Carla Bruni on the cover of her second album, No Promises
Carla Bruni Tedeschi Sarkozy was born in Turin, Italy, on December 23rd, 1967. Her birth was the product of a six year affair between her mother, concert pianist Marisa Borini, and a young classical guitarist. However, legally, she is the daughter of her mother and classical composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi. Considering her parents' professions, Carla was most definitely exposed to music at an early age. She was taught guitar at age nine, an instrument that would remain close to her heart, and probably piano by her mother.
The heiress of her grandfather's tire company, CEAT, Carla was born into a comfortable lifestyle. She and family (which included her sister Valeria and her brother Virginio) moved to France in 1975 when dangerous Marxist-Leninist revolutionaries in the area threatened their safety. Carla grew up in France from age seven and then attended boarding school in Switzerland for high school. In 1985 she moved to Paris to study art and architecture, but left after two years to pursue a modeling career.
Carla in "Vogue"in the 1990s, with Linda Evangelista and Naomi Cambell.
Signing with City Models at age nineteen, Carla went on to model for Christian Dior, Givenchy, Sonia Rykiel, Karl Lagerfeld, Yves Saint-Laurent, Chanel, and Versace. By the 1990s, Carla was among the 20 highest-paid fashion models in the world. She dated rockers like Eric Clapton and Mick Jagger, who introduced her to the bohemian yet glitzy world of show business. In love, she quit the fashion world, and entered the music business.
Carla started out by sending her lyrics to singer-songwriter Julien Clerc, who was so impressed that he used them for six tracks on his 2000 album, Si j'étais elle. In return, he introduced her to his agent Bertrand de Labbey and producer Louis Bertignac. Together, they began to craft what would be Carla's debut album. Her love of guitar and breathy, sensual voice was exactly what Bertignac was looking for at the time. Carla, eager to perfect every aspect of the album, worked diligently with a voice teacher, while writing her own lyrics for the tracks.
Carla in a publicity shot for the release of "Quelqu'un m'a dit"
The lyrics of Carla's songs were almost always reflections from her personal life. One in particular, "Raphael" was inspired by a previous relationship with philosopher Raphael Enthoven. The song was lively and sweet, and was a favorite from the album. But in"Quelqu'un m'a dit" (Someone Told Me)--which would later be the title track of the album--the narrator is questioning whether a relationship was real love or not, yet still yearning for the other person, showed Carla's depth as a writer.
In 2002, Carla Bruni released Quelqu'un m'a dit, to Europe and Francophone countries. It debuted at number one on the French Album Chart, spending thirty-four non-consecutive weeks in the top ten, and also reached the top ten in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Chile. Clearly, Bruni had shown she was more than "just a pretty face". And while her album attracted her admirers in the fashion world, others who had never heard of her were still enthralled--and surprised--by her talent. As Charlie Gillett of the Observer said,
"If I had been sent a record by Liz Hurley or Kate Moss, would I even have listened? I doubt it. On the contrary, however, I found Carla's songs all the more remarkable and engaging now that I knew her background."
First Lady of France Carla Bruni-Sarkozy and President Nicolas Sarkozy
Though Carla's second and third albums, No Promises and Comme si de rien n'était (As If Nothing Had Happened) were more commercially successful, they were never-the-less inspired. No Promises contained songs with the poems of Emily Dickinson and William Butler Yeats, and many of the songs Comme si de rien n'était were allusions of the exciting and glamorous life Carla was living after becoming First Lady of France. Public interest in America grew in her music (and her fashion sense) after the election of her husband, Nicolas Sarkozy, in 2007. As First Lady, Carla has started the Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation which has become involved in numerous charities, helping to promote literacy, music, culture, and education.
Carla with Queen Elizabeth II, and with President and First Lady Obama.
What about your musician's sound do you like? How does it affect your mood? What does it remind you of?
To me, Carla Bruni's overall sound is the epitome of "French". It's classic and glamorous and a bit jazz-esque, but also sort of bohemian. She could be in a dimly lit cafe in Paris, in a fabulous evening gown and white gloves crooning into an old-fashioned microphone. Or, she could be a farmer's daughter living in the French countryside, strumming her guitar and singing out her window. Her breathy voice has the texture of silk, which reminds me of Norah Jones and Florence Welsh.
What does your musician sing about? What are some major themes or subjects of the songs?
Since Carla wrote her own lyrics, her songs were usually reactions to personal events in her own life. In "Raphael" she was wistfully and playfully remembering her real-life relationship with Raphael Enthoven. ("Quatre consonnes et trois voyelles / c'est le prénom de Raphaël," ***"Four consonants and three vowels / that's the first name of Raphaël) Then, in "Quelqu'un m'a dit" she was probably expressing her confusion and regret over their break-up. ("On me dit que nos vies ne valent pas grand chose, / Elles passent en un instant comme fanent les roses." ***"They tell me that our lives are not worth very much, / They pass in an instant as roses wilt."). Carla also wrote about childhood memories, the "isolation" of socialism, and the use of drugs in the music and fashion business.
Music:
The Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Foundation:
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