Carla Bruni performs at Nelson Mandela birthday concert

Posted by lena on Jul 19, 2009 in News | 0 comments

Carla Bruni may be the First Lady of France, but she had no chance of becoming the First Diva at Saturday’s exuberant Nelson Mandela birthday concert in New York.
Bruni’s first public performance since marrying French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who was in the audience, put her on stage at Radio City Music Hall along with the original “Queen of Disco” Gloria Gaynor, “Queen of Soul” Aretha Franklin and rapper Queen Latifah, not to mention Alicia Keys, Lil Kim, and Cyndia Lauper and male acts will.i.am, Wyclef Jean, Josh Groban, Jesse McCartney, and Stevie Wonder.
The “Queen of Disco”, in a full-length pink dress, kicked off the tribute to Mandela’s 91st birthday with her 1978 classic I Will Survive, which is impossible to hear without leaping from your seat and pointing your fingers over your head. The “Queen of Soul”, her more-than-ample bosom bedecked in spangling crystals, wowed the crowd with her virtuoso arpeggios. Queen Latifah, stomping the stage, introduced her mother and announced: “She taught me all woman are Queens, and should be treated as such.” It was undoubtedly brave for Bruni to line up with such music royalty. Whoopi Goldberg, acting as master of ceremonies, said there were “more stars than you ever saw in astronomy class.” Bruni is said to have broken her vow not to perform while her husband is in office because the concert benefitted Mandela’s charity 46664, which works on AIDS, the disease that killed her brother.
Bruni’s performance, however, was pretty but bloodless and immobile – rather like her face. Dressed in a swish black trouser suit and strumming her guitar, she looked like a ‘soixante-huitard’ hipster. She sang two duets with her collaborator Dave Stewart, formerly Annie Lennox’s partner in The Eurythmics. The first was Bruni’s most popular song, Quelqu’un m’a dit, (Someone told me), a folksy ballad with unmistakably existentialist lyrics. The second was the Sixties’ anthem Blowin’ in the Wind, written by Bob Dylan.
Although it was a unprecedented for a First Lady of a great power to sing at a pop concert, France appears to have developed etiquette for the event. Bruni did not hug – much less kiss – her collaborator, either before or after their set, and barely swayed as she performed her songs. Her husband, sitting half-way back in the glorious golden clam-shell that is Radio City Music Hall, clapped but did not budge from his seat when others rose to their feet. As soon as she finished her performance, the couple left to catch a plane for France – drawing several previously unidentified Secret Service agents out of surrounding seats. Her early departure meant she missed the grand finale when all the artists danced rapturously together as Stevie Wonder sang Happy Birthday To You.
Stewart, who has been writing still-unpublished songs to Bruni’s French lyrics in recent years, has compared her voice to Dylan’s – apparently a compliment. Where Dylan has a whiny edge, however, Bruni’s rasping is more like pillow talk. “Quelqu’un m’a dit” is an endearing solo in her breathy, feminine tones. But it left Stewart with little role but to ooh and aah in French during the chorus. It was hardly a duet.
Their choice of Blowin’ in the Wind was problematic for other reasons. It seemed ironic – or an exercise in Radical Chic – to hear the famous protest song sung by a ex-Italian supermodel and heiress who is the wife of a conservative president (remembering she also fled the Red Brigades as a child ‘en plus’.) Next to the unbridled passion of the African and African-American performers, Bruni’s rendition seemed insipid – at least until Stewart amped up his electric guitar at the end. The pair got a standing ovation from the politically-charged audience, however, for the lines: “How many years can some people exist/Before they’re allowed to be free?
“I think she is delightful. She has got that soft-side to her, her eyes. Now that I know she can sing, I like her better,” said Hassan, a Washington photographer in the audience who goes by a single name. “Don’t ask me though what I think of Sarkozy.”
Stewart has said that he and Bruni may soon release the songs they have co-written. Bruni told The Times, however, that they were still not finished. She bridled at a question about whether she planned to restart her musical career, which has been on hold since she married Sarko. “I never stopped my music career,” she said.
source: timesonline.co.uk