Carla Bruni sings of her 30 lovers

France was offered another teaser today ahead of the July 21 release of the new album by Carla Bruni, the singer-model whose marriage to President Sarkozy has made her one of the music industry's hottest properties.

The album of 14 songs, mainly written by Bruni with help from her friends, is being guarded by Naive records like a state secret. They gave a first listen to a safe audience -- le Figaro newspaper, which is the most pro-Sarko outlet in the French media.

Bruno Dicale, their music critic, proclaimed her opus a stunning success. If only the world could appreciate Bruni's new songs on their own merit rather than viewing them as the effort of France's first lady, he said. But, feeding the unhealthy interest which he deplores, Dicale quoted a couple of new lines that will excite interest.

Here they are. In the song Ma Came, which I wrote about a couple of weeks ago, Bruni sings: "

You are my fix,
More deadly than Afghan heroin
More dangerous than Colombian white

In a song called Une enfant, Bruni sings:

I am a child
Despite my 40 years
Despite My 30 Lovers
A child.

Dicale says the song, set to a Schumann lied, is of "a touching immodesty". It is one of the summits in an album which Bruni delivers with her  "bewitching, fragile and dense voice". Her style is more French chanson with a dash of Beatles, and less American folk than her previous two albums, he adds.

Bruni's people say that 95 percent of the mainly autobiographical numbers were written before she met Sarko last November. That will not stop the analysis to which they will be subjected. The mention of only 30 lovers will doubtless raise eyebrows, given Ms Bruni's colourful past and her description of herself as a lioness who "could never be monogamous".

In the latest of her promotional interviews today, Bruni says again that she only wants to be appreciated as an artist but she is aware that her status as Mrs Sarkozy will distort things.

Judging by the superlatives already doing the rounds, Bruni need have no fears of about the mainstream media. In its interview today, VSD magazine is breathless in its admiration of the monarch's new consort. "Serene...diaphanous and creative... the elegance of pop without the fatality of overdose..." and so on. She is donating her royalties to humanitarian causes and she is impatient to find a new role for herself in this field, she tells VSD.

In the interview "Carlita", as Sarko calls her, quotes Nietzsche and says that she does not trust people who do not like music. "Music is the expression of feelings. Human beings and nature make it."

A lot more of this awaits us. The US Vanity Fair is running a cover on her in August, with the portrait done, of course, by Annie Leibowitz. She is also to feature in a BBC documentary.

The Elysée Palace is thrilled with the success that Bruni is enjoying in French public opinion. A poll for this week's Journal du Dimanche found that 68 percent approved of her -- compared with only 35 percent for Sarko. The President's team is banking on "the Carla effect" as he gradually restores his image in the eyes of his citizens.

Comments

[Daisy]

So if all the songs were written last year before she met Five Brains, does that mean he's not counted among the "30 lovers"?

She kept her mouth shut and smiled and her ratings went up. Now she's blabbing to anyone who would listen, how long before the ratings fall? Discretion is a lost art.

[dot king]

So, on her last album she set other people's good "lyrics" to "music" and on this one she uses someone else's good music and sets her own "lyrics".
Original, non?

I am a blogger
Despite my undusted house
Despite my unwalked dog
A blogger

The music is "wir setzen uns" from the "St Matthew Passion" - the Bach one :)

PS I'm keeping all the royalties.

[azloon]

[I am a child
Despite my 40 years
Despite My 30 Lovers] Carlita

ah, so this deal with NS this is a 'daddy' thing. i wonder if he spanks her.

[PAUL]

Carla has everything! It is not surprising many ordinary people are jealous.

[nicolas]

You can keep Camilla , I shall stick to Carlita.

[Terry]

The truly bad part for Sarko is not her thirty lovers, but the fact that he is number 28.

[dot king]

NICOLAS: any woman who feels the need to say to another woman, indicating the presidential power-bed "you'd have liked to have been there, wouldn't you?" is not a woman who "has everything".
If you have that kind of need then you have a BIG hole in your self-esteem. And a not inconsiderable personality problem.
IMO Rachida Dati showed great elegance in not replying "but I WAS there before you, didn't you know?" and therefore did not stoop to the kind of bitchiness the remark deserved - whether the truth or not.

But you're a mere male and think that all a woman needs to "have everything" is to have what YOU admire in a woman you can't have. How shallow. Poor lambkin.

[dot king]

OOPS my last post was addressed to NICOLAS, should have been replying to PAUL, but can apply equally.

So NICOLAS, you'll "stick to Carlita" will you? Unless you're a certain Nicolas, the one we (nearly) all love and revere highly on this blog, I very much doubt that.

What absurd little creatures men are sometimes, aren't they? They think WE'RE jealous of what THEY can't have. Poor lambkins!

[Romain]

The album must contain the number :"thirty ways to leave your lover".
Louis Vuitton should consider giving away a CD for every bag purchased by a Chinese shopper.

[Kelley]

Very good Ms Bruni Sarkosy but music wise we in britain long to hear your equally beautiful equallly talented & equally witty only more reserved wonderful Ms Sade Adu ! ... but where's she gone ?

[joëlle]

30???...less than Madonna but more than lady Di....hmmm, think she must have early onset Alzheimer's, or else she's crap at maths, or is it just poetic licence...

[joëlle]

30???...less than Madonna but more than lady Di....hmmm, think she must have early onset Alzheimer's, or else she's crap at maths, or is it just poetic licence...

[Angela Jolly]

Sade ! yeah a lot more talented and we get soul as well !

[Esmita]

From earlier comment: 'any woman who feels the need to say to another woman, indicating the presidential power-bed "you'd have liked to have been there, wouldn't you?" is not a woman who "has everything".'

What Rachida Dati should have said and I am sure she thought it is : ' You have slept your way to this position, but I have worked my way to where I am!'
Then again to reply to such a base comment if it really has been said by Bruni doesn't even deserve a reply.

[fra]

You’re The Times for Pete's sake. Leave all this b/s gutter stuff for one of the rag magazines. You have more important subjects to focus you immense journalist talent on.

[azloon]

[you immense journalist talent] FRA re CB

Charles, don't let this backhanded compliment go to your head. i offer you same carrot/compliment but without the stick.

what Fra may not realize is that la pipolisation of the media, even in france, is a fait accompli. there's no going back. and, anyway, who says journalist talent is wasted on stories like this?

this given, carlita, imo, is a better 'trash celebrity' than either madonna or brittany, maybe even better than the two of them combined.

in fact, she IS the french brittany/madonna, masquerading as the wife of the their president.

it doesn't get any better than this.

(CB knows he drew the long straw -- that he could be covering the latest announcement from gazprom at this very moment)

[Dr. Jimmy]

Nope. You mean 31 lovers !

[rocket]

Dot

This is tragic. I mean really tragic. ROCKET

Cheer up - it's a very fine line between tragedy and comedy :)

Repeat mantra "this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

"this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable this is laughable"

This is France This is France This is France This is France
This is France This is France This is France This is France
This is France This is France This is France This is France
This is France This is France This is France This is France

This is France. This is laughable!

[Mary Fernandez]

"In an interview with STD Magazine, the editors were amazed she could count to 30."

With the firing of PPDA and hiring of Ferrari, I think Sarko sent the right message to her reviewers.

Terry - #28, LOL!

[Mary Fernandez]

BTW, I agree with Daisy above.

When she was a pretty, silent accessory, the French loved her. Now that she'll be singing about drugs and whoring all over the world, they might not be so proud to have her 'represent' them. (I could be wrong...)

To Carla, I say congratulations on your career move, uh, marriage. After all, how much lower can Nico's ratings fall? (Poor idiot doesn't realize he'll be in the 'lover's dustheap' when he ceases to promote her interests...)

A shame he was elected to save France, not Carla's career.

[Jollyswagman]

To FRA:
Charles may work for The Times, but this is a BLOG - informal and unfettered by the usual dictates of journalistic rigour or nagging editors.

If you want the serious stuff then avoid blogs and stick to the main articles.

The whole Élysée soapie *is* news though - France has elected a very different president and watching from afar I find 'la rupture' fascinating.

Sarkozy's Rolexes and Carla's soppy songs are not my cuppa but the dynamics of personality politics can be as interesting as the happenings on the floor of the Assemblée.

[christopher muir]

What next? "A touching immodesty," coos Le Friendly Figaro. True French subtlety at work here. Madonna could use that description with a sly grin.

[Lily]

"If you want the serious stuff then avoid blogs and stick to the main articles." (Jollyswagman)

"serious"... "main articles"? - I agree with FRA.

[David Powell]

Mary writes. . ."In an interview with STD Magazine, the editors were amazed she could count to 30."

In this instance is the British Magazine for the health specialists in Sexually Transmitted Diseases?

[Joëlle]

Esmita, am I right in supposing that you DON'T think Rachida slept to get where she is...right...so I'm having difficulty figuring out just how she did get there in that case...

[Aurora]

The woman, for all her aristocratic upbringing, is vulgar trash: what kind of woman boasts of a catty comment to her husband's colleague ["You would have liked to occupy it, wouldn't you?" to Rachida Dati, Minister for Justice, referring to Sarkozy's bed] ? What kind of First Lady brings out a CD speaking of drugs and promiscuity? Welcome to the 21st century Court of Versailles... I'm ALL for another revolution to rid France of this profligate elite that doesn't give a damn about the man in the street.

[PAUL]

Dot King, I had to look in my Harraps for 'lambkin'. Are you feeling pity or affection for me? I don't want either from you, thank you very much, "schoolmarm".As a matter of fact i was half joking but you do not seem to have the reputed British sense of humour.

[PAUL]

If there is any woman on this thread that does not enjoy a bit of promiscuity then she needs ME to wake her to the joys of living!

[Doremi]

Only 30 lovers? That's not very much. She's 40, let's say she has been sexually active since 16 so it's 1.25 lover per year, so not a loose woman after all. Or maybe 30 rhymes better than a bigger number. Anyway she has a lot of do before catching up to George Clooney's. I remember listening to a Radio 4 programme on sex in the 30's, and being shocked by the contrast between women who had got hold of a copy of Marie Stopes and the poor and illiterate who were given no information on the birds and the bees. A now aged Posh woman said " oh we had sex my dear, but we just kept quiet about it".
Women have the right to enjoy the same sexual freedom that men have been allowed to, but using lovers like Kleenex is no great victory.
There's something dodgy about still feeling like a little girl at 40 with a list of conquests as long as my credit-card bill. Seems more like a pathology than something you should sing about. If daddy did not give you love, that love won't be forthcoming in the men you keep on seducing either, despite your ability to make potty of them. They see the adult sex-pot rather than the needy little girl and their vision is fine.

Her psychoanalyse failed, she could try something else. Because really this presidency and the union of these 2 narcissists are starting to look way too French-not the good kind. Could the ghost of Claude Pompidou visit her and teach her some of the class that money can't buy.

[Daisy]

So if she wrote the songs before she met Five Brains, who was the inspiration for that "you're my drug" song? Who is the Colombian white?

[dot king]

Paul, neither pity nor affection, what would be the use?

[dot king]

"Women have the right to enjoy the same sexual freedom that men have been allowed to, but using lovers like Kleenex is no great victory."
DOREMI

Paul, DOREMI has put it perfectly well. By saying Carla Bruni has everything and the rest of us are just jealous, are you saying that we would like to use our lovers like Kleenex?
Or that you aspire to being one of her "jetables" or "recyclables" or worse still "interchangeables"?

You see a beautiful woman, you want her, you get her (you think) but after, you're the one who's been had.

[azloon]

Doremi has it right, and pretty much 'nailed' this thing.

what she (carlita, not Doremi) needs a good spanking, and 'daddy' sarko is just the guy to do it.

this lernaean hydra which is sarko obviously has one more head than previously acknowledged, and that head is also 'well irrigated,' to use carlita's inelegant term.

but unbelievably bad breath.

[PAUL]

Who has been had, teacher? A woman is out for fun. A man is out for fun. Enjoy while it lasts. You know Ronsard? "Mignonne, allons-voir si la rose...". "Carpe diem," - learn a few lessons and don't give so many!

[dot king]

Paul: have your fun, don't ever learn anything, best way.

Remember though that Carlita, getting her fun, also hurt quite a lot of women along the way, this seems quite important in her scheme of things.

A need to hurt, there's nothing to envy there IMO.

Still, all's fair etc, if you want to see it that way.

[Daisy]

"Remember though that Carlita, getting her fun, also hurt quite a lot of women along the way, this seems quite important in her scheme of things." --Dot King

Funny how the woman who has everything still had to take other women's husbands.

[Doremi]

azloon

A good spanking, Victoria Secrets, top-less news. Is it spring your way?

Lambkin,
Anyone take-up your offer? You should put promiscuity on hold and accept a few lessons from Dot.

Men and women, I remember seeing Carla on tv and I found her highly sexual way of behaving deeply irritating, since I am not a lesbian, a bit like Liz Hurley's pouting and fake-posh accent but obviously the man by my side did not have a problem. As women we sense members of our gender who are allies and the ones destined for a special kind of hell, like the ones who are with us at the party until the right man arrives or make a beeline for our husband making us feel like a potted plant. Must be the same of guys, Fabio anyone?

I am not too keen on the woman because seducing the married son of your boyfriend shows warped morals for a human, used to French ways or not. I am not even jealous of the fact that if I was standing next to her I would look like an ugly mushroom.
Even if I did not vote for her hubby, I don't expect my first lady to behave like one of my friends coming back from holiday in Ibiza. Plus her singing takes the cherry.

[Lily]

[The woman, for all her aristocratic upbringing, is vulgar trash: what kind of woman boasts of a catty comment to her husband's colleague ["You would have liked to occupy it, wouldn't you?" to Rachida Dati, Minister for Justice, referring to Sarkozy's bed] ? What kind of First Lady brings out a CD speaking of drugs and promiscuity? Welcome to the 21st century Court of Versailles... I'm ALL for another revolution to rid France of this profligate elite that doesn't give a damn about the man in the street.

any woman who feels the need to say to another woman, indicating the presidential power-bed "you'd have liked to have been there, wouldn't you?" is not a woman who "has everything".

What Rachida Dati should have said and I am sure she thought it is : ' You have slept your way to this position, but I have worked my way to where I am!'] (Dot King, Aurora, Esmita)

Stunning, this common interest in the presidential bed!

[Mary Fernandez]

Well, they say, when asked how many lovers they've had, men double the true number and women halve it.

So I guess we can deduce, Carlita has really had 60.

[Mary Fernandez]

Dot:

Just ignore Paul. He obviously isn't getting any or he wouldn't have to harangue/harass/beg the women on this blog. The tip-off was this little gem:

"If there is any woman on this thread that does not enjoy a bit of promiscuity then she needs ME to wake her to the joys of living!"

Let him live vicariously through Sarko. (poor sod)

[Mary Fernandez]

DOREMI

On your last point, Sarah Vine wrote a great article about Bruni predatory nature and her need not just to get her man but to seemingly destroy other women:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article4075903.ece

[an old geezer]

I say "YES" to Carla Bruni.Brava! Really cool that a statesmans' wife would not have to be a posing ,hypocritic, sanctimonious, phony puritan.. Cool that she's naked on the Internet, and that there are also photos of her with Queen Elizabeth. We're all grown up now ,right? Not everyone has to pretend to be a sexless Bozo to appease the proletariate, I spose cuz it's France, and I guess they don't pose as sanctimonious phony sexless Bozos to please anybody. French people... don't change! Stay free! Carla...you are great!

[thomasine]

I love to see a woman who always win.Most women are bound to feel at some stages like 'potted plants'. I certainly did, a lot, when I was young. Superiority must be admired, that's the recipe for serenity. And a 'man' who disdains your love is not worth worrying about. Carla is incredibly beautiful et très 'gentille'. Good of her to rid you of a man who seizes the next opportunity to look elsewhere. Only she could cure NS of his unhappy lost love. She opted for him out of her good heart. It's nice to go to sleep thinking of this unexpected avatar of the Madonna. It helps you feel like a child. Thank you Italy for your women. Thank you Europe for a type like Carla.

[azloon]

[Azloon -- A good spanking, Victoria Secrets, top-less news. Is it spring your way?

Lambkin,
Anyone take-up your offer? You should put promiscuity on hold and accept a few lessons from Dot.]

Dori --

i only observe, listen, then report the news. no need to invent much. a little poetic license, maybe, but not much.

what in the world was my 'offer' anyway? didn't realize i'd made one. certainly not to spank anyone, or to read the news bottomless, or wear women's underwear. and where does Dot fit into all this?

re fabio. one of the greasiest, most disgusting males roaming this planet. any woman he wants or wants him deserves to have that goonie mug breathing in her face every morning for the rest of eternity. (otherwise, i am quite fond of him.)

btw, i sort of want to throw up when you call me lambkin. is that normal?

[rocket]

In fact references made about drugs is highly illegal and punishable by law in France.

Here is the law.

# ↑ Article L3421-4 du Code de la Santé Publique : « La provocation au délit prévu par l'article L. 3421-1 ou à l'une des infractions prévues par les articles 222-34 à 222-39 du code pénal, alors même que cette provocation n'a pas été suivie d'effet, ou le fait de présenter ces infractions sous un jour favorable est puni de cinq ans d'emprisonnement et de 75 000 euros d'amende. Est punie des mêmes peines la provocation, même non suivie d'effet, à l'usage de substances présentées comme ayant les effets de substances ou plantes classées comme stupéfiants. »

As for 30 lovers, there is no interest in the name of rhyme in the French language between quarante et trente. If it is indeed 30 lovers... big deal who cares. 30 lovers is really not that much over a period of 25 years. In fact these words show the emptiness of this woman's writing ability.

Secondly I wholly agree with Doremi, there is nothing to be proud of when claiming bragging rights to the number of sexual relations one has had. Is her life so empty that she need to "comptabilise" in order to give an empty life some kind of value for an equally superficial entourage.

As for Paul. I find your comments disgustingly evident of a preoccupying and vulgar immaturity. Characteristic of someone who has a hard time growing up and certainly characteristic of the type of man that no woman would start a serious relationship with. If you think that the number of conquests is cool you seriously need to get a life, unrivet your hand from between your legs and think about getting a serious day job.

[rocket]

Thomasinine

"Only she could cure NS of his unhappy lost love. She opted for him out of her good heart."

Tears are flowing from my eyes.

"It's nice to go to sleep thinking of this unexpected avatar of the Madonna."

I'll bet you do!

"It helps you feel like a child. "

Your post certainly proves that!

[GlobalObserver]

Only 30?

I don't believe it!

The American comedian Chris Rock says women only count the guys they actually "dated" -- not the one-night stands. He should know, he's also been to France!

[GlobalObserver]

Only 30?

I don't believe it!

The American comedian Chris Rock says women only count the guys they actually "dated" -- not the one-night stands. He should know, he's also been to France!

[Mary Fernandez]

As an aside that is totally off topic: Has anyone noticed that, since meeting Carlita, Sarko's let his his sideburns grow longer and now looks like a middle-aged Eddie Munster?

No? Me neither.

[Doremi]

Azloon,
(Lambkin,
Anyone take-up your offer? You should put promiscuity on hold and accept a few lessons from Dot)
That was for Paul, (being called Lambkin by Dot irked him a bit, I was applying salt to the wound) who was rather rude to Dot and offered on this blog , his sexual services to women blind to the joys of bed hoping. He did not realise we can go to others sites for that.
I wouldn't call you lambkin. Solid food now is back on the menu.