Bleu Noir (song)

"Bleu noir" ("Blue Black") is a 2010 song by French pop musician Mylène Farmer. It is the second single to her eighth studio album Bleu Noir, released in December 2010. The song was written and produced by Moby with lyrics by Farmer, and the music video produced by French film director Olivier Dahan. It was released on 18 April 2011. In France, the song became Farmer's eleventh number-one hit on the singles chart, but quickly dropped.

"Bleu Noir"
Single by Mylène Farmer
from the album Bleu Noir
B-side"Remix"
Released18 April 2011
Recorded2010
GenrePop rock, electronica
Length4:04 (album version)
LabelPolydor, Universal Music
Songwriter(s)Lyrics: Mylène Farmer
Music: Moby
Producer(s)Moby
Mylène Farmer singles chronology
"Oui mais... non"
(2010)		 "Bleu Noir"
(2011)		 "Lonely Lisa"
(2011)

Background and release

"Bleu noir" is Farmer's second single produced and written by Moby, following their 2006 single "Slipping Away (Crier la vie)". On 23 January 2011, it was announced that "Bleu Noir" would be the second single of the album,[1] and on 17 March, Universal Music announced on its website that the release was scheduled for 18 April.[2] Remixed versions of the song named 'Jérémy Hills remix' and 'Glam as you radio mix' were respectively sent to the radios on 10 and 31 March. Formats, track listings and covers arts were officially revealed on 24 and 25 March.[3]

Moby, the composer of the song, also released his own version of the track in May, with other lyrics and arrangements, called "The Day" and which was the official lead single of his then forthcoming album Destroyed..[4] This simultaneous release created a little controversy amongst fans of Farmer, as many of them criticized the fact that he gave the music to the songstress and then reappropriated it for his own album. In an interview published on 18 May 2011 in the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Moby said he was very embarrassed and deemed the release of "The Day" as a single an "error", since Farmer was disappointed, thinking "it was her song".[5]

Lyrically, the theme's song is a message of hope saying that love is stronger than death. The words 'blue black' in the title refers to the ink and expresses the idea that when a love story ends, writings are the only things to recalls it.[6] According to the author Alice Novak, guitars used in the song are almost similar to the riffs on The Cure's songs.[7]

Music video

Directed by producer Olivier Dahan, the music video premiered on the temporary website for the album on 16 March 2011, then was fully broadcast on television two days later.[3] It has no screenplay and is composed of an over four-minute long take without cuts.[8] Regarded as rather "sober" and sometimes "simplistic", with a majority of black and white colors, the video depicts Farmer walking in a countryside, a forest and a snow-covered plains, and ends with a fireworks display.[9][10] The video generally received positive reviews in the media. Têtu deemed Farmer as being "melancholic and moving" in the video.[11] Several media, including Gala, Pure People and 20 Minutes considered that various elements of the video, such as the snow and the forest, are a tribute to Farmer's first music videos of her career, including "Tristana", "Regrets" and "Ainsi soit je...", and that it is "aesthetic".[12][13][14] L'Express analyzed the symbolism of the colours used in the video.[15]

Critical reception

"Bleu Noir" received reviews from the album release. According to Gala, the song "will reconcile the fans of the first time and followers of British pop".[16] Sylvain Siclier of Le Monde considered that, alongside "Toi l'amour", "Bleu Noir" is the most pop song of the album, with "light takeoffs, trippy atmosphere", is "close to the musical universal of the singer" and noted that her "voice is particularly present".[17]

Chart performance

The song entered the Walloon Ultratip Chart at number 35 and reached number one two weeks later.[18] It started at number 16 on the Ultratop 50 chart on 30 April 2011, fell off for one week, then re-entered at number 21 the next week after being heavily played on radio,[19] and totaled six weeks on the chart.[20] In France, the single debuted at number one on the main singles chart which combines physical and digital sales on the chart edition of 24 April 2011,[21] becoming Farmer's eleventh number-one single in France.[22] In the first week, the single totaled 10,770 sales, including 9,743 units of the physical formats only, which was the highest weekly physical sales of 2011 for a number one in the country.[23] The following week, the single performed which was then the biggest drop from number one, falling to number 36, with an 81% decline in sales from the previous week.[24] It remained on the chart for six weeks. The music video reached number 21 on the TV airplay chart of 7 April 2011.[25]

Formats and track listings

These are the formats and track listings of single releases of "Bleu Noir":[26]

No.TitleLength
1."Bleu Noir" (single version)4:04
2."Bleu Noir" (instrumental)4:05
3."Bleu Noir" (Glam as you radio mix by Guéna LG)4:05
4."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills remix)3:22
5."Bleu Noir" (Glam as you club mix by Guéna LG)7:41
6."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills extended remix)4:36
7."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills dub remix)4:35
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu Noir"4:04
2."Bleu Noir" (Instrumental)4:06
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu Noir"4:04
2."Bleu Noir" (Glam As You radio mix)4:05
3."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills remix)3:23
4."Bleu Noir" (Glam As You club mix)7:41
5."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills extended remix)4:36
6."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills dub remix)4:36
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu Noir" (Glam As You club mix)7:41
2."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills extended remix)4:36
3."Bleu Noir" (single version)4:04
  • CD single – Promo[32]
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu noir"4:04
  • CD single 1 – Promo remix[33]
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu Noir" (Jeremy Hills remix)3:23
  • CD single 2 – Promo remix[34]
No.TitleLength
1."Bleu noir" (Glam As You radio mix)4:05

Credits and personnel

These are the credits and the personnel as they appear on the back of the single:[35]

  • Mylène Farmer – lyrics
  • Moby – music
  • Stuffed Monkey / Little Idiot Music – editions
  • Polydor / Universal Music France – recording company
  • Made in the E.U.

Charts
Chart (2011) Peak
position
Belgian (Wallonia) Airplay Chart[36] 12
Belgian (Wallonia) Ultratop Chart[20] 16
French SNEP Singles Chart[21] 1

Release history
Region Date Format
Belgium, France, Switzerland 28 January 2011 Promo CD single[32]
20 March 2011 Promo CD remixes 1[33]
31 March 2011 Promo CD remixes 2[34]
18 April 2011 Digital download,[27][28] CD single,[37] CD maxi,[38] 12" maxi[39]
gollark: I am in 3 servers doing this. It is literally the funniest possible joke.
gollark: The obvious choice was counties or something, for which there was a convenient list on Wikipedia, which did *not* work at all.
gollark: That would require actual work to determine what "regions" are likely to have been mentioned lots in the training data.
gollark: Probably cities with distinct architecture and buildings work better.
gollark: I briefly tried a CLIP geolocation thing but couldn't actually get it to work. I think random English countryside is just really undifferentiated.

See also

References
  • Cachin, Benoît (2012). Mylène Farmer, au fil des mots (in French). France: Gründ. ISBN 978-2-32400-364-6.
  1. Hamard, Jonathan (23 January 2011). "Écoutez le nouveau single de Mylène Farmer: "Bleu noir"" (in French). Chartsinfrance. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
  2. "Mylène Farmer, "Bleu Noir", le clip!" (in French). Universal Music. Archived from the original on 3 February 2013. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  3. "Mylène Farmer – "Bleu Noir" (single)- Histoire" (in French). Mylene.net. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  4. "Moby dévoile "The Day", sa reprise de "Bleu Noir" de Mylène Farmer!" (in French). Virgin Radio. 23 March 2011. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
  5. Coljon, Thierry (18 May 2011). "Moby, seul entre la foule et le vide". Le Soir (in French). Belgium: Rossel. Retrieved 18 May 2011.
  6. Cachin, 2012, p. 207
  7. Novak, Alice (2011). Mylène Farmer: d'ombres et de lumières (in French). City. p. 241. ISBN 978-2-35288-498-9.
  8. Cachin, 2012, p. 214
  9. Corriez, Olivier (17 March 2011). "Olivier Dahan fait tourner Mylène Farmer" (in French). Excessif. Archived from the original on 1 December 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  10. Renault, Jean-Maxime (17 March 2011). "Mylène Farmer et Olivier Dahan en "Bleu Noir"" (in French). allmusic. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  11. Zimmermann, Sylvain (16 March 2011). "Mylène plus Farmer que jamais dans le clip de "Bleu Noir"". Têtu (in French). Paris. Archived from the original on 21 March 2011. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  12. Hay, Jean-Christian (16 March 2011). "La chanteuse a été filmée par Olivier Dahan". Gala (in French). Prisma Press. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  13. J., G. (16 March 2011). "Mylène Farmer, mélancolique et divine dans le clip de "Bleu noir" par Dahan !" (in French). Pure People. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  14. Jaccard, Ludovic (17 March 2011). "Quand Mylène redevient Farmer". 20 Minutes (in French). Tamedia AG. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  15. Médioni, Gilles (17 March 2011). "Mylène Farmer: le clip de Bleu Noir et La Lettre à Mylène de Stupeflip". L'Express (in French). Paris: Express-Roularta. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  16. Béglé, Jérôme (8 December 2010). "Mylène Farmer: Gare aux idées reçues !". Gala (in French). Prisma Press. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  17. Siclier, Sylvain (16 December 2010). "Mylène Farmer réussit la partie pop de son disque et rate la partie électro". Le Monde (in French). Paris: La Vie-Le Monde. Retrieved 19 April 2011.
  18. "Ultratop 50 Ultratip — 23/04/2011" (in French). ultratop. Retrieved 20 June 2011.
  19. "30 Airplay — 14/05/2011" (in French). ultratop. Retrieved 21 June 2011.
  20. "Mylène Farmer — "Bleu Noir", Belgian (Wallonia) Ultratop Chart" (in French). ultratop. Retrieved 29 April 2011.
  21. "Mylène Farmer — "Bleu Noir", French Singles Chart" (in French). Lescharts. Retrieved 2 May 2011.
  22. Decant, Charles (29 April 2011). "Disques: Très joli démarrage pour Hugh Laurie, nouveau numéro un pour Mylène Farmer" (in French). Ozap. Retrieved 30 April 2011.
  23. Hamard, Jonathan (27 April 2011). "Tops: Colonel Reyel reste le meilleur vendeur (màj)" (in French). Chartsinfrance. Retrieved 28 April 2011.
  24. Decant, Charles (6 May 2011). "Disques: Les Prêtres leaders, Jessie J détrône Mylène Farmer" (in French). Ozap. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  25. "Classement Muzicast TV du 01/04/2011 au 07/04/2011" (in French). Musique Info. Archived from the original on 5 December 2012. Retrieved 7 May 2011.
  26. "Mylène Farmer – "Bleu Noir" – Supports" (in French). Mylene.net. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  27. ""Bleu Noir", Mylène Farmer — Format : Téléchargement MP3" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  28. ""Bleu Noir", Mylène Farmer — Format : Téléchargement MP3" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 23 December 2012.
  29. Bleu Noir (CD-one Single liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 738-9.CS1 maint: others (link)
  30. Bleu Noir (Maxi CD-one Single liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 872-6.CS1 maint: others (link)
  31. Bleu Noir (12" Vinyl liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 872-6.CS1 maint: others (link)
  32. Bleu Noir (Promo CD-one Single liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 304-6.CS1 maint: others (link)
  33. Bleu Noir (First promo CD Single (remixes) liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 744-9.CS1 maint: others (link)
  34. Bleu Noir (Second promo CD Single (remixes) liner notes) (in French). Mylène Farmer. Polydor. 2011. 276 873-4.CS1 maint: others (link)
  35. "Mylène Farmer – "Bleu Noir" – Crédits" (in French). Mylene.net. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  36. "30 Airplay — 28/05/2011" (in French). ultratop. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  37. ""Bleu Noir" [CD Single]" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  38. ""Bleu Noir" [CD Single, Single Maxi]" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
  39. ""Bleu Noir" [EP, Single Maxi, Import]" (in French). Amazon.fr. Retrieved 7 June 2011.
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