Lonely Lisa
Encyclopedia
"Lonely Lisa" is a 2010
song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer
. It is currently the third single
from her 2010 eighth album Bleu Noir
and was released digitally on 16 May 2011, then it will be released physically on 5 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.
", 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-oritented song. Some lyrics seem to be inspired by Aristotle
and Pierre Reverdy
's Poèmes en prose.
, Virgin Megastores and Amazon
. 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
. 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 a few weeks before the song release, asking them to created 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"."
, and the scenes in studio were filmed in Tel Aviv
.
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
's 1984 film Dune
is a potential source of inspiration of the video.
". France Soir
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
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
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 twelth 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.
All the versions available on the formats above
2010 in music
2010 in music may refer to:*2010 in American music*2010 in Australian music*2010 in British music*2010 in Canadian music*2010 in European music *2010 in Irish music*2010 in Japanese music*2010 in New Zealand music...
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....
. It is currently the third 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 2010 eighth album Bleu Noir
Bleu Noir
-Formats:* CD - Jewel box* CD - Digisleeve Limited Edition with 24 page insert* Double Vinyl LP* Collector's edition box: CD, pen, bottle of ink, and individual sheets of pictures & lyrics.-Release history:-Peak positions:-Year-end charts:...
and was released digitally on 16 May 2011, then it will be released physically on 5 July. As "Oui mais... non", the lead single from the album, The lyrics were written by Farmer with the music composed by RedOne
RedOne
Nadir Khayat , known by the stage name RedOne, is a Moroccan producer and songwriter. Renowned for co-producing hit singles such as "Just Dance", "Poker Face", "LoveGame", "Bad Romance", "Alejandro" and "Judas", he is attributed by some as the key to Lady Gaga's success...
. 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 journéeC'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...
", 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-oritented song. Some lyrics seem to be inspired by Aristotle
Aristotle
Aristotle was a Greek philosopher and polymath, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. His writings cover many subjects, including physics, metaphysics, poetry, theater, music, logic, rhetoric, linguistics, politics, government, ethics, biology, and zoology...
and Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy was a French poet associated with surrealism and cubism.Pierre Reverdy was born in Narbonne and grew up near the Montagne Noire in his father's house. Reverdy came from a family of sculptors. His father taught him to read and write. He studied at Toulouse and Narbonne.Reverdy...
's Poèmes en prose.
Release and remixes
In the 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 promotionnal 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 plateforms of downloads, including iTunesITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
, Virgin Megastores and Amazon
Amazon.com
Amazon.com, Inc. is a multinational electronic commerce company headquartered in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the world's largest online retailer. Amazon has separate websites for the following countries: United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan, and...
. 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
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
. 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 a few weeks before the song release, asking them to created 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 SeaDead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, and the scenes in studio were filmed in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
.
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
Télé 7 Jours
Télé 7 Jours is a French weekly magazine published by Hachette Filipacchi Médias. It publishes news and materials relating to French radio and television programming.-History:...
, David Lynch
David Lynch
David Keith Lynch is an American filmmaker, television director, visual artist, musician and occasional actor. Known for his surrealist films, he has developed his own unique cinematic style, which has been dubbed "Lynchian", and which is characterized by its dream imagery and meticulous sound...
's 1984 film Dune
Dune (film)
Dune is a 1984 science fiction film written and directed by David Lynch, based on the 1965 Frank Herbert novel of the same name. The film stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides, and includes an ensemble of well-known American and European actors in supporting roles. It was filmed at the Churubusco...
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... nonOui mais... non
"Oui mais... non" is a 2010 song by French pop musician Mylène Farmer. It is the leading single to her eighth studio album Bleu Noir, released in December 2010. The single was released to radio stations on 29 September, then available for pre-order on 11 October in the digital music market, and on...
". France Soir
France Soir
France Soir is a French daily newspaper that prospered during the 1950s and 1960s, but it has declined since then under various owners. It was re-launched as a populist tabloid in 2006.-History:...
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
Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper owned by La Vie-Le Monde Group and edited in Paris. It is one of two French newspapers of record, and has generally been well respected since its first edition under founder Hubert Beuve-Méry on 19 December 1944...
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
Têtu
Têtu is a gay magazine published in France. It is subtitled in French le magazine des gays et lesbiennes .-History:...
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 twelth 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
Charts
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian (Wallonia) Dance Chart | 30 |
| Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart | 10 |
| French SNEP Singles Chart | 1 |
Release history
| Region | Date | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Belgium, France | 2 May 2011 | Promo CD single |
| 16 May 2011 | Digital download | |
| 17 May 2011 | Promo CD maxi | |
| France | 4 July 2011 | CD single, CD maxi 1, CD maxi 2, 12" maxi 1, 12" maxi 2 |
| Belgium | 5 July 2011 |