LEILA

Today’s song is very special. It is not the first one being inspired by real people whom Mylene felt compelled to honor like Allan and Greta

But it’s a first song to honor a tragic life of a fan cut so unfairly short. Leila is a song from Mylène Farmer’s eighth studio album, Bleu Noir (2010).

The song Leila is about Leila Pahlavi (who was apparently a fan of Mylène), the youngest daughter of the Shah of Iran Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and the Empress Farah Pahlavi.

Leila Pahlavi was born on 27 March 1970 in Tehran, Iran. She was the fourth and youngest child.

The Princess Leila was nine years old when she with her family went into exile in 1979 as a result of the Iranian Revolution.  Following her father’s death in Egypt from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1980, the family settled in the United States.

She graduated from Rye Country Day School in 1988 and went on to attend a state school in Massachusetts before going on to study at Brown University, graduating in 1992.

She spent most of her time commuting between her home in Greenwich, Connecticut, and Paris, where her mother was living. A onetime model for the designer Valentino, she suffered from anorexia nervosa, chronic low self-esteem, severe depression resulting into the chronic fatigue syndrome.

On Sunday 10 June 2001, Leila was found dead in her room in Leonard Hotel in London.

On 17 June 2001, she was buried near her maternal grandmother, Farideh Ghotbi Diba, in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris, France. At the funeral was her mother, Empress Farah, the imperial family of Iran, as well as members of the former French royal family and Frederic Mitterrand, the nephew of the late French President François Mitterrand.

Sadly, her brother Ali Reza Pahlavi followed Leila committing suicide at his home in Boston, Massachusetts 10 years later. Buried next to Leila in the Cimetière de Passy, Paris. Such a tragedy.

Mylene dedicated a song Leila to her from the album Bleu Noir (2010). Music composed by Darius Keeler.

Leila can be considered as a promotional single for the Bleu Noir album released on December 6, 2010 (after the first single” Oui mais … Non” on radio and available in digital since October 11).

The song was not sent to radios nor the “clip” to televisions. It wasn’t available for download before the album is released. A promotion exclusively limited to the internet.

“I met Leila’s mother, I didn’t know her, when I met a woman of great dignity, a very beautiful woman. The person who introduced me to this woman, told me that her daughter, Leila who died, listened to my music a lot, which obviously touched me a lot, without any narcissism. It’s just, her story touched me. The fact that she had to flee from her country. And we met again, a second time, this woman and I introduced her and the song, and the clip which illustrated this song. And it was a moment which was incredible of emotion, of modesty too. ” (Mylène Farmer – France 2 – 12/12/2010)

On November 19, 2010, when the temporary official site mylenefarmer-bleunoir.com has just unveiled an extract from the song You love , this same site specifies that the clip for the song Leila will be broadcast 400,000 visits. A first small photo of the clip is online. On November 22, 2010, Leila’s music video (which reveals the then unpublished song), directed by Alain Escalle, was posted online.

Here are some reviews if you care (sometimes I just don’t want to even bother! It is almost anecdotal how some sources keep misunderstanding Mylene for years and years and still have something to say! I will not print them here as  I feel for Mylene –  I really do!)

“Some fans have seen in the lyrics de Leila, a rare foray into the political arena, as the very discreet singer recently signed the petition in favor of Sakineh Mohammadi-Ashtiani, a woman sentenced to death by stoning in Iran. ” (Le Courrier de l’Ouest – 12/04/2010)

Thanks to the international support, including Mylene, Sakineh was released in 2014 after serving nine years on death row.

“The best songs are composed by Darius Keeler and Danny Griffiths from the group Archive.” (20 Minutes -12/06/2010) “By wrapping Mylène Farmer’s haunting voice with trip-hop layers, Archive brings the most interesting collaboration.” (Nord Eclair – 12/06/2010)

“The record is evanescent, hovering, smooth, if not monochrome. Archive signs some stormy titles among the strongest […] On the other hand, and it is a surprise, the whispering voice of the singer finally rises in the proper sense. – we hear it clearly and sometimes loudly. And even in a figurative sense. The song Leila thus speaks of a “beloved woman of Iran”. And of this “buried part of ourselves” words that can be interpreted as a policy. The singer signed the petition to save Sakineh, sentenced to stoning in Iran. ” (lexpress.fr – 12/07/2010)

“As for the texts, going from a tribute to Leila, the missing daughter of the Shah of Iran, to a sad lament over the ravages of time passing, they are part of a romantic-melancholy continuity.” (Télé Loisirs – 12/27/2010)

“We like the three trip-hop tracks composed by Archive including Leila (tribute to the deceased daughter of the Shah of Iran)”. (Télé Star – 01/03/2011)

“The compositions of the Archive are less obvious, more complex to tame … It must be said that they reveal a Farmer that we knew little: vocals more serious than accustomed, […] haunting melodies and surprising arrhythmias. What Hifi – January 2011)

“Archive brings for its part a trip hop flavor to which Mylène Farmer can combine a more serious tone of voice, which brings, I imagine, this more” dark” color to which the French critics refer. and the releases accompanying the album … The vaguely exotic Leila evokes the Frozen era of Madonna”. (sorstu.ca – 01/12/2011)

Leila (Persian: لیلا‎, Arabic: ليلى‎, Hebrew: לילה‎) is a feminine given name in the Semitic (Arabic, Hebrew) and Persian languages. … In Hebrew and Arabic the word Leila or Laila means “night”, “dark” and the name is often given to girls born during the night, signifying “daughter of the night”.

When Mylene uses “Que c’est pas la vie” in the lyrics – it alliterates Leila Last name (pronounced in a French manner) “Pah-la-vi” meaning “Not the life” (thank you Peter Ferrera for pointing it out)

remixes

my poetry inspired by the song

Drop by drop
second by second
stillness by stillness
I am evaporating…

Where am I?
On the grass as a raindrop?
On the clock as a blink of an eye?
In the pause before the next heartbeat?
But when is the next heartbeat?
Only the dead silence inside me
But where is the rain?
Only the scorching dryness
Inside of me
Who am I?

Hour by hour
Day by day
I am outliving myself
Into the sunrays
Into the starlight
Into the taste of your lips
Into the time…
I am evaporating…

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lyrics with translation

Leila
Leila
Pauvre humanité muette
Pardonner, polir le geste
Croire, t'aimer
Mais choir, prier
Que celle
Qui n'est
Pas parmi vos nombres
Pas repose dans l'ombre
D'une vie
Qui n'est pas ici
Je sais
Je sais
Moi, je sais
Que c'est pas la vie
Corps cassés
Nulle espérance
Fille aînée d'Iran
Infiniment
Leila, une part ensevelie de nous-mêmes
Leila, la nuit se consume elle-même
Leila, pont tendu entre entre ciel et terre
Leila, Leila, Leila
Leila, une part ensevelie de nous-mêmes
Leila, la nuit se consume elle-même
Leila, pont tendu entre entre ciel et terre
Leila, Leila, Leila
Pauvre humanité muette