An actress who did some singing, Anna Karina is part of the collection of women who have sung music written by Serge Gainsbourg as well as with him. Enjoy the freshly translated blurb by yours truly about her singing career on Wikipedia (link above). Some of her songs on Radio Oh La La include “Roller Girl” and “Petite Lola”.

Interesting bits of trivia: She was a mould for the character of Mia Wallace (Uma Thurman) in the film Pulp Fiction by Quentin Tarantino. She does look like Audrey Hepburn (or vice versa).

Happy Holidays! I want to thank everyone for listening and linking to Radio Oh La La, you’ve really made my year. In 2006, I’ll be featuring more music and more articles as well as keep you posted on some French music projects I have in the works.

At the moment, there are a few Christmas songs in the playlist, although purely as decoration. I have also recently added some new numbers from unusual suspects such as Lisa Ekdhal and Dee Dee Bridgewater.

More of a playboy than a rogue, Jacques Dutronc was one of the coolest French artists of the sixties. Still active today, he is better known as a film star and husband of yéyé girl extraordinaire, Françoise Hardy. All-time favourites include “Les cactus” and “Les gens sont fous, les temps sont flous, a song I translated into English for a film as “People are crazed, the times are a haze”. Just the title seems to sum up the sixties pretty well. Another notable song is the slow number “Le petit jardin” (The little garden) from 1971, a song which tells of an evil building contractor ready to destroy a Paris park for profit way before the green movement came into existence. On a more modern note, “On nous cache tout, on nous dit rien” (see album cover) has a very groovy sound and is all about media deception.