"Lonely Lisa" is a
2010
File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...
song recorded by French singer-songwriter
Mylène Farmer
Mylène Jeanne Gautier (; born 12 September 1961), known professionally as Mylène Farmer (), is a Canadian-born French singer, songwriter, occasional actress, writer, and entrepreneur. Having sold more than 30 million records in France, she is ...
. It is the third
single
Single may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Single (music), a song release
Songs
* "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004
* "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008
* "Single" (William Wei song), 2016
* "Single", by ...
from her 2010 eighth album ''
Bleu Noir'' and was released digitally on 16 May 2011, then it was released physically on 4 July. As "Oui mais... non", the lead single from the album, The lyrics were written by Farmer with the music composed by
RedOne. The song title comes from a female character created by Farmer which was already used in her 2002 music video for "C'est une belle journée" and served as trademark for one of her commercial companies. Musically, the song has electro and dance sonorities. It was generally praised in the media and reached number-one on the French Singles Chart.
Background and composition
Originally, the character of Lonely Lisa was a drawing created by Farmer. In 2002, it was used to illustrate the music video for "
C'est une belle journée
"C'est une belle journée" (English: "It's a Beautiful Day") is a 2001 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was the second single from her best of ''Les Mots (album), Les Mots'' and was released on 16 April 2002. The song ...
", then served as trademark registered by Farmer on 15 June 2007 to promote goods derivatived from her tale ''Lisa-Loup et le conteur''. In 2008, Farmer started the website lonelylisa.com on which visitors can leave their artistic works — photographs, paintings, drawings... — inspired by the character of Lonely Lisa.
Unlike most of the tracks of the album ''Bleu Noir'', "Lonely Lisa" is an electro-oriented song. Some lyrics seem to be inspired by
Aristotle
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...
and
Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy (; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was a French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual a ...
's ''Poèmes en prose''.
Release and remixes
In late April 2011, while the single "Bleu Noir" was just debuting on the chart, "Lonely Lisa" was officially announced as the next single from the album. A promotional CD was sent to radio stations on 2 May. The cover of the promotional single used a photograph by Hervé Lewis who had already produced the CD cover for "Oui mais... non", and shows Farmer displaying disheveled hair and dressed as a teenager.
As noted by Jonathan Homard of Charts In France, the new version on the promotional CD was "embellished with new arrangements, particularly the bridge, enriching it with dance sounds to make more radio-playable than it already was". This version premiered on NRJ radio on 7 May, at 9.10 a.m. On 16 May, the album version was officially released digitally on the legal platforms of downloads, including
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
,
Virgin Megastores
Virgin Megastores is an international entertainment retailing chain, founded in early 1976 by Richard Branson as a record shop on London's Oxford Street.
In 1979 the company opened their first Megastore at the end of Oxford Street and Tottenha ...
and
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...
. On 17 May, a promotional CD maxi was in turn sent to radio stations; it contained six new remixes, with a cover displaying an image of three dolls crying blood and having a large scar on the abdomen. However, a controversy occurred on the Internet, as some fans who owned the promotional formats did not allowed webmasters of fan sites to publish the images of the covers without paying.
The next day, the list of remixers, which included Jérémy Hills, Mathieu Bouthier, Romain Curtis and Gilles Luka, Laurent Pepper, Greg B and Twill Yohanne, was published on
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
. Universal Music also stated on its website that the song will be released on 4 July.
Twill, which produced three remixes with Yohanne Simon, explained that they were contacted by
Universal Music
Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Netherlands, Dutch–United States, American multinational Music industry, music corporation under Law of the Netherlands, Dutch law. UMG's cor ...
a few weeks before the song release, asking them to create both club and radio remixes. He also explained that they had large freedom in the production and that Farmer was present at the recording. He added: "So we tried to conciliate the harmonic sound with the dancefloor one by highlighting the break and the voice of Mylène. To do this, we darkened the mood of the original piece, gave the maximum energy in the chorus and provided an original touch by making this break dubstep." The remixes were produced from the radio edit version.
Gilles Luka, who also participated in the remixes, explained in an interview that he and Romain Curtis were contacted in April 2011 to remix the song and that the production lasted a week. He added: "Our priority was to enhance Mylène's voice and to keep the lyrics in their entirety. We sought to harmonically respect the original melody while boosting the production. This is a remix that is more "radio" that truly "club"."
Music video
A persistent rumour claimed that Benoit Di Sabatino, Farmer's companion, who previously directed "C'est une belle journée", "L'amour n'est rien..." and "Appelle mon numéro", produced the music video in May.
Actually produced by Roy Raz and released by Universal Music on its website on 1 June,
the video was shot in the desert, in Israel, near the
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea ( he, יַם הַמֶּלַח, ''Yam hamMelaḥ''; ar, اَلْبَحْرُ الْمَيْتُ, ''Āl-Baḥrū l-Maytū''), also known by other names, is a salt lake bordered by Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank ...
, and the scenes in studio were filmed in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...
.
The video generally received positive critics. It was noted that it uses many recurring themes of the singer's universe and thus was the subject of several analyses. Jonathan Hamard of Charts in France said the video has "no scenario as that for "Libertine" or "California", but a neat aestheticism that deserves to be praised".
According to the magazine ''
Tele 7 Jours'',
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch (born January 20, 1946) is an American filmmaker, visual artist and actor. A recipient of an Academy Honorary Award in 2019, Lynch has received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director, and the César Award for Be ...
's 1984 film ''
Dune
A dune is a landform composed of wind- or water-driven sand. It typically takes the form of a mound, ridge, or hill. An area with dunes is called a dune system or a dune complex. A large dune complex is called a dune field, while broad, f ...
'' is a potential source of inspiration of the video.
Reception and chart performance
"Lonely Lisa" generally received positive reviews from media, and was particularly plebiscited by Farmer's fans, given the song was among "the most rhythmic and catchy hits by Mylène Farmer", according to Musique Radio website. For example,
NRJ deemed it "a dynamic, rhythmic piece, with electro-sounding and simple but catchy chorus. A potentially future hit, as "
Oui mais... non".
''
France Soir
''France Soir'' ( en, France Evening) was a French newspaper that prospered in physical format during the 1950s and 1960s, reaching a circulation of 1.5 million in the 1950s. It declined rapidly under various owners and was relaunched as a popul ...
'' qualified the song "wonderful" and a "very effective" "summer hit", while ''Gala'' said it "has a promising career in nightclubs".
In contrast, Sylvain Siclier of ''
Le Monde
''Le Monde'' (; ) is a French daily afternoon newspaper. It is the main publication of Le Monde Group and reported an average circulation of 323,039 copies per issue in 2009, about 40,000 of which were sold abroad. It has had its own website si ...
'' criticized the song, saying it "sounds mechanic and metallic". In August 2011, "Lonely Lisa" was elected the number one gay summer hit (out of 15 songs), with 38% of votes, in a poll led by French magazine ''
Têtu
(French for "stubborn") is the main LGBTQIA magazine published in France. It was subtitled in French ( en, the magazine of gays and lesbians) until 2007, and reaffirmed itself as a men's magazine since then. As of December, 2012, its certified ...
'' on its website.
In France, the single debuted at number 41 on the chart edition of 25 June 2011, while being only available digitally, and dropped to number 97 the following week.
Then, when the physical formats were marketed, the single climbed directly to number one, with 15,222 sales, becoming Farmer's twelfth number-one single in France. Then it dropped to number 17 and totaled 12 weeks on the chart. In Belgium (Wallonia), the single entered at a peak of number ten on 16 July 2011, dropped and remained for three weeks on the chart.
Track listings
These are the formats and track listings of single releases of "Lonely Lisa":
* CD single
* CD maxi 1 / 12" maxi 1
* CD maxi 2
* 12" maxi 2
* CD single - Promo
* CD maxi - Promo 1
* CD maxi - Promo 2
* CD maxi - Promo 3
* Digital download
All the versions available on the formats above
Credits and personnel
These are the credits and the personnel as they appear on the back of the single:
* Mylène Farmer – lyrics
*
RedOne – music
* Stuffed Monkey/RedOne – editions
* LLC admin by Sony ATV Songs LLC (BMI) – production
* Hervé Lewis - photograph on CD promo, recto of CDs maxi
* Nathalie Delépine - photograph on CD promo remixes, back of CDs maxi
* Henry Neu – design
* Made in the E.U.
Charts
Release history
See also
*
List of number-one hits of 2011 (France)
References
{{authority control
2010 songs
2011 singles
Mylène Farmer songs
Songs with lyrics by Mylène Farmer
Song recordings produced by RedOne
Songs written by RedOne
SNEP Top Singles number-one singles
Polydor Records singles