C'est tout c'que j'espère

I noticed a little while ago that a Jonatan Cerrada (winner of the first season of France's version of Pop Idol--I first wrote about him here) song was near the top of Belgium's iTunes chart. It seemed really random, and I still have no idea why this was--was "Ruban Noir" an actual single, and was it released recently? If so, why? It's been so long since his album came out and since any single was released off of it. His official site hasn't been updated in a long time, so I have no idea what's going on with him. I was pleased to read, though, that he attended the announcement France's possible Eurovision contestants (he represented France in 2004 with the quite nice ballad "A Chaque Pas," though few people seem to agree with me about the "nice" part; the presentation was definitely odd, so perhaps it did not deserve a particularly high placing--it took fifteenth--but I think the song itself is good...and I don't even usually like ballads!), so at least we know he's alive. If anyone knows anything about what he's doing, please let me know; as of right now, I can only presume that the all-Spanish third album is still coming at some point (though I'm not sure we can count on it ever arriving). I thought about posting "Ruban Noir," as it is one of the album's better songs, but I just don't know if I feel comfortable with it--it feels like it would be sort of liking posting the post-9/11 version of Enrique Iglesias's "Hero." Maybe in the future, if I feel like I've worked out something to write about it that feels appropriate.

La preuve du contraire--having eliminated "Ruban Noir" as an option, I faced the dilemma of which song I should actually post. You really couldn't get much different from "Ruban Noir" than "La preuve du contraire;" while the former is powerful (or at least trying to be) and disturbing, there's something inherently comforting about the latter. A bit acoustic guitar-strummy and mid-tempo but ballad-y, it's one of those "getting ready to fall asleep" songs for me, but it also works well if you're in a mildly melancholic mood--it's subdued enough that you're not going to turn it off, frustrated at its in-your-face joie de vivre, but mildly (perhaps "sweetly" or "laid-back" would be a better word there) uplifting enough (at least in feel; the lyrics might very well not be) that it may help you gradually move out of that mood. I'm glad it's in French, as opposed to a language I might understand, because I'm not sure there are words that could really capture the sort of feeling this song conveys without seeming trite. "Comforting" really is the best word for it.

To buy Jonatan Cerrada's second album La preuve du contraire, go here (physical) or here (digital). It has Jonatan's best song "Mon paradis" on it, which is definitely worth looking up.

Next up: music from Sweden (yes, I know...I'm going to try to avoid writing so much about Swedish music when I can, but I just can't help myself in regards to tomorrow).