Grand Popo Football Club was a French

electronic music Electronic music is a genre of music that employs electronic musical instruments, digital instruments, or circuitry-based music technology in its creation. It includes both music made using electronic and electromechanical means ( electroac ...

group of a DJ

television presenter A television presenter (or television host, some become a "television personality") is a person who introduces, hosts television show, television programs, often serving as a mediator for the program and the audience. Nowadays, it is common for ...

chat show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Show ...

host and producer/ classically-trained pianist who studied at the National Conservatory in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

, respectively. The duo apparently adopted their unusual moniker after

Ariel Wizman Ariel Wizman (born 19 May 1962) is a French musician, DJ, journalist and actor born in Casablanca, Morocco.de Chamberet, Georgia (1999) ''XCiTés: The Flamingo Book of Fresh French Writing'', Flamingo, , p. 209 West Africa West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of Africa. The United Nations defines Western Africa as the 16 countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Maurit ...

n village of

Grand-Popo Grand-Popo is a town, arrondissement, and commune in the Mono Department of south-western Benin. The commune covers an area of 289 square kilometres and as at the 2013 Census had a population of 57,636 people. The term "Grand-Popo" is a European ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...

to film a television programme and decided that the community was missing a football club. After studying piano, composition, and electronic music,

Nicolas Errèra Nicolas Errèra (born 21 May 1967) is a French composer and musician working all over the world. Co-founder of innovatives electronics groups Grand Popo Football Club and Rouge Rouge, he also composes soundtracks for films and television. Earl ...

became involved in theatre and successfully directed short films (winning the Clermont-Ferrand prize in 1991, for his ''Going to Dieppe Without Seeing the Sea'') as well as becoming half of pop duo 2 Source. Wizman, meanwhile, DJed at Colombian parties in Paris. He became renowned for his show on Radio Nova that mixed easy listening, soundtracks, and electronic music. When the show transferred to television, Wizman brought in guests as disparate as

Johnny Rotten John Joseph Lydon (; born 31 January 1956), also known by his former stage name Johnny Rotten, is an English singer and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the late-1970s punk band the Sex Pistols, which lasted from 1975 until 1978, and agai ...

and German philosophers: fortuitously, his guests also included 2 Source, an invite that rekindled Wizman and Errera's previous friendship. GPFC's first recording appeared on the ''Source Lab 3'' compilation in 1996, but they did not release their debut, ''Shampoo Victims'', until 2000 (the album was re-released two years later). The duo's biggest hit was "Men Are Not Nice Guys", the English version of their 2001 song "Les hommes c'est pas des mecs bien", which charted in Australia and the UK. Together the duo creates Gallic pop that seems to revere and revile the music of peers such as

Daft Punk Daft Punk were a French electronic music duo formed in 1993 in Paris by Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo. Widely regarded as one of the most influential acts in dance music history, they achieved popularity in the late 1990s as p ...

Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

, and Cassius in equal measure. They dubbed a song that sounded curiously like the former "One More Song on the Market", while "Nothing to Say in a House Song" railed against the duo's perceived vacuousness in house music by (vacuously) repeating the title with no other lyrics. ''Shampoo Victims'' also included a duo of collaborations with friends/heroes Sparks. Russell and Ron Mael provide both lyrics and vocals on the album's tracks "La nuit est là" (''The Night Is Here'') and "Yo quiero mas dinero" (''I Want More Money''). As if to accentuate this fondness for '70s/'80s pop, the duo also sampled

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer, songwriter, and record producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering euro disco and electronic dance mu ...

's "Love Fever" on "Each Finger Has an Attitude". The group has not been active since 2010.

Discography

Albums

Singles

References