Amélie-les-crayons
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists:
Top
Amélie-Les-Crayons
- Genres: Rock
Biography
Amélie-les-Crayons is an award-winning French singer/songwriter and pianist especially well known for her whimsical stage show in which the lyrically fantastic characters and stories of her music come to life with scenery, costumes, and acting. Amélie, who took the latter part of her name, Les Crayons, from French actor/singer André Bourvil, began her performance career in Lyon, France, around the turn of the century. She made her recording debut in 2002 with Le Chant des Coquelicots, a self-produced six-track EP comprised of both home and live recordings. A couple years later she released her full-length album debut, Et Pourquoi les Crayons? (2004), on the independent label Neômme. In support of the album, she toured with a four-piece band comprised of herself (vocals, piano), Michel Caroline (accordion), Laurent Fellot (contrabass), and Heiko Wilhem (piano, clarinet, tuba). The two-hour stage show, which incorporated theatrical scenery, characters, costumes, and lighting, proved especially popular, and so the tour carried on from September 2004 all the way to August 2006, including nearly 200 concerts throughout France, Switzerland, Belgium, and Canada. The tour also included performances at the major festivals Printemps de Bourges and Alors Chante in Montauban. One of the performances from 2005 was filmed for release on DVD as Le Tour de la Question (2006). During a break from the road, Amélie spent eight months writing, composing, and recording her second full-length album, La Porte Plume (2007), with the input of 12 different musicians. La Porte Plume, which, like its predecessor, is filled with lyrically fantastic characters and stories, was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Académie Charles Cros for Best Chanson Album of 2007. Released again in association with the independent label Neômme, the album was Amélie's best-selling effort to date, peaking at number 53 on the French albums chart. ~ Jason Birchmeier, RoviWikipedia on Answers.com:
Top
Amélie-les-crayons
 |
This article may need to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help by adding relevant internal links, or by improving the article's layout. (July 2011)
Click [show] on right for more details.
No reason has been cited for the Wikify tag on this article.
|
| Amélie-les-Crayons | |
|---|---|
 Amélie in 2009 |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Lyon, France |
| Genres | Chanson |
| Years active | 2002–present |
| Labels | Neômme |
| Website | amelielescrayons.com |
| Members | |
| Amélie, Olivier Longre, Guillaume Clary, Antoine | |
Amélie-les-crayons is a French singer-songwriter, with an emphasis on theatricality and humour in her performances and that of her group.[1]
|
Contents
|
Musical career
2001–2003: the beginning
Amélie started in 2001 in bars and cafés in Lyon, France, as a solo piano singer. A 6-track CD was released in 2002, Le Chant des Coquelicots. In 2003, she put a real band together with funny-haired Heiko (piano, clarinet, tuba), Michel (accordion) and Laurent (double bass). They soon were very popular in their region, then over France and Switzerland. An ambitious theatrical show was created in January 2004 introducing the magical piano (which opens itself and grows flowers in the inside!), funny special effects and the astonishing contact that Amélie creates with her audience.
2004–2006: les crayons
After the release of the new album Et Pourquoi les Crayons? in May 2004, they went on touring over France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada up to August 2006, nearly 200 concerts and 100 000 spectators. The show was shot in December 2005 for a DVD 'le Tour de la Question'. In July 2006, Amélie said good bye to her hometown audience in the Roman Theatre of Vienne, this time in front of a crowd of 8000 ! By the end of 2006, a few new songs were written and Amelie started working with long time friend Olivier Longre who plays about 20 different instruments and by the end of spring 2007, they were ready to record 15 new songs.
2007–2009 : the monster piano
The album 'La Porte Plume' was released in October 2007 and a new tour began that would end in December 2009. That time, the show was even more extraordinary : a 2 meter-high door-piano was the central character of a musical set where Amelie surrounded by her 3 boys (Olivier, Antoine and Guillaume) would appear, vanish, be suspended in mid-air, reappear on top of the monster-piano. The show was shot in March 2009 for the DVD 'A l'Ouest' released in August.
2010 : writing again
Amelie is preparing a new show for 2011. In the meantime, she's also collaborating to other artists shows or albums.
Amélie-les-crayons conveys in her own song that great traditional spirit of popular songs, simple, funny and romantic. There's nothing intellectual about the project, just a sort of travelling troup which carries along happiness and humour.
Discography
- 2002 – Le chant des coquelicots
- 2004 – Et pourquoi les crayons?
- 2006 – Le tour de la question DVD
- 2007 – La porte plume
- 2009 – A l'ouest, je te plumerai la tête DVD
References
External links
- Official Site (French/English)
   |
This article about a French singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Artists
Copyright © 2012 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.
Read more
