Daphné
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Daphné is a French singer. Her first album, called L'émeraude (The Emerald), was released in 2005.
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[edit] Biography
Thirty-year-old Daphné was born in Clermont-Ferrand, Puy-de-Dôme, France but never actually lived in the prefecture of Auvergne. She has stayed in Paris, Poitiers in the Poitou region, the Alps and even abroad.
Daphné has always been a huge fan of Henry Purcell, Mozart and Maurice Ravel. Her modern musical tastes include Stevie Wonder and Sting but she says the latter did not influence her own work. Technically speaking, the most important thing for her in writing a song is finding the right tune because "tunes carry emotions". Sometimes referred to as the French Björk, Daphné's entrancing voice often has her compared to a fairy. She confesses that she "would love to touch the hearts of people who stopped believing in their dreams, in their lives, who only think of running away..."
Her first album, which could be defined as trip hop with a touch of pop and chanson, just illustrates this frame of mind. Le réveil (The Awakening) is about being happy in love and confident in the future. Anna is about the end of innocence. Un homme sous influence (A Man Under Influence) is about rejection while Ton cœur (Your Heart) is an ode to trust. Trafalgar Square tells how the sun always shines again after the rain. L'insoumise (The Rebel) and Il viaggio (The Journey), a song in Italian, are both about the essential need to stand for oneself, to resist, to fight against oneself and society to uncover one's true personality and eventually see love as it is: a liberation.
[edit] Translated
[edit] Un homme sous influence
This song is about a man under influence (Un homme sous influence), a man who lost faith in life the day the woman he loved and placed all his hopes in left him with a broken heart and more than his share of broken dreams:
So one day he said to himself: "My voice doesn't count
"My voice doesn't count any longer, I will not vote again
"I swear I'll never care for those I love again
"Why should I bother inventing my own life?"
Because one day he thought no one loved him
That be rejected once meant never be loved again
Even maybe never have been loved at all
On that day he believed and he stood still
With his belly gone soft, with his belly gone flat
Creating nothing with his hands, throwing out his chest no more
Neglecting the destiny he dreamed with all his strength
He flew away to the highest branch
Like a proud, indifferent eagle
He silently danced all night long
Forgetting that oblivion is a crime
So one day he was hit by a mirror's eyes
On his own in the middle of a street, by his memory's pain
His lost love left him long ago
Digging lines on his face like a disillusioned castaway's
With his heart to untie behind a fragile voice
An uneasy breath caused by too much silence
A fast man's gait, the gait of a man hiding
The open wounds of deceived, abandoned love
A man who can't hear any more the rocking of his own heart
Made so drunk as he was with the scent of happiness
But does he sometimes stop to listen to the sweet melody
That reminds his life of how big his heart is?
He flew away to the highest branch
Like a proud, indifferent eagle
He silently danced all night long
Forgetting that oblivion is a crime
The day has come, this winter month's day
The one he never expected when he'd lose whom he loves...
[edit] L'insoumise
Using Latin American rhythms, Daphné the Rebel (L'insoumise) addresses those who want to rule over her life and make her lazy and unhappy with a very optimistic and straightforward speech about being free in an alienating world and herself at long last!
I don't want to live in a crèche
The walls there are too dry, I can't breathe
Your fingers remind me of prison bars
When we kiss, I feel muzzled
No, I don't want to live in a green cradle
Where your greedy cushions want to silence me
You mesmerizing vulture, devastating my place
Finding the mess quite normal
Where is it written that one should not
Do what one wishes here below?
Today's winter, the season of why's
But tomorrow'll be hell if you don't get up now
From your lazy bed in which you're giving up
From the invisible land where lions sleep
Silent mutant girl, can't you see the seasons
Moving around you are your home now?
In your wildest dreams your life
Would be like a zebra hide and you smile
Slow passer-by trapped under heavy spells
Shake them off your umbrella, make your desires alive again
Since you don't fancy living in a glass kingdom
Caught behind the windows of executioners
Everything's possible still, stop being the target
Tired and submitted to the whole world
I don't want to live onboard a balloon
Waving my hand to the nothingness in mid-air
I want to live on earth, I don't want to dodge it
Where laughter rules, I won't have any regrets
I don't want to live in a crèche
The walls there are too dry, I can't breathe
Your fingers remind me of prison bars
When we kiss, I feel muzzled
No, I don't want to, I don't want to...
[edit] Le réveil
Le réveil (The Awakening) is a very poetic and optimistic dream-like song about waking up beside the one you love and sharing the same romantic goals as the sun gently rises from an ultramarine night:
Wake up, sweetie, wake up
Look at yourself, the sun is up, then look at me
Oh yes, I know we won't be cold where we're heading
Oh yes, you know the lightning's wild, we'll love each other
To your beautiful naked shoulder, to its charm
To the beautiful ultramarine blue of a true dawn
You woke me up early this morning, I think
As if summer were now on my side
As time takes us, we'll fly away
We'll be just you and me
This crazy weather is sunny still
Take us forever
Trust me, the night's over
I'll stay in your arms
In the sunrise of my dreams and my existence
Wake up, the sun is up, it's not my fault
The blue night has melted for being too close to you
Where we are often leads to where we go
As time takes us, we'll fly away
We'll be just you and me
This crazy weather is sunny still
Take us right now
Trust me, the night's over
I'll stay in your arms
In the sunrise of my dreams and my existence
Wake up, sweetie, wake up
Look at yourself, the sun is up, then look at me...
[edit] Discography
[edit] L'émeraude (2005)
-
- Un homme sous influence
- Ton cœur
- L'insoumise
- Théo Soleil
- L'île voisine
- Le réveil
- Anna
- Il viaggio
- La danse au loup
- Trafalgar Square
- La nuit des fous
- Sagamore
[edit] Carmin (2007)
This album is due for release on April 23rd.
[edit] External link
- Daphné: L'émeraude, official website in French
- Biographie: Carmin, informations about the second album in French
