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Roxette in France
23 replies
kilasir said on November 28, 2006 17:18:
I saw an interesting statistics. According to it Roxette were never big in France. Only The look was top 20 hit. The second biggest chart success had there The Big L, peaked on Nr. 30!
1. The Look Nr. 15, 22 weeks
2. Dressed For Success Nr. 74, 2 weeks
3. Listen To Your Heart Nr. 100, 1 week
4. It Must Have Been Love Nr. 59, 9 weeks
5. Joyride Nr. 55, 16 weeks
6. The Big L Nr. 30, 18 weeks
7. Wish I Could Fly Nr. 60, 17 weeks
On the other hand DHT had top ten hit with Listen to your heart there... /peaked at Nr. 4/. What a suprise if you compare it with “success” with original. Dont you think?
Source http://www.infodisc.fr/Artistes.php. Are those informations correct?
Thanks
Sascha said on November 28, 2006 18:41:
Land of confusion... Maybe some french fan (if there is anyone) can tell us more.
quagmir said on November 28, 2006 18:53:
Yep, there’re some French fans, but I never understood why Rox wasn’t /isn’t successful here. And truly they never were on top of the charts, but I seem to recal that The Look ’s highest place was 12. You can read some other stuff about Rox and France here : http://www.roxette.fr
Anyway, some us do love Roxette but the music scene here has always been kinda special.
Max-Tob said on November 28, 2006 18:59:
I’m from France lol. But not living there presently, I’m usually “sent away” with my job. Will get back for Xmas though. Dunno really anything about charts in France. I’ve never been interested. But I can ask or check when I’ll have time.
and yes, roxette aren’t very popular there, I doubt people know who Marie is...As for Per, well, he could be anyone, he could even be French!! haha
never knew that “the look” charted that well...that’s a nice thing to know even after all these years...
veneziano said on November 28, 2006 19:21:
I know a lot of french people. Noone of them has ever heard about Roxette.
In the early 90ies the whole world got roxette-crazy. The whole world? No, a little country...
quagmir said on November 28, 2006 19:32:
true, some people still think that Rox is Marie alone, lol. But it’s still funny cos when I talk to friends and other people once I’ve told them about The look or the beautiful ballad in Pretty Woman the answer is always, “I know this song, didn’ know it was Roxette”.
But still, I do think that the fact that EMI France hasn’t been very supportive esp in the last years is also part of the fact that they aren’t successful here in France.
ncurran said on November 28, 2006 19:41:
It isnt only in France that people think Roxette is Marie’s name. Its quite a common reaction in the UK aswell.
AddeColciago said on November 28, 2006 21:30:
Oh, there actually are people in Sweden who think that Roxette is one person... One thought that the girl singing was named Roxanne.. 8-)
rox-kuryliw said on November 28, 2006 21:47:
ye when i say i like roxette, they normally say ow ye she is good. LOL, WICF didnt do that back in france conmpared with others lol. has roxette ever gone to france ? ? that would be interesting to know.,
Rox_Nox2003 said on November 29, 2006 01:28:
I believe as a fan of french music that actually France has got remarkable french artists and besides the swedes... for me they’re the europeans with the best music ever heard in my opinion.
The problem is probably concerned with “singing in english”. Though it may not be a issue these days for french to be more friendly towards the english language (a silly question of patriotism as if learning and understadning english would prevent u from being french and speaking french - saddly a lot of countries also share such sad opinion even here in Portugal, which shocks me) the truth is that more than 50% of the music biught and heard on radio there MUST be french ... it’s not only a matter of taste (i personally can tell they have amazing music) but also a bit “patriotic”... remind u most french speak english badly as they accent is terrible and some make no effort whatsoever to pronounce words correctly. They kind of “french” the pronounciation (it’s a joke hearing them saying “mariah carrréééy) LOL It’s not a sin to speak english, it’s not an impossible feat to achieve ... it’s a question of respecting someone’s else culture and language and in noooo way will that prevent u from not being who u are nationaly. That’s the silliest thing to believe in... even spanish have troubles learning english so they “hide it” but doing it all in spanish and having more spanish music in their country than international one. Roxette must have been caught up in this “language patriotical barrier” in their days back then ... at least one of 2 song get to co-exist in the french colective thought even if the name if the group is forgerttable “ç’est quoi ça?” LOL Have u noticed the number of english speaking artists that are “forced” to re-record material in duet form with french singers? The result for me has always been dreadful ... let them keep the originals ... the public will decide if they are worth buying it or not. Thank God Roxette never did that ... rather have them with low sucess there than with silly sucess depending on a song sung half in french where the french lyrics make no sence with the english ones... Per would have gone mad! LOL
Max-Tob said on November 29, 2006 10:00:
True, RoxNox. I mostly agree with you. My English accent sucks. My friends English accent sucks as well. As for my neighbours, my boss, my parents and...ehm..many others, they don’t speak English at all. And they feel OK with it. As we have lots of American tourists that approach us in English, of course, they often don’t get what we’re saying even though - we pretend - replied in English. It happened to me many times. I try to write as correctly as I can, and then I am out of the country most of the time and I use English quite a lot. But I am still very far of being widely understood. I remember that English was optional in school...and I mostly learnt it on my own.
But let’s get back to the main issue: well, I wonder if Roxette’s failure in France has to do with language barrier only. I remember when I was a teenager and I loved Roxette while everybody around me loved Prince or Madonna. Today’s French folk love Kyle M. Everytime she comes to Paris, people go crazy. And then my friends love U2. And Depeche Mode. And Prince. And Beatles. And Miles Davis. And Norah Jones. And Duran Duran. And RHCP. And Morrissey. I guess most of the people I know are not into the French music, well, of course my parents are, but the 25-35 generation is more in the “big”, and “stable” international music. For some reason, they find roxette as being “bad taste” and “low”.I’d rather say that French pay a lot of attention to “image”. They - we - are quite snob. It is not good to like a dude whisteling while sitting on a car. You need something “deeper, darker and more powerful, like...ehm...Bono or David Gahan? It sucks, I know, but I guess it’s not the language barrier that impened roxette from being famous here, but that sort of self-satisfied superiority when it comes to musical taste that most of the French have. Roxette is not “stylish” enough for them - and that’s something I can hardly get it myself. But well, I got used to live with roxette-stigmatization...lol. Thank God I am in France for holidays only.
kilasir said on November 29, 2006 11:51:
DJ Bobo and his Chihuahua was very “deep”:) /bestseller in France in 2003/. I checked also Abba´s and Ace of Bases´s chart results. During their heydays they were succesfull as much as in other countries. So Roxette maybe didn´t have good luck there...
coyboyusa said on November 29, 2006 12:20:
french eat frogs so what exactly would the know about music?
Wicf said on November 29, 2006 13:29:
I think these results are quite different:
http://lescharts.com/search.asp?search=Roxette&cat=s
btw It’s interesting people sometimes think Roxette is a woman, when two of Roxette’s three BIGGEST hits have Per on the lead vocal
AURYTE said on November 29, 2006 14:01:
I’m not surprised with the chart results that kilasir posted. I’ve always imagined that French music is far more dominating in France than “international” music. On the other hand, look, D.H.T. made it to #4 with Roxette’s ballad. No, I really don’t have a clue. Though I expected higher position for It Must Have Been Love.
And yeah, in France they eat frogs ;)
HBrox said on November 29, 2006 15:05:
I’ve been in France two times for quite a lot time and I must that they’re not used to speak english at all. Although you can hear a lot of influence from the American/ english styles en their music, musicans always sing in french. Especially R&B, rap,.. France’s music taste is really unique and differente from the rest of the world.
By they way, I will be in France again in march next year for a 2 month periode. Any Roxette fan in Toulouse that I can meet there?
quagmir said on November 29, 2006 16:17:
Yes Roxette came to France few times. Once for the Joyride tour and even for the LS tour, but I do think that the LS show was cancelled.
They were also on different TV shows ; I even was in Paris for a recording (WICF, May’99) and it was funny because I was there with another Rox friend and we were holding the Joyride flag and it was only the two of us who seemed to know Marie and Per. But it’s a good memory.
Anyway about us speaking or not speaking english. That’s something I ’m very sad about because as someone said we are kinda snobish and some people just think that it’s not necessary to speak english. Where I’m leaving (near Germany) we grow up speaking French and something that looks like german (alsacian), so you’re more open to learn other languages. But I know people in other part of the country who just don’t care about languages. :(
So about Rox, well I kinda agree with Max-Tob, some French people certainly think that they are not stylish enough or there music is too light... I dunno but like Auryte said, DHT was well charted and there was even a cover of It must have been love some years ago who did kinda well in the charts. Right now, the GH has been released for two weeks here and nothings happening (but we are used to it).
And yes we eat frogs, I like them and Roxette, so....
Max-Tob said on November 29, 2006 16:52:
Yeah...the frogs...what’s wrong with the frogs?...quite delicious...but we actually eat the legs...wich taste more or less like chicken, so...
@quagmir: strange with the DHT, you’re right...I don’t get it. On the other hand I know nothing about what the French kids listen nowadays. I can only tell from my own experience, from my own age group (bond to 30...)
Santi said on November 29, 2006 22:57:
I don’t find it so strange that people think Roxette is the name of a woman. Because it actually is, Per got the name for the band from a song by the Doctor Feelgood that deals with a woman called Roxette.
Rox_Nox2003 said on November 30, 2006 01:04:
U have to give those 5 stars to Santi..he’s right anyway.
About French not wanting to speak english: i was even more shocked when their president during an international coference refused to hear a french patriotic who was making a speech in english and only because he was doing it in English for an audience who only language connector is English. He left the conference furious for this betrial... I ask myself why??
Back to Roxette: it’s a pity that Roxette never hit big in France ... but the important thing is ... they’re good, they’re great, they’re fantastic and for as long as they do music I’m fine even if they sell zero copies from where I’m from (ops one copy is mine so it’s 1 copy sold LOOL)
A bientôt mes anges :)
Roxette-atic said on November 28, 2006 18:22:
No music taste in France then ;)