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rfmcdonaldI've sure I've mentioned somewhere in the past that Québécois popular culture, for all its richness, really hasn't penetrated English Canada to any significant degree. Literature has certainly done well, with people like--say--playwright and actor Gratien Gélinas gaining recognition, while the Anglophone/Francophone 2006 coproduction Bon Cop, Bad Cop was one of the most successful films in Canadian history. Still, official bilingualism aside, there just isn't that much that has crossed the language frontier. Mitsou, as it happens Gélinas' granddaughter, is one of the rare exceptions with her 1990 single "Bye bye mon cowboy". Her music, driven by her sexpot image and controversial music videos featuring nudity and sexuality, didn't last long commercially, don't seem to have been as successful, but there are still some gems. Actually, I can only think of one, her "Comme j'ai toujours envie d'aimer" off of her 1994 album YaYa.
The lyrics are fairly simple. Their core can be found below.
Comme j'ai toujours envie d'aimer
J'ai toujours envie de toi
Oh toi que j'aime
I have always wanted to love
I still want you
Oh, I love you
Still, I like her breathy delivery and the stuttery synth music. Sometimes, this song can make me feel shivers. The way that she ties it in to HIV/AIDS prevention is also interesting, with the others featured in the video revealing their HIV status at the video's end and the song "[becoming] the theme song to promote AIDS awareness in Québec, and all proceeds from the sale of the single went towards AIDS research."
"Comme j'ai toujours voulu aimer" is a simple song, ephemera, really. That doesn't change the fact that I like it, still, and that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't have come across it if I hadn't been lucky enough to see it while I was watching MuchMusic one day in the mid-1990s. I'd not have had this simple pleasure. As an Anglophone, I enjoy a peculiar amount of linguistic privilege, in Canada as in the wider world. I have French, true, but I don't have nearly the amount of access to la francophonie that I'd like to have. There really hasn't been any pressing need to do so. As a result, things get missed.
It's funny, isn't it, how privilege can sometimes lead to missing out on something?
The lyrics are fairly simple. Their core can be found below.
J'ai toujours envie de toi
Oh toi que j'aime
I have always wanted to love
I still want you
Oh, I love you
Still, I like her breathy delivery and the stuttery synth music. Sometimes, this song can make me feel shivers. The way that she ties it in to HIV/AIDS prevention is also interesting, with the others featured in the video revealing their HIV status at the video's end and the song "[becoming] the theme song to promote AIDS awareness in Québec, and all proceeds from the sale of the single went towards AIDS research."
"Comme j'ai toujours voulu aimer" is a simple song, ephemera, really. That doesn't change the fact that I like it, still, and that doesn't change the fact that I wouldn't have come across it if I hadn't been lucky enough to see it while I was watching MuchMusic one day in the mid-1990s. I'd not have had this simple pleasure. As an Anglophone, I enjoy a peculiar amount of linguistic privilege, in Canada as in the wider world. I have French, true, but I don't have nearly the amount of access to la francophonie that I'd like to have. There really hasn't been any pressing need to do so. As a result, things get missed.
It's funny, isn't it, how privilege can sometimes lead to missing out on something?
