Je te rends ton amour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

“Je te rends ton amour”
Single by Mylène Farmer from the album Innamoramento
Released	June 8, 1999
Format	CD single CD maxi 12" maxi Digital download (since 2005)
Recorded	1999, France
Genre	Pop
Length	5:05 (single version) 5:12 (album version)
Label	Polydor
Writer(s)	Text : Mylène Farmer Music : Laurent Boutonnat
Producer	Laurent Boutonnat
Mylène Farmer singles chronology
"L'Âme-stram-gram" (1999) "Je te rends ton amour" (1999) "Souviens-toi du jour" (1999) Alternate cover CD maxi Innamoramento track listing "Dessine-moi un mouton" (3) "Je te rends ton amour" (5) "Méfie-toi" (4) Mylenium Tour track listing "Pas le temps de vivre" (5) "Je te rends ton amour" (6) "Souviens-toi du jour" (7) Music Videos III track listing "L'Âme-stram-gram" (1) "Je te rends ton amour" (2) "Souviens-toi du jour" (3) Music Videos II & III track listing "L'Âme-stram-gram" (6) "Je te rends ton amour" (7) "Souviens-toi du jour" (8) Les Mots track listing "L'Âme-stram-gram" (8) "Je te rends ton amour" (9) "Effets secondaires" (10)

"Je te rends ton amour" is a 1999 song recorded by the French artist Mylène Farmer. Second single from her fifth studio album Innamoramento, it was released on June 8, 1999.

[edit] Background and writing

After the release of "L'Âme-stram-gram", rumours announced "Dessine-moi un mouton" as second single from Innamoramento, with a video inspired by Antoine de Saint Exupery's Le Petit Prince, featuring the crash of an airplane. However, Farmer decided to release her favorite song of the album, "Je te rends ton amour", instead of "Dessine-moi un mouton". This song, whose music was composed by Laurent Boutonnat primarily for Nathalie Cardone,^[1] made able the album to remain in the top of top albums during the 1999 summer.^{[2] [3]}

The single was released in various media offering an unpublished song, "Effets secondaires", as well as two remixes produced by Perky Park.

"Je te rends ton amour" is available in its studio version on Innamoramento and Les Mots and on its live version on Mylenium Tour. The song was selected for inclusion in the track listing of 2006 concerts Avant que l'ombre... à Bercy ; it had even been sung during the rehearsals, but was finally rejected.

[edit] Lyrics and music

The lyrics contain several references about the painting, including Egon Schiele (referenced by name in the refrain), an Austrian painter born in 1890. The French painter Paul Gauguin is also cited in the lyrics, as well as the lexical field of painting.^[4] In the song, Farmer evokes a Schiele's painting, La Femme nue debout, and personifies the model painted. She also uses the typography of Schiele's signature to write the song's title on the cover of the CD and vinyl.^[5]

[edit] Music video

For the first time in Farmer's career, the video was directed by François Hanss. Shot for two days in the abbey of Mériel (Val-d'Oise, France), this Requiem Publishing and Stuffed Monkey production cost about 100,000 euros. The screenplay was written by Mylène Farmer.^[6]

Mylène Farmer just before entering the church in the music video "Je te rends ton amour".

At the beginning of the video, we see a blind woman, Farmer, wearing a red dress, with a Bible in her hand. She goes out of a tunnel and walks in a forest, touching trees to locate. She comes in a church, and then enters the confessional. There she opens her Bible written in Braille and starts to read it with her fingers ; then she withdraws her alliance. A man dressed in black, a demon, plunges his fingers with long nails in the holy water stoup, extinguishes the candles and knocks down chairs, then moves to the other side of the confessional. His eyes are similar to those of a snake. Gargoyles and statues of Christ are shown on several occasions. Blood starts to flow along the woman's hands and legs. The man then knocks over the Bible and grabbed the woman by the neck. She tries first to resist, but finds herself naked and covered with blood ; she is raped by the man. First gagged and tied, she is then crucified on the beams of the nave. She then put in a position of the fetus in a pool of blood. Having a bath in it, she leaves her alliance on the ground, then goes out of the church, dressed in a long black dress. She regains sight.^[7]

In France, the video, which shows several scene of sex and blood and criticizes the Christianity, triggered a wave of shock. It was considered as being "too daring".^[8] The Conseil supérieur de l'audiovisuel has indeed forbidden to broadcast it during the day to not shock children.^[9] M6 had therefore aired a short two-minute version that stopped when the demon wildly caught Farmer, at the second chorus.^[10] In response to this censorship, Farmer decided to release the video in its full version as a VHS with a booklet of unpublished photos. All the funds collected tanks to the 70,000 sales of the tape was returned to Sidaction, an association fighting against AIDS.^[2] In 2000, in an interview on MCM, the singer said about this censorship: "This has no interest to want to offend at all costs in order to talk about you. I deal with subjects that might be a little tricky taboo. The censorship, and especially in France, is a bit harsh and attacking everything and anything, and what I find really regrettable".^[11]

In the magazine Voici, Joseph Messinger, a French psychoanalyst, did a surprising analysis of this video.^[12] According to another analysis, "Je te rends ton amour" is one of Farmer's music videos which uses the more of symbolisms, "bringing together aestheticism, shock images and deep themes". Several interpretations are possible. The blood represents successively holiness, the loss of virginity, the defilement. Little by little in the video, Farmer loses her original purity. The stigmata refer to the idea of pain ensuing from the human condition. The Bible, a symbol of dogmatic thinking, evokes the notion of forbidden. When Farmer wants to decrypt it with her fingers, she is punished for trying to accede to a knowledge reserved for an elite (this image refers to Eve and the serpent). Another interpretation of this video is that Farmer "refuses any dogmatic system", preferring a "freer world".^[13] Another analysis establishes a link with Georges Bataille's novel, Story of the Eye.^[14]

[edit] TV performances

Mylène Farmer performing the song on 50 Ans de tubes, with the dress made by John Galliano.

Mylène Farmer sang "Je te rends ton amour" in two TV shows :

First, in La Fureur du parc (in playback), on June 19. The show was broadcast in the Parc des Princes, in Paris. Farmer accepted to perform her song provided to sing at the lead of the program. She appeared suddenly from the ground, standing on a platform that rose in the airs.^[15]

Then, in 50 Ans de tubes, on July 30, in which the singer performed the song in a works gallery of the French sculptor Caesar, in Provence.^[16]

At these occasions, Farmer wore the same dress as for the video. This dress was made by the British fashion designer John Galliano. As Farmer wasn't allowed to wear it again for her 2000 tour, she did make a similar dress.^[3]

[edit] Chart performances

Sales of the single were lukewarm. In France, it debuted at #10, its highest position, on June 12, which was at the time the 17th Top 10 of Farmer. However, the single fell sharply the following week and then stayed in lower positions. It stayed for 12 weeks in the Top 50 and 20 weeks in the Top 100.^[17] It was the 78th best-selling single of 1999 in France, but the second least-selling single from Innamoramento.^[18]

In Belgium, the single featured in the Ultratop 40 on June 19 and reached its peak position the following week, jumping from #30 to #18. However, the weeks after, it fell almost continuously, although it won a few positions.^[19] It remained on the chart for a total of 10 weeks and was ranked number 92 in Belgian Annual Chart.^[20]

[edit] Covers

In 2005, the song was covered by the band Lo-Fi.^[5]

[edit] Formats and track listings

[edit] Versions

Official versions

Unofficial mentionable fan remixes^[21]

• DJ Nicuum remix (5:52)
• P Pascual Satan is a woman church mix (7:20)

[edit] "Effets secondaires"

The CD single and CD maxi contains a new song, "Effets secondaires".

The song depicts Farmer as being unable to fall asleep. The song mentions Krueger and was thus inspired by a series of horror films by Wes Craven, Nightmare on Elm Street.

Throughout the song, the singer lists the hours and and seems to read, in a sort of trance, the dose of a drug that prevents her from sleep and that has side effects such as delirium (some words seem to quite inconsistent). In terms of structure, only refrains are sung, while the verses are spoken in low tones. The song ends with a long ringing alarm clock.^[22]

This song is included on the best of Les Mots. It has never been performed on stage or on television.

[edit] Credits and personnel

• Text : Mylène Farmer
• Music : Laurent Boutonnat
• Editions : Requiem Publishing
• Recording company : Polydor
• Photography : Marino Parisollo Vay
• Design : Henry Neu / Com'N.B
• Made in the U.S.

[edit] Charts, certifications, sales