"Hélène" is a 1989

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song recorded by the

Canadian Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...

singer Roch Voisine. Written and composed by Voisine and Stéphane Lessard with guitars played by Carl Katz and keyboards by Luc Gilbert, it was the first single from his first studio album '' Hélène'', and was released in November 1989. It is mainly a song in

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

, but contains a line in

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as follows: "Hélène things you do / Make me crazy about you". The cover for the CD maxi used the same photograph as that of the album '' Hélène'' : Roch Voisine's face with a black background. "Hélène" achieved a great success in France where it topped the singles chart for nine weeks, thus allowing Voisine to launch his international career.

Music video

The music video features the singer and an air hostess who are in love, but who are forced to separate because of professional reasons. She may be French because when, in the video, she writes her name on a mirror with her

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, she does end it with an 'e' ('Helene'), as on the single cover. The model who plays the role of Hélène is Ariane Cordeau.

Versions

"Hélène" is available on the ''Roch'' collection (2007), also known as ''Best of''.Voisine also recorded the song wholly in English as "Helen" and included this version on the English portion of his bilingual album ''

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'' in 1990 (which was in turn released separately as a full-length English album titled '' Roch Voisine'' the same year). "Hélène" was also recorded in an acoustic version on his 2003 album '' Je te serai fidèle'', which appeared as the second track on CD maxi for " Tant pis", released in February 2004. In 2013, he recorded a duet wersion with Cœur de pirate, which features on his album '' Duophonique''.

Critical reception

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'' considered "Hélène" as "a strong ballad, reminiscent of Elton John's early material", which is "vital for your play list".

Chart performance

In France, the French version of "Hélène" started at number 27 on the chart edition of 11 November 1989, topped the chart for non consecutive nine weeks, in alternance with François Feldman's hit "

Les Valses de Vienne "Les Valses de Vienne" is a 1989 song originally recorded by the French artist François Feldman for his 1989 album, '' Une Présence'' and was the second singles release from that album in November of the same year. It achieved great success i ...

", and remained in the top 50 for 27 weeks, 20 of them in the top ten. and was certified Platinum disc by the French certifier, the

Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique The National Syndicate of Phonographic Publishing (french: Syndicat national de l'édition phonographique; SNEP) is the inter-professional organisation that protects the interests of the French record industry. Originally known under the acronym ...

, for 800,000 units. ''Select "Roch Voisine" from the drop-down menu and click "OK"''. Voisine thus became the first

to reach number one on the French SNEP Singles Chart, followed by

Bryan Adams Bryan Guy Adams (born 5 November 1959) is a Canadian musician, singer, songwriter, composer, and photographer. He has been cited as one of the best-selling music artists of all time, and is estimated to have sold between 75 million and mor ...

, Céline Dion and Garou a few years later.Alex P. King, ''Hit-parade, 20 ans de tubes'', 2005, Pascal Ed., p. 9 (
Vingt ans de tubes
(Retrieved 23 April 2008) The French version also peaked at number three in

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. The English version performed moderately well on '' RPM'' magazine's all-Anglophone singles charts, peaking at number 57 on the top 100 and number nine on the Adult Contemporary chart in very early 1990. It also achieved a moderate success in the Netherlands, peaking at number 53 two years after its original release.

Track listings

* CD maxi # "Hélène" (new English version) — 3:42 # "Hélène" (French version) — 3:42 # "Hélène" (instrumental) — 3:42 * 7" single # "Hélène" — 3:42 # "Ton Blues" — 3:35 * CD single # "Hélène" — 3:42 # "Ton Blues" — 3:35

Charts and sales

Weekly charts

¹ Duet with Cœur de Pirate

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helene (Song) 1989 debut singles 2013 singles Cœur de pirate songs Roch Voisine songs RPM Top Singles number-one singles SNEP Top Singles number-one singles Franglais songs 1989 songs 2012 songs Ariola Records singles Macaronic songs