Que mon cœur lâche

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“Que mon cœur lâche”
Single by Mylène Farmer from the album Dance Remixes
Released	November 23, 1992 (French version) May 1993 (English version)
Format	CD single 7" single 7" maxi Cassette Digital download (since 2005)
Recorded	1992, France
Genre	Pop
Length	4:05
Label	Polydor
Writer(s)	Text : Mylène Farmer Music : Laurent Boutonnat
Producer	Laurent Boutonnat
Mylène Farmer singles chronology
"Beyond My Control" (1992) "Que mon cœur lâche" (1992) "XXL" (1995) Alternate cover Single cover for "My Soul Is Slashed" Dance Remixes track listing "À quoi je sers..." (8) "Que mon cœur lâche" (1) "Pourvu qu'elles soient douces" (2) Live à Bercy track listing "California" (3) "Que mon cœur lâche" (4) "Et Tournoie..." (5) Music Videos II track listing "Que mon cœur lâche" (1) "XXL" (2) Music Videos II track listing "Que mon cœur lâche" (1) "XXL" (2) Les Mots track listing "Beyond My Control" (14) "Que mon cœur lâche" (15) "Les Mots" (1)

"Que mon cœur lâche" is a 1992 song recorded by the French artist Mylène Farmer. The single was an unpublished song, because it was not available on Farmer's albums at the time. It was released on November 23, 1992 in its French version, and in May 1993, in its English version, under the name "My Soul Is Slashed".

[edit] Background and writing

French version

In 1992, the pop singer Étienne Daho contacted many French popular singers in order to convince them to participate in the recording of a double album whose profits will be donated to the search against AIDS. Farmer, which usually doesn't participate in initiatives with charitable aims, however, accepted ; thus Boutonnat and she composed a new song, "Que mon cœur lâche". This song is refused, because the text is considered to be too ambiguous,^[1] which seems to advocate bareback (i.e. a sexual intercourse without the use of a condom) and the music is too pop for a serious subject. As a result, instead of the song, Farmer re-recorded her 1988 song "Dernier Sourire", which deals with the death of a sick person, in an acoustic version and which eventually appears on the compilation album Urgence - 27 artistes pour la recherche contre le SIDA.^[2]

At the same time, Farmer and Boutonnat decided to release their first compilation album composed of remixes, Dance Remixes, in December 1992. To promote it, the song "Que mon cœur lâche" was commercialized at the same time.^[3] The single's cover uses a Marianne Rosenthiel's photograph originally made for the previous single "Beyond My Control" in which Farmer trains in a gym.^[4]

Unlike most of Farmer's singles, there was no CD maxi for this single.

The song was performed in a rock version during the 1996 Bercy, and was also sung in Russia at the time of the Mylenium Tour.

English version

The single was also released in an English version, entitled "My Soul Is Slashed". This was the second time that Farmer recorded one of her singles in a foreign language (the first one was "My Mum Is Wrong" in 1984, the English version of "Maman a tort"). Mainly edited for the Germany and the US, the song was translated by both Farmer and Ira Israel. In an interview, Israel said it was difficult to write the lyrics of "My Soul Is Slashed". Indeed, Farmer was very demanding even in the slightest details (word, rhythm, meaning, feeling). Farmer hated the first text he had composed and as a result, they had to work together.^[5]

This version has never been performed on television and at Farmer's concerts. The single and vinyl's cover is the same as that of the French version, but with a black background. The song is only available on the European version of the compilation Dance Remixes and on the long-box version of the best of Les Mots. This English version was a failure.^[6]

[edit] Lyrics and music

"Que mon cœur lâche" deals with the themes of AIDS and condoms.^[7] The text is very committed and is similar to that in Sid'amour à mort written by Barbara. Contrary to what some people have thought, Farmer doesn't recommand in the song to not use condoms, but lyrics are simply an observation on this subject.^[1] Indeed, in an interview, the singer said : "I tried to not make any commitment. Should we save or not to save a condom ? It seems to me obviously need to save, but it is not the message I wanted to convey in the song. There is no message elsewhere in the song, simply an observation on love today. Love perverted by the threat of the disease, by the issue of condoms, which arose at the outset that we feel an impetus to another person. Clearly, I say that everyone should take responsibility toward the disease. Everybody is indeed faced with this reality, and I find it sad. Using a condom is not something loose. In the current situation, an appropriate course to guard against the disease seems to go without saying".^[8]

[edit] Music video

Exceptionally, Laurent Boutonnat didn't direct the song's video, because he was very busy with his film Giorgino that he prepared. So it was the French film director, writer and producer Luc Besson, a Boutonnat and Farmer's friend (the singer was even an extra in his 1983 film Le Dernier Combat), who shot the video. This Requiem Publishing and Heathcliff SA production, which lasts 6:44, was filmed for three days at the studios of Stains (France), with a budget of about 100,000 euros.^[9]

The video says at the end that Michael Jackson, which is believed to see in the video, is actually a body double. The final scene in which Farmer blows a bubble with her chewing gum refers to a similar scene of Besson's film Nikita. The video was broadcast for the first time on M6, on December 12, 1992.^[10]

At the beginning of the video, an old man - God, in Paradise - reads a newspaper with disgust. As he thinks that humans have damaged this wonderful feeling named love, he wants that an angel goes to Earth to hold an inquiry. The angel chosen (Farmer, dressed in white as a ballerina), doesn't hear what God tells her because she is listening "Que mon cœur lâche" on her walkman. Then she goes on Earth, hunts a black feather on her wrist and discovers three pairs of lovers : one couple who are quarrelling, the second one very modest and the third one very libertine. She goes near to a nightclub called 'Q' and guarded by a big man. Two men are not allowed to go to this discothèque and the angel offers them to breathe in an oxygen ball. An old man comes and takes the mask and a muscular young man wearing only a slip appears and begins to dance, what the old man appreciates. A second youngest man breathes in turn in the mask and Michael Jackson appears, but this one is crushed by a huge cross fell from the sky. The angel is quite intrigued by this nightclub : so she dresses up very sexy with black clothes, hunts a white feather on her wrist and enters into the discothèque. There, she sees people with an ambiguous sexuality who are walking in a corridor made of white curtains and a woman makes breathe to her in an oxygen mask. After that, the angel, dressed as a prostitute, comes back to Paradise and detonates a bubble of chewing gum in front of God.^[11]

The video was inspired by Frederico Fellini and Mel Brooks' works, and especially the David Lynch's movie Blue Velvet. Indeed, as in this film, the video has the characteristic of alternate imaginary elements and real things, as well as the use of an oxygen mask. It symbolizes the fact that "every person is looking for his drunkenness which can lead to extreme erotic games". It is an allegory of what fuels desires. The club named 'Q' in the video may be a reference both to the novel Steppenwolf, written by Hermann Hesse, but also to the bar "One-Eyed Jack" in Twin Peaks, in which the heroine Laura Palmer has lost her innocence being fascinated by this bar where fantasies can be satisfied. The message of this video is that, "behind the appearance of propriety is bursting the world of fantasies and its attractiveness".^[12]

This video is also very critical of religions : God is presented as a very austere businessman. Moreover, according to some analyses, the video explains that to give free rein to sexual fantasies, it necessary to transgress social and religious norms (respectively represented by the bouncer and God). As for the white curtains within the nightclub, they would be a symbol of the hymen or condoms.^[11]

There are three versions of the video : a first version with French subtitles which features on Farmer's VHS and DVD, a second version without subtitles and video's title at the beginning, and a third version for "My Soul Is Slashed", similar to that of "Que mon cœur lâche".

[edit] TV and chart performances

Farmer performed the song in two French TV shows : in Stars 90 (TF1, January 11, 1993), and in World Music Awards (broadcast on TMC, on May 13, 1993 ; she then won the prize for the French-speaking artist who has sold more records in 1992).^[13]

In France, the single debute at number 14 on December 5, 1992. It reached #9, its peak position, four weeks later. The song stayed for a total of 17 weeks in the Top 50 (12 weeks in the top 20). In Belgium (Wallonia), the single peaked at number 8.^[14] Those are good scores, but they are not exceptional.

[edit] Formats and track listings

[edit] Versions

Official versions

My Soul Is Slashed

[edit] Credits and personnel

• Text : Mylène Farmer
• Music : Laurent Boutonnat
• Editions : Bertrand Le Page and Toutankhamon
• Recording company :Polydor
• Photography : Marianne Rosensthiel

[edit] Charts, certifications and sales

[edit] References