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June 27, 2005
Reportage from Helene in France
Summer has arrived in the South of France - I've been
enjoying the loud chant of cicadas, late dinners outside and the start
of festival season in France.
The national music festival kick started summer on June 21st with
bands playing in all cities around the country. I was able to hit two
of these celebrations since my hometown, Istres, organized their own
"Fete de la Musique" a few days early this year. So, on June 21st, I
was in Marseille for the real celebration and saw lots of French rock,
reggae and African music bands. In the last few years, Marseille has
become the center of French rap, hip hop and R&B. With influences from
North Africa, Africa and the French Caribbean, there is a real
eclectic mix in the local music scene which does a good job at
representing Marseille's population. A very good friend of mine,
Jessyca whose stage name is Vanyla, recently released an album which
is a great example of this new mix of music.
"13 intime," her album, means very close, it's a play on words since
the word "tres" in French means very and the number 13 reads almost
the same and is the Marseille area zip code's first numbers. She sings
in French and English and talks about a variety of things such as
racism, friendship and how men and women interact. The music is really
catchy and I think the album will do very well. Vanyla does concerts
in the area and sells her album in France right now but if you're
interested in getting it and you're not in the area, let us know.
With the end of the music festival, I'm now thinking about going to
some theatre festivals. The oldest festival in France is the Festival
d'Avignon which I also definitely recommend. The best part about this
one is that you can still enjoy a lot of shows even if you don't speak
French since a lot of the free outdoors shows don't have a lot of
dialogue.
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- Helene Goupil, editor
Posted by insideoutmag at June 27, 2005 02:31 PM