When Carla Bruni, the Italian-born, French-raised heiress and supermodel quit the catwalk to reinvent herself as a singer-songwriter 20 years ago, many thought it would be short-lived dilettantism. Yet Bruni surprised her detractors, showing herself to be a talented songwriter and a careful, nuanced singer whose jazzy chansons soon topped the French charts. She has continued to do so, even after the inevitable hiatus to her musical career caused by marrying Nicolas Sarkozy, and spending 2008-12 in the Élysée as France’s first lady.
She has spoken of suffering from crippling stage fright, but this still-gamine figure, fronting a four-piece, light-jazz band, exudes preternatural poise. Bruni moves with beatific grace, recalling Karl Lagerfeld’s praise of her as “this beautiful creature who can wear anything”; her husky whisper could be a parody of a breathy Gallic siren.
Her latest album is a set of cover versions sung in English, French Touch, which is a decidedly mixed bag. It largely works because Bruni pours herself into the songs as if in thrall to them: her pitch-perfect, sparse croon through Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence identifies and amplifies the bleak yearning at the song’s core.
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