Last Tuesday, the French Eurovision 2018 representatives, Madame Monsieur, were invited on French radio Europe 1. During their interview with journalist Karima Charni, Émilie and Jean-Karlk talked about Eurovision, Mercy, and their upcoming album.
Remembering Eurovision
After winning Destination Eurovision in January 2018, with their song “Mercy”, Madame Monsieur finally got to meet a larger public, something they happily confessed in the interview. They still remember fondly the entire season, especially the promotion pre-parties, and their surprise at how many Eurovision fans could sing their song, in French, in Tel-Aviv (Israel Calling) or in Ukraine (the Vidbir interval act).
But let’s not forget that Madame Monsieur also took part in Eurovision 2019, alonsgide Bilal Hassani. They met him during the filming of a TV show in September 2018, and rapidly decided to write a song for him.
During our conversations, we discovered that he liked singing, but he had put that on the side because, as he explained, in France you kinda have to choose : you’re either a Youtuber or a singer. So we brought him to our home studio, we made “Roi”, we showed it to our producer, who said “Bah, I’m signing this right now!”.
Émilie Satt (from Madame Monsieur)
They accompanied him in Tel-Aviv, and Émilie even sang as a backing vocalist for France.
Tandem
But the interview was mainly about Madame Monsieur’s new album, Tandem, which will be released on September 20th. Unlike their latest album Vu d’ici, which was their “solo pop album”, Tandem is all about collaborations. It will feature many guests for 22 original songs.
Their featured artists will range from rappers to pop singers, staying true to the diversity of their styles. Actually, they had already released a collaboration EP with the same title in 2016, but they wanted to do something bigger for an actual album.
Several singles have already been released, like “Les Lois de l’attraction” (The laws of attraction) with pop-rock band Kyo, “Comme si j’avais mille ans“ (As if I were a thousand years old) with rapper Kalash Criminel, and more recently “Bandido” with rapper K-Point and harmonicist Greg Zlap.
Other guests include Amir, Boulevard des Airs, Christophe Willem (Destination Eurovision expert panel member), Claudio Capéo, Soprano, Slimane, Joker, or Lord Esperenza. No artist will appear in more than one song.
Madame Monsieur also strongly hinted at a collaboration with Bilal Hassani when asked by Karima Charni about it. With about a dozen collaborations still to be revealed, it is entirely possible.
They were also asked about how to find a a common ground to write and sing with so many different artists. Madame Monsieur explained how most songs were introduced by them and then completed in common.
[…] everytime we had a guest in mind, we started to write the song’s structure, its universe and atmosphere, by defining a theme. Usually I had written the first verse and the chorus. So I was giving a clear direction and tone, and I was proposing that they write the rest of the song.Émilie Satt, about the writing process for Madame Monsieur’s next album Tandem
Mercy and Sia
During the interview, Madame Monsieur also gave some information about Mercy, the baby girl born aboard the Aquarius, who inspired their Eurovision entry. She moved from Sicily and is now living safely in Naples, with the duo being frequently updated by Mercy’s mother.
Finally, as a tradition of the radio show they were invited in, Madame Monsieur were asked to reveal “the song which had a big impact on their life”. They revealed that it was “Sunday”, from Sia’s third album Colour the small one, which inspired them “immensely”.
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