Je l'aime à mourir

"Je l'aime à mourir" (English: I love her to death) is a French-language song written by Francis Cabrel and a big hit for him. It is taken from his second hugely successful album Les Chemins de traverse released in 1979 that sold over 600,000 copies in France. The single "Je l'aime à mourir" became in its own right a huge hit single for Francis Cabrel in France, Quebec (Canada), Europe and internationally. In France alone, the single sold 500,000 copies, making it to the top of the French Singles & Airplay Chart Reviews,^[1] staying at number one for five consecutive weeks (charts of 7, 14, 21 and 28 September and 6 October 1979). The single became the most sold Cabrel single ever.

The song appears on a number of Cabrel's compilations like Cabrel 77–87 (1987), Cabrel public (1984) and others.

Versions

• In 1979, Cabrel made a rerecording of the song under the Spanish title "La quiero a morir" in his very popular all-Spanish-language album Algo más de amor.
• In 1981, the Czech songwriter Lenka Filipová recorded it as Zamilovaná in the same name LP along with another Francis Cabrel's song (Přestaň si hrát na trápení: Une star à sa façon).
• In 1986, Sergio Vargas recorded a merengue version in Spanish. It became a big hit in many Latin countries. This version peaked at number twenty-two on the Hot Latin Tracks chart.^[2] It was the first of three Cabrel's songs recorded by Vargas. Later he recorded "Si algún día la ves / Si tu la croises un jour" y "Todo aquello que escribí / "L'encre de tes yeux".
• Also in 1998, the French boy band Alliage recorded a version that appers in their album Musics.
• Les Enfoirés included a multilingual version in the 17th album Les Secrets des Enfoirés recorded during seven concerts they performed at the Zénith in Strasbourg (23–28 January 2008), reaching platinum status. "Je l'aime à mourir" was performed as a medley with the following: Kad Merad (endormie version), Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michael Jones (jazz), Gérard Jugnot (Japanese version), Mimie Mathy (hard rock version), Patrick Fiori (opera version), Jean-Baptiste Maunier (rap version) and finally Francis Cabrel, Kad Merad, Pascal Obispo and Public (original version).
• Quentin Mosimann included it in his album Duel
• The Haitian-Canadian singer Marc-Antoine covered the song in French.
• New York salsa band Dark Latin Groove (DLG) in Spanish ("La quiero a morir") making it their best known song / cover version. This version peaked at number six at the Hot Latin Tracks and became their third number-one single on the Billboard Tropical Songs chart.^[3]
• Other Spanish versions include: Manzanita in Flamenco, Sergio Dalma, Giselle, and Raphael

Charts

Shakira version

Je l'aime à mourir (Lo Quiero a Morir) is a bilingual Spanish and French cover version of the song by Colombian recording artist and songwriter Shakira. She performed the song during her concerts in French-speaking countries on the second European leg of her The Sun Comes Out World Tour, dating 2011. Two of these concerts, in Paris-Bercy, were filmed for the tour's official DVD and Blu-Ray. Shortly before the DVD/Blu-Ray's release, a studio-recorded version of the song leaked, and was later officially released, as a promotional single for the Shakira: Live from Paris live album. It was very well-received by critics and by all her fans. The song has over 3,000,000 views on different channels on YouTube as of November, 2011. In early December, the song promoted a Google Plus campaign for Shakira. The promotional single entered the Sloven Airplay Chart where it peaked at number-five in its fifth week aboard. More notably it debuted at number fifty-six on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 for the week-ending December 17, 2011. Thus it became one of Shakira's highest debut on the survey. It has also entered the French Airplay Top 200 where it received moderate airplay from Classic pop radio stations.

In France, the song debuted at number one on the singles chart, selling 11,958 downloads.^[12]

Charts

See also

• List of French number-one hits of 1979
• List of number-one Billboard Hot Tropical Songs from the 1990s
• List of French number-one hits of 2011
• List of Ultratop 40 number-one singles of 2011

References