studio album in 2003, Mes Courants Électriques, and a live album — Alizée En Concert — in 2004.

Alizée has sold more than five million albums throughout Europe. She has taken part in various stage shows and live performances throughout Europe and Russia. She has also starred in a Japanese commercial. Though not nearly as popular in North America as she is in much of Europe, Alizée's dance from "J'en Ai Marre" was the influence for the Night Elf female dance in Blizzard Entertainment's best-selling game World of Warcraft.[11] A search engine website, Alizée Search,[12] was set up in 2006 which only indexes pages that contains the term "Alizée Jacotey".

Following her marriage in late 2003, Alizée had taken a hiatus from singing and had avoided appearing in the media since, with her older official site being offline since summer of 2005. Her first television appearance since then was on MTV France on February 18, 2006. She resumed media appearances in the second half of 2007 for promotion of her third studio album, Psychédélices.


Gourmandises
Main article: Gourmandises

Gourmandises album cover. Sample: Moi... Lolita


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. Indeed, Alizée's image was that of a seductive Lolita character, referring to the novel by Vladimir Nabokov. The video for the single, which incidentally was the first to be filmed on her, showed Alizée as a village girl visiting a night-club.[13] 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", which translates to "Delicacies" in English.[14] The album, written by Farmer and composed by Boutonnat, sold over 1,300,000 copies in France. It went Platinum in just three months. In 2001, the album, most of whose songs featured "risqué lyrics", was launched internationally, and she became the highest-selling female French singer in 2001.[3][15] The album went on to sell over 4 million copies worldwide.[16] Farmer and Boutonnat kept a tight rein how the album was marketed and controlled the image in which Alizée was portrayed. In the mean time, Alizée gave very few interviews, and even when she did, they did not stretch beyond 20 minutes per journalist. Neither did she agree to any photoshoots.[3]

Her second single L'Alizé, 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"[3] 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.[13] This single was followed up with another single from the same album - the title song, Gourmandises. The video, which shows a group of young boys and girls out on a picnic, was shot in a day.[13] The last single from this album was Parler Tout Bas, which deals with the theme of dreams and a loss of innocence.


Mes Courants Électriques
Main article: Mes Courants Électriques

Mes Courants Électriques album cover. Sample: J'ai pas vingt ans


In 2003, Alizée returned with her second album "Mes Courants Électriques", or "My Electric Currents" in English translation.[17] 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 over 400,000 copies in France.

The first single from this album, 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 meters in dimension, was constructed in a Parisian studio, and the shooting of the video took two days.[13] An English-language version of this song, titled I'm Fed Up, was also released, and featured almost 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 also had an English version. The video for this song resembles the ambience of a concert with Alizée dancing in the midst of several other dancers.[13] À Contre-courant, the last single from this album, was shot in an abandoned coal factory.[13] Unlike the other two singles, there was no English-language rendition of this song.


Alizée En Concert
Main article: Alizée En Concert

Alizée En Concert album cover.Following the release of her second studio album, 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 the year 2003. The tour started off with a performance on August 26, 2003 in Paris, France.[4][18] It concluded with her performance on the eve of January 17, 2004 at the Le Zénith concert hall in Paris and had covered major cities including Lyon, Rouen, Lille, Grenoble and Dijon, among others.[4]

A live CD and DVD, titled "Alizée En Concert" — comprising of selected performances from her tour — was launched a year later in the fall of 2004.[19] 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 as a CD+DVD release,[20] 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 May 28, 2007,[21] and number eight on the main albums chart.[22]


Future
This article contains information about a scheduled or expected future album.
The content may change as the album release approaches and more information becomes available.

Main article: Psychédélices
Since Alizée took a break from the music business, there was no confirmed official word regarding her comeback for almost 3 years. Her official site has been down since the summer of 2005. Since then, many rumors had surfaced, many of which eventually turned out to be false.

After almost two years of fan speculation, on April 3, 2006, a handwritten message, signed Alizée, was received by the webmaster of the fansite Le Nid d'Alizée, stating that she is working on the third album. Translated into English the message is as below.[23]

“ Hello everyone!

Just want to let you know that I am currently in the studio...
The new songs are great!!
Kisses and I'll see you very soon!
I promise

Alizée 31 March 2006
”

On July 7, 2006, the show Le JT de la musique on French TV channel "Europe 2 TV" reported that Alizée has separated from her former producer and song writer Mylène Farmer and is now working on her third album. It was also reported that the lyrics of the new album are being penned by Jean Faulques. Her husband, Jérémy Châtelain, is also associated with the album. He has since confirmed this information in an interview.[24]

In September 2007, it was known that Alizeé had left Polydor to sign a record deal with RCA Records/Sony BMG.[25][26] On 2007-09-11, via a press release,[26] it was announced that the new single, which will be released in October and debut on radio stations the last week of September, is called Mademoiselle Juliette, and not 50/60 (Fifty-Sixty) as it has been rumored. Alizée appeared on French radio station NRJ on September 27, 2007 to promote the new single.[27][28] and had been rumored to return to television exposure on October 23, 2007 for the show Star Academy, but it was later learned that she would appear on the reality show December 7th, to promote her new album, which would release 4 days prior to.[5] The single was made available in the online French music store of Virgin Megastores on September 23, 2007.[29] However, it was hastily removed, a few hours later, and was reported to be a mistake on Virgin's behalf. It was officially released on September 30, 2007 and ranked number 13 on the online music sales chart.[5][30] The video of the first single will be released one month later. Her third album, titled Psychédélices, was first revealed to be released on November 26, 2007.[27][28] but was pushed back to December 3, 2007.[30][5] A new official site is being created for the purpose. A copy of the press release was made available on that site as well.[31]


Critical response
Awards Name Year
M6 Music Award[15] 2001
DMX Music Award[32] 2001
NRJ Music Award[15] 2001
World Music Award[33] 2002
SACEM Prix Vincent Scotto[34] 2003
Despite 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—described as "desperately trying to be sexy", and many were ready to write her off.[35] Still, to others Alizée appealed because of her deep voice, and her ability to "demonstrate her impressive vocal range", a trait for which she is often praised.[36] Some of her songs have been described as "sweeping, atmospheric ballads" whose "melodies are so sparkling and beguiling", and into which Alizée manages to "squeeze more emotion than the usual pop package".[37][38] Alizée's two 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 "The ten songs on Alizée's debut album, Gourmandises (Goodies), have all been expertly manufactured by the Farmer hit-machine. Sweet syrupy pop ditties are wrapped in silky synths, violins and catchy techno beats and judging by the success of Alizée's sexily alliterative second single, L’Alizé, the Farmer team have hit upon a winning formula."[3]