Dessine-moi un mouton
Encyclopedia
"Dessine-moi un mouton" is a 1999
song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer
, first in a studio version, then in a live version during her 1999 concert Mylenium Tour
. The song was the only single
from her third live album Mylenium Tour
and was released on 5 December 2000. The title draws from a direct quotation to a well-known scene in French children's book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Although it was generally appreciated by critics and was a top ten hit in France, it had moderate success in terms of sales.
from the studio album Innamoramento
. However, the song was released much later, and only in a live version to promote the concert album Mylenium Tour
. Because of this discrepancy, some people considered the song to be, in fact, the sixth single from the previous studio album. Thus, with this rationale, Innamoramento
is the second album in France
to provide six top ten hits in France.
Just before the single's release, a rumor circulated that a video was already underway and would be filmed in Corsica
to evoke drawn images found in Saint-Exupéry's famous novella, which profoundly inspired the song. According to another persistent rumor, Farmer planned to buy some rights to the story from the author's family to create a musical directed by other producers. Finally, none of this gossip proved correct.
The promotional CD was sent to radio stations on 27 October, and the single was concurrently released with the live album to enable it to move straight to number one on the French Album Charts. All the remixes were produced after the album version, not the live version. Quickly, French station NRJ heavily played the remix called 'World is mine' instead of the live version. For the first time in her career, Farmer used her own drawings to illustrate the CD maxi and vinyl's covers, on which she represented herself next to a sheep. She also used her drawings for the video of "C'est une belle journée
", as well as in her book Lisa-Loup et le Conteur. As for the single release of "Sans logique
" eleven years earlier, the B-side is "Dernier Sourire", this time in the live version.
However, when the best of album Les Mots was released in 2001, the song was not included in the track listing, like other live singles "Allan
" and "La Poupée qui fait non
".
audience clearly understood the allusion
of the song to the literary work. Therefore, "Farmer does not tell the novella's story in her song, but uses the writer's philosophy to draw inspiration". Journalist Benoît Cachin said "Dessine-moi un mouton" deals with life, love, death, and is "a plea
for childhood, imagination and insouciance". Psychologist Hugues Royer considers that it is a song that "invites us to connect with our childhood".
The video uses images from the 1999 tour, and shows Farmer performing the song sitting on a giant swing. For the television version, the entire part devoted to the presentation of musicians and the recalls were deleted, but included in footage for the tour's DVD
.
. As showed on the DVD of the concert, before the song begins, Farmer is sitting on the steps of the staircase and she whistles. While the dancers make several acrobatics and play leapfrog, she performs the song, sitting on a big swing with two headers sphynx at both ends. A rain of silver sequins down from heaven on artists and the andiance. After her performance, Farmer goes down the swing and presents the musicians.
considered this song absolutely identical to "XXL
", using many big guitars; it also said that it was very representative of Farmer's work and was sensed as a future single since the album's release. French magazine Instant-Mag considered that the singles' sales were not aided by the CD single
's cover deemed too simple, and that the live version loses much of its energy compared to the studio's one because of the choice of musical arrangements. Moreover, the remixes were generally deemed disappointing, unlike Farmer's drawings used on the CD maxi which were more appreciated.
In France, the single entered the singles chart at number six on 9 December 2000, making Farmer's 21st top ten hit in the country. The next week, it dropped to number 28 then continued to drop, and fell off the chart after nine weeks in the top 50 and 16 weeks in the top 100. In Switzerland, the song reached a peak of number 59 in the third week on 21 January 2001 and remained for five weeks in the top 100. In Belgium (Wallonia), the single started at number 25 in the Ultratop 40 chart on 16 December 2000, then climbed to a peak of number 11, dropped the next weeks and totaled twelve weeks on the chart.
1999 in music
-Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....
song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer
Mylène Farmer
Mylène Farmer, , born Marie-Hélène Jeanne Gautier, , , is a French singer, songwriter, occasional actress and author....
, first in a studio version, then in a live version during her 1999 concert Mylenium Tour
Mylenium Tour (tour)
Mylenium Tour is Mylène Farmer's 1999-2000 concert tour in support of her fifth studio album, Innamoramento.-Critical reception and commercial success:...
. The song was the only single
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from her third live album Mylenium Tour
Mylenium Tour
Mylènium Tour is the third live album by Mylène Farmer, released on December 5, 2000.-Background:After having ending her third successful tour whose last shows were held in Russia on March 7, 2000, Farmer rested, and then decided to release an album and a DVD retracing her concert...
and was released on 5 December 2000. The title draws from a direct quotation to a well-known scene in French children's book Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. Although it was generally appreciated by critics and was a top ten hit in France, it had moderate success in terms of sales.
Background and writing
Originally, "Dessine-moi un mouton" should have been released as the second, third, or fourth singleSingle (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
from the studio album Innamoramento
Innamoramento
Innamoramento is the fifth studio album by Mylène Farmer, released on April 7, 1999.-Background and release:By 1999, Farmer had barely appeared in the media since her 1996 concerts at Paris-Bercy...
. However, the song was released much later, and only in a live version to promote the concert album Mylenium Tour
Mylenium Tour
Mylènium Tour is the third live album by Mylène Farmer, released on December 5, 2000.-Background:After having ending her third successful tour whose last shows were held in Russia on March 7, 2000, Farmer rested, and then decided to release an album and a DVD retracing her concert...
. Because of this discrepancy, some people considered the song to be, in fact, the sixth single from the previous studio album. Thus, with this rationale, Innamoramento
Innamoramento
Innamoramento is the fifth studio album by Mylène Farmer, released on April 7, 1999.-Background and release:By 1999, Farmer had barely appeared in the media since her 1996 concerts at Paris-Bercy...
is the second album in France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
to provide six top ten hits in France.
Just before the single's release, a rumor circulated that a video was already underway and would be filmed in Corsica
Corsica
Corsica is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is located west of Italy, southeast of the French mainland, and north of the island of Sardinia....
to evoke drawn images found in Saint-Exupéry's famous novella, which profoundly inspired the song. According to another persistent rumor, Farmer planned to buy some rights to the story from the author's family to create a musical directed by other producers. Finally, none of this gossip proved correct.
The promotional CD was sent to radio stations on 27 October, and the single was concurrently released with the live album to enable it to move straight to number one on the French Album Charts. All the remixes were produced after the album version, not the live version. Quickly, French station NRJ heavily played the remix called 'World is mine' instead of the live version. For the first time in her career, Farmer used her own drawings to illustrate the CD maxi and vinyl's covers, on which she represented herself next to a sheep. She also used her drawings for the video of "C'est une belle journée
C'est une belle journée
"C'est une belle journée" is a 2001 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was the second single from her best of Les Mots and was released on 16 April 2002. The song deals with suicide on a dance music and was illustrated by a cartoon video produced by Farmer's boyfriend...
", as well as in her book Lisa-Loup et le Conteur. As for the single release of "Sans logique
Sans logique
"Sans logique" is a 1988 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was released on 20 February 1989 as the fourth and last single from her second studio album Ainsi soit je.... The song deals with schizophrenia, death, love and religion and was accompanied by a cinematic video...
" eleven years earlier, the B-side is "Dernier Sourire", this time in the live version.
However, when the best of album Les Mots was released in 2001, the song was not included in the track listing, like other live singles "Allan
Allan (song)
"Allan" is a 1988 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was the first single from her first live album En Concert and was released in December 1989. The lyrics clearly refer to a fairly tale by Edgar Allan Poe as they mentioned one of his characters...
" and "La Poupée qui fait non
La Poupée qui fait non
"La Poupée qui fait non" is a 1966 song written by Franck Gérald and originally recorded by the French singer/songwriter Michel Polnareff...
".
Theme and video
As Saint-Exupery's story, Le Petit Prince, is deeply incorporated within French mainstream popular culture, francophoneFrancophone
The adjective francophone means French-speaking, typically as primary language, whether referring to individuals, groups, or places. Often, the word is used as a noun to describe a natively French-speaking person....
audience clearly understood the allusion
Allusion
An allusion is a figure of speech that makes a reference to, or representation of, people, places, events, literary work, myths, or works of art, either directly or by implication. M. H...
of the song to the literary work. Therefore, "Farmer does not tell the novella's story in her song, but uses the writer's philosophy to draw inspiration". Journalist Benoît Cachin said "Dessine-moi un mouton" deals with life, love, death, and is "a plea
Plea
In legal terms, a plea is simply an answer to a claim made by someone in a civil or criminal case under common law using the adversary system. Colloquially, a plea has come to mean the assertion by a criminal defendant at arraignment, or otherwise in response to a criminal charge, whether that...
for childhood, imagination and insouciance". Psychologist Hugues Royer considers that it is a song that "invites us to connect with our childhood".
The video uses images from the 1999 tour, and shows Farmer performing the song sitting on a giant swing. For the television version, the entire part devoted to the presentation of musicians and the recalls were deleted, but included in footage for the tour's DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
.
Live performances
The song was not promoted by the singer and was never performed on television, but was only sung during the Mylenium TourMylenium Tour (tour)
Mylenium Tour is Mylène Farmer's 1999-2000 concert tour in support of her fifth studio album, Innamoramento.-Critical reception and commercial success:...
. As showed on the DVD of the concert, before the song begins, Farmer is sitting on the steps of the staircase and she whistles. While the dancers make several acrobatics and play leapfrog, she performs the song, sitting on a big swing with two headers sphynx at both ends. A rain of silver sequins down from heaven on artists and the andiance. After her performance, Farmer goes down the swing and presents the musicians.
Critical reception
"Dessine-moi un mouton" was generally well received by contemporary pop music critics and by Farmer's fans who felt that the single was the best track of the album. The Belgian magazine La Dernière HeureLa Dernière Heure
La Dernière Heure and "Les Sports" is a French general daily newspaper in Belgium....
considered this song absolutely identical to "XXL
XXL (Mylène Farmer song)
"XXL" is a 1995 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. The song was the lead single from her fourth studio album Anamorphosée and was released on 19 September 1995. It marked an important change in the singer's career, with more rock sonorities, easier lyrics to understand and a...
", using many big guitars; it also said that it was very representative of Farmer's work and was sensed as a future single since the album's release. French magazine Instant-Mag considered that the singles' sales were not aided by the CD single
CD single
A CD single is a music single in the form of a standard size Compact Disc, not to be confused with the 3-inch CD single, which uses a smaller form factor. The format was introduced in the mid-1980s, but did not gain its place in the market until the early 1990s...
's cover deemed too simple, and that the live version loses much of its energy compared to the studio's one because of the choice of musical arrangements. Moreover, the remixes were generally deemed disappointing, unlike Farmer's drawings used on the CD maxi which were more appreciated.
In France, the single entered the singles chart at number six on 9 December 2000, making Farmer's 21st top ten hit in the country. The next week, it dropped to number 28 then continued to drop, and fell off the chart after nine weeks in the top 50 and 16 weeks in the top 100. In Switzerland, the song reached a peak of number 59 in the third week on 21 January 2001 and remained for five weeks in the top 100. In Belgium (Wallonia), the single started at number 25 in the Ultratop 40 chart on 16 December 2000, then climbed to a peak of number 11, dropped the next weeks and totaled twelve weeks on the chart.
Formats and track listings
These are the formats and track listings of single releases of "Dessine-moi un mouton":- CD single
- CD maxi - Digipack / 12" maxi / 12" maxi - Promo
- CD single - Promo - Silvery disc / CD single - Promo - White disc
- CD single - Promo - Tryptic with a swing
- VHS - Promo
Official versions
| Version | Length | Album | Remixed by | Year | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Album version | 4:34 | Innamoramento Innamoramento Innamoramento is the fifth studio album by Mylène Farmer, released on April 7, 1999.-Background and release:By 1999, Farmer had barely appeared in the media since her 1996 concerts at Paris-Bercy... |
— | 1999 | See the previous sections |
| Live version (recorded in 2000) |
4:50 (CD) 6:40 (DVD/VHS) 4:16 (cassette) |
Mylenium Tour Mylenium Tour Mylènium Tour is the third live album by Mylène Farmer, released on December 5, 2000.-Background:After having ending her third successful tour whose last shows were held in Russia on March 7, 2000, Farmer rested, and then decided to release an album and a DVD retracing her concert... |
— | 2000 | This version is rather similar to the album one, but before starting the song, Farmer whistles. The DVD and VHS version includes the presentation of the musicians. The cassette version is shorter as one refrain is deleted. (see Mylenium Tour Mylenium Tour (tour) Mylenium Tour is Mylène Farmer's 1999-2000 concert tour in support of her fifth studio album, Innamoramento.-Critical reception and commercial success:... ) |
| Single live version | 4:34 | — | Laurent Boutonnat Laurent Boutonnat Laurent Pierre Marie Boutonnat is a French composer and film and music video director, best known as the songwriting partner of Mylène Farmer and the director of moody, provocative and literature-inspired music videos.- Career :... |
2000 | The last refrain Refrain A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song... is deleted. |
| Live radio edit | 4:05 | — | Laurent Boutonnat | 2000 | This version is similar to the two previous above, but shorter. |
| World is mine remix | 4:53 | — | Quentin and Visa | 2000 | This version is calmer than the studio version. |
| Snakebite beat mix | 4:42 | — | Osman and Visa | 2000 | This is an electro remix. |
| Draw me a sheep remix | 3:53 | — | Hot Sly and Visa | 2000 | Devoted to the dance floors, this remix sometimes distorts Farmer's voice. |
| Music video | 4:56 | — | — | 2000 | |
Credits and personnel
These are the credits and the personnel as they appear on the back of the single:- Mylène Farmer – lyrics, drawings
- Laurent Boutonnat – music
- Requiem Publishing – editions
- Polydor – recording company
- Henry Neu / Com'N.B – design
- Made in the E.U.
Charts and sales
| Chart (2000/01) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
11 |
| French Airplay Chart | 27 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 6 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 59 |
| Country | Certification | Physical sales |
|---|---|---|
| France | — | 80,000 |
Release history
| Region | Date | Format |
|---|---|---|
| France, Belgium, Switzerland | November 2000 | Promo CD single, Promo 12" maxi, VHS |
| 4 December 2000 | CD single, CD maxi, 12" maxi | |