This Clementine is pure juice.
"This is neither my return nor a new start, because nobody knows me in France, presents the singer of 57 years, about her 39th album," Quel temps fait-il ", released on May 28th.
I "took advantage" of the pandemic to produce myself a record for France with unknown and funny songs by Jean Yanne, Gainsbourg, Jacques Tati, But as soon as possible, I will return to Japan.
"
Because his career has been there for thirty years.
Clémentine Mitz is even there "the most listened to French singers", if we are to believe several Japanese publications, which quote her between Gainsbourg and Aznavour, Birkin and Gréco, and qualify her jazz and bossa style as "French pop".
She releases almost two albums a year there - she has sold four million in this country still attached to CD and vinyl - and does at least one tour a year.
While living in Saint-Germain-des-Prés, a district of which she has become the ambassador in the land of the rising sun.
She preferred to stay in Paris
She shows us at home her discs in Japanese version, saucers and pins with her effigy and even a tourist guide that the Japanese asked her to write 25 years ago on Saint-Germain-des-Prés and the French Riviera.
“I have been offered several times to live in Japan, but I preferred to stay in Paris to raise my two children and I did well.
I stay exotic.
"
Clémentine regularly makes the front page of the Japanese specialized press.
DR
The love story began in 1987 in Paris at CBS, the former name of Sony Music.
“I had just released my first 45,
Absolument Jazz
, which worked well.
And during his visit, a delegation from Sony Japan fell in love with my voice and that of Patricia Kaas.
Two years later, when I made the album
Blue Continent
, Sony Japan released it.
Without promotion, it did very well.
They offered to sign a contract and make a career with them.
I said yes right away.
"
Karaoke and school star
At 26, she left Paris. “I was afraid of flying, but I left with my parents. My father, a great collector of jazz records, was delighted and my mother wrote my lyrics. I stayed there for a fortnight to record an album with the trendy local musicians who composed for me. The Japanese liked it. They adopted me. My fragile and shrill voice touches them, soothes them, my lyrics are light, poetic, too… We can hear my songs in karaoke, in schools. Because we had a big success with the
Animentine
series
, Japanese cartoons that I sang in French and in bossa. They don't have the same ear, they don't like what is violent and committed. "
The one who was made Honorary Ambassador of Friendship of the City of Kyoto has performed in all halls of Tokyo and in all the cities of the island.
“Right after the 2011 earthquake, they asked me to come.
I supported those who had lost everything, even in shelters.
It was strong.
I also did a tour with a symphony orchestra, another in Buddhist temples… I went there so often that I am no longer afraid of flying.
"
EDITOR'S RATING: 3.5 / 5
" What weather is it ?
»By Clémentine,
Music Box / Wagram Music, 14.99 euros;
in concert in early 2022 in Paris.