FUCK THEM ALL

“Fuck Them All” is a 2005 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. Released on 14 March 2005, it was the lead single from her sixth studio album, Avant que l’ombre…. Like all tracks from the album, the lyrics were written by the singer with music composed by Laurent Boutonnat.

So, the song came to me right on time! For those of you who are following me, you know the supernatural synchronicities have been a part of my life for the past few months since I started this project. I love love love it! Its totally fits the occasion 😊

“Fuck Them All” combines pop music elements with acoustic guitar, electronic beats and synths, with a musical bridge sung as a rap in English. As a result, it is often compared to Madonna’s early 2000s songs. Using both crude and colorful lyrics, including sex and vulgarity, the song deals with the war between the sexes and was often considered a feminist plea in which women are presented as warriors.

Like in any Mylene’s songs, there is so much open to the interpretation that it becomes a sort of a magic mirror – in which we see our own reflection.

Mylene combines it with C’est dans l’air… in her live venues which can’t be any clearer on the meaning. No ambiguity of any kind. We are as a humanity need to focus on love and not on war as by killing each other we are killing ourselves (hint the clip where Mylene’s “l’autre” ends up dead).  

A few observations off the bet: the theme has been already well developed in California when the short haired Mylene is being killed and the other long haired classy Mylene takes the revenge (quite a violent one I must note with the bloodcurdling weapon) she does the justice. I love the idea and don’t mind seeing it developed once more beyond the initial context. Plus, the short hair is always a beautiful nostalgic image to me from the flashback to the early Mylene 😊

As far as a “Hey bitch, you’re not on the list” the Hollywood / New York elite clubs come to mind where all the receptions and parties are by invitation only and if you “not on the list” you have no chance to enter into the exclusive circles. I would imagine she probably have heard that being in the US as she is not a big name across the Atlantic “What’s your name again?” I’d say “Fuck them all” too 😊 I personally adopted that phrase after the song came out as my mental defense mechanism against any abusive circumstances. It does work! Try it sometimes LOL

The accompanying music video for the song, filmed by Agustí Villaronga in February 7 to 11, 2005.

in cold and snowy Romania over a course of a few days, shows Farmer portraying two women in a warehouse and many scarecrows made by Swiss artist Martial Leiter. Displaying many symbolic elements, it was the subject of many analyses on the Internet and in the press which generally praised its aesthetic qualities but criticized for its lack of innovation. Farmer sang “Fuck Them All” during her 2006 series of concert at Bercy and the performance was released on the Avant que l’ombre… à Bercy DVD.

The song received a mixed critical reception from fans and the general public, reviews ranging from “unconvincing” and “vulgar” to “bold” and “catchy”. Despite this, the song was downloaded over 5,000 times from official download platforms during its first week of release, and over one million times shortly after. It met some success on the French and Belgian (Wallonia) charts, where it reached number two and eventually became the album’s best-selling single. In France, it earned a silver disc for over 100,000 units sold.

The single was played for the first time on 8 February 2005 on many radio stations, including NRJ which broadcast it every 30 minutes, preceded by a medley of Farmer’s previous hits. The song was announced with the comment: “This is the new sound of Mylène Farmer”. It was also the singer’s first song to be available as a digital download in February 2005 and was also released as a single other two times: first, the CD single on 14 March 2005, then the CD maxi and the vinyl, which contain the remixes, on 18 April 2005.

Enjoy many good remixes here for this song and many others – my favorite place for the remixes: https://soundcloud.com/searchq=mylene%20farmer%20fuck%20them%20all

This song is characterized by its music produced from synthetic keyboards, and has been criticized for its lack of innovation, its musical bridge containing vulgar lyrics (with rap) reminiscent of Madonna’s song “American Life”, and choirs of children on guitar riffs which are actually the singer’s voice remixed.

According to journalist Alice Novak, the song begins with “trippy and mysterious” notes played on keyboards, then continues with “fast and nervous” sounds on the drum machine; the tone is “rather dark, hypnotic”, with a “swaying and repetitive” end which uses “the machinery of the lyrics of some rap groups”. Author Erwan Chuberre deemed the lyrics “easy, but deep” and contain an allusion to Farmer’s friend Marie Trintignant, who died in 2003.

The actress, Marie Trintignant, died in a Paris hospital at age of 41, with severe head and face injuries inflicted by her rock star companion, Bertrand Cantat. RIP, dear Marie…🙏

Just like Nicole Brown, she fell a victim of a brutal killing by her male lover (OJ). For centuries, women have been raped and killed – the price of life was too little to demand any justice. Fuck that! I hope we all agree that it must change. Now.

Many put those events and the song side by side. It is a “feminist plea about women’s place in history” with the title referring to the “cowardice of men”. In the song, Farmer “reverses the roles”, and “presents women as warriors”. In the first couplet, she evokes “the role of women in History”, recalling that “all the great men had on their side a woman to support, assist and advise them”. However, the singer said that “all this was done to the detriment of women and cites as example, Mary, Jesus Christ’s mother, a symbol of martyrdom and self-sacrifice”. She denounces “the hypocrisy and the chatter of men who think only about power and sex”. In the refrain, she advises women to rebel by taking up arms.

I can see that as Mylene continues this theme through the years punishing the abusive men clip after clip. I love that about her – I love how she shows up like a knight on the horse to the rescue of the abused woman in the “cage”  – a powerful allegory indeed!. I have grown up in the family where my father was abusive to my mom and us, my brothers and me. From the early age I felt like a protector of my mother standing up to my father in my best capacity at the time. For a long time that notion of a man = abuse was over me like a dark shadow which prevented me to have a healthy relationship with men and I admit it took me some time to finally come to terms and heal that aspect of an internalized anger. Any injustice infuriates me just as much. I am grateful to Mylene for raising this issue! I love her so much for everything she does and for everything she stands for!

In the lyrics, Farmer “is angry with men and the song is a form of feminist anthem”. According to Ouest-France, the combination of an acoustic guitar, electronic beats and synths in the second part of the song, evoke very strongly what Madonna had produced in previous years, and the ethereal song is typical of Farmer. A rap interlude sung in English launches a few insults sometimes thrown at women, before the final refrain. To Marc Bitton of Public who wrote his article before the single release, “lyrics are both crude and colorful”, including “sex and vulgarity”, and said that the song was likely to be censored, which was, at his point of view, the real purpose of the singer. According to the psychologist Hugues Royer, the song is “an artistic utopia” and a call to feminists, including the novelist Catherine Breillat, but is not a “political project”. Novak said that lyrics surprised many fans, as although Farmer has always been a feminist, she had never expressed so direct a message on the subject.

A scarecrow whose eyes weep black blood, made by the Swiss artist Martial Leiter, in the music video for “Fuck Them All”.

Shot in Romania over two days, the video cost approximately 150,000 euros. The scenario was written by Farmer and directed by Spanish film director Agustí Villaronga, then broadcast on television from 9 March 2005. The video for “Peut-être toi” was originally intended to illustrate this song. The scarecrows which feature in the video were made by Swiss artist Martial Leiter. Farmer contacted him after seeing a documentary on France 3 about an open-air exhibition of scarecrows which were an allegory of the human figure. Leiter explained that he was very surprised when he was contacted by the singer’s producers and that he was first hesitating, but finally agreed after a discussion with Farmer. He also stated that he was satisfied with the work and was happy to see that Farmer mentioned his name at the end of the video.

Initially, Farmer wanted to use the scarecrows seen in the documentary, but Leiter refused to give her those from his exhibition, instead preferring to create some new scarecrows that were easier to break. In the music video, the scarecrows have a black bird skull and wear torn black veils that float in the wind. Several components often used in Farmer’s previous music videos appear in this one: snow, a horse, and some crows. Can you name them? Please comment below!

 The video and its making-of were released as a DVD bonus available free with the second edition of the studio album. In the making-of, Villaronga provides explanations about the video, while Farmer appears “distant and very professional”, according to Télé 2 Semaines.

I was stunned by how stoic and determined she is. I was already amazed by her professionalism making L’ame- stram-gram and City of Love. I have nothing but respect for her – well..also love..of course 😊She freezes and shivers and does it again and again until it’s perfect – incredible, just incredible! And her riding the horse – is just a poetry in motion!❤

Deemed as “gothic” by Jean-Rémy Gaudin-Bridet of Télé Star, the video has “undeniable aesthetic qualities” and allows “great freedom of interpretation”, according to author Erwan Chuberre. The French magazine Télé 7 Jours published several analyses proposed on the Internet, which gave mixed reviews, and provided results from a survey revealing that 54% of respondents deemed the video as “pleasant”, while 36% expressed total satisfaction. Reviewing the video in Elle magazine, the sociologist Divina Frau-Meigs wrote: “This is a coherent video, with an echo of her previous provocations”, adding that Farmer’s sword is the symbol of the phallus, and desolate landscapes represent the impossible reconciliation of the sexes. According to Royer, the video shows a personal dimension in which Farmer “finally crushes her interior demons” and “wants to get rid of her trappings as a scapegoat”. Despite this, French daily newspaper France Soir deemed the video disappointing because of its lack of innovation. In contrast, the video was the number one choice of voters viewing the TV music program Les 100 Meilleurs clips du XXIè siècle (The best videos of the twenty-first century), aired on MCM on 25 February 2007.YAY! that’s more like it! I don’t even have any words for those critics. Seriously! No more words only swords 😊

Certified Silver by the Syndicat National de l’Édition Phonographique on 25 May 2005, “Fuck Them All” was the 70th best-selling single of 2005.

It’s not just a song that Mylène offers us but a real cry. Fuck them all is one of the most complex texts but also one of the most successful of Mylène’s work. It was also very surprising to read on the forums dedicated to the artist very diverse interpretations of this title as soon as it was released.

The feminist verve of Mylène already announced by XXL and Méfie-toi is at its peak in Fuck them all. In this very committed and even provocative text, she chooses to emphasize the domination of men over women for so many centuries and imagines a society in which the roles would be reversed.

During the first broadcast, many found the verses more “effective” than the choruses, which led them to believe that this song did not have the caliber of a comeback single.

Perhaps it would be fair to put this musical bridge in perspective with the meaning of this song, and therefore, to see it as a snub towards male chauvinists whose rappers are an almost caricatural reflection, Mylène then referring them to full figure the “Hey Bitch, you’re not on the list. You Witch! You suck, you bitch!”

The period 1999-2002 was for Mylène a succession of successes: the Innamoramento album sold over a million copies in France, a triumphant tour, the Mylenium Tour which gave birth to a CD and a Live DVD which recorded sales records, an album composed and produced for Alizée including the hit Moi Lolita which became number 1 in many countries around the world and Mylène’s first best-of, Les Mots, which remains the best-of to this day. of a best-selling artist in France.

In January 2003, during the NRJ Music Awards ceremony, after having won for the fourth successive year the trophy for the best French-speaking female artist and offered a majestic live performance of Rêver, Mylène confides her impatience to go back on stage then slips away.

Then begins a long silence which will last nearly two years.

Mylène’s return took place on December 16, 2004, during the first press conference of her career. Surrounded by Laurent Boutonnat and Thierry Suc, she announces the future concerts of Bercy for January 2006 and a new album about which rumors will multiply very quickly.

The secret has been perfectly preserved. Almost no leak on the net before the radio broadcast and for many fans the chance to experience these strong moments before the discovery of a new title. A moment all the more unforgettable as the development of the Internet will then make it more and more difficult to preserve such a secret around a new title. Times change … and Mylène too, this title will demonstrate it.

Never has a “comeback” title divided fans so much.

Some, probably not taking the time to understand the meaning and depth of this song see it only a return placed under the sign of gratuitous provocation. Others like it immediately or will like it over time.

The public is intrigued by the new title of Mylène which becomes the most downloaded (legally) in France in February. We read that Fuck them all would have been downloaded over a million times including illegal downloads. To be taken with great caution, but this at least has the merit of recalling the then important part of downloading (not always or even rarely legal) in the acquisition of a title or an album. The music market has changed a lot since Mylène’s previous studio album (which will obviously change the sales figures).

Fuck them all does not become an essential Mylène track as Sans contrefaçon , Désenchantée or Les Mots. The public, in particular the “non-fans”, whose neurons remain in a total inertia but perfectly adapted to the titles diffused by the FM, has great difficulty to apprehend the musical and textual richness of this song.

Fuck them all ranks from its first week in 2nd position of the best sales of singles in France (with more than 26,000 sales of a single medium!) But it will very quickly drop. Only the release of the maxi CD and the maxi vinyl allow it to temporarily climb back up to 3rd place.

Many will like to call this single a failure. A more precise analysis of the figures shows, however, that the single sold around 100,000 copies (excluding downloads) in France and was certified silver single (100,000 copies).

The title is very successful in Switzerland, Belgium and Israel.

Radio broadcasts will quickly become rare (the song does not exceed the 19th position of airplay radio in France). A warning sign. This reluctance of radio stations to broadcast Mylène’s new titles will be confirmed thereafter. She is a risk taker and of course you can’t have your cake and eat it too. She choses (again!) what she would rather live with.

Mylène does not promote this single on radio or television. A discretion in the media taken to the extreme which will assert itself in the following months.

Mylène performs Fuck them all during the thirteen concerts Before the shadow … in Bercy from January 13 to 29, 2006. Stage arrangements: Yvan Cassar

Mylène is accompanied on stage by the Los Vivancos dance troupe. This performance precedes the finale of the concert on Before the shadow …

The water curtain proposed for the finale on Avant que l’ombre… was initially intended to accompany Fuck them all (the finale having to use pyrotechnics, idea finally abandoned). After the thirteenth and last concert, spectators who remained in the hall were able to see for the first and last time the title “Fuck them all” inscribed on the water curtain.

Return of Fuck them all live on the 2009 Tour but only during the two indoor concerts in Russia on June 28, 2009 in Saint Petersburg and July 01, 2009 in Moscow then during the five stadium concerts from September 04 to 19, 2009. No choreography for this interpretation of Fuck them all.

Fuck them all is not offered on the live album N ° 5 on Tour , recording of the indoor concerts at the Halle Tony Garnier in Lyon in June 2009 ( Fuck them all did not appear in the show’s setlist at that time). The song can be found exclusively among the bonuses of the Stade de France collector’s box in 2010.

Fuck them all is sung during the nine concerts at Paris La Défense Arena from June 07 to 22, 2019 in the mash up Fuck them all / C’est dans l’air (this mash up takes up the first two verses of C’est dans l’air, choruses and a verse from Fuck them all )

Stage arrangements: Olivier Schultheis. Choreography: Aziz Baki 2019 – mixing with C’est dans l’air:

New gift from director François Hanss for Mylène fans.

You can discover it on his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/François-HANSS– Director of many unpublished documents behind the scenes of the shooting of the clip Fuck them all. The storyboard, photos of the location, sketches …

There were three official remix versions: ‘mother f… vocal mix’ and ‘mother f… dub mix’, by Joachim Garraud,

as well as ‘the martyr’s remix’, by Y-Front, who had already remixed “Libertine” on the album RemixeS.

An international CD maxi version was also released but under the title “F**k Them All” to avoid censorship, with a sticker “Parental advisory – Explicit content” attached.

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lyrics with translation

La nature est changeante
L'on respire comme ils mentent
De façon ravageuse
La nature est tueuse
Au temps des favorites
Autant de réussites
Pour l'homme qui derrière a
Une belle qui s'affaire à
Faire de leur vie un empire
Blood and tears
Faire l'amour à Marie
Blood and tears
Et Marie est martyre
Blood and tears
Sur le mur, nos soupirs
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, saigner, notre enfer
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Blood and soul)
Faites-le-nous dans le texte, le sang, c'est le sexe
De nature innocente
L'on manie élégance
Et d'une main experte
D'un glaive, l'on transperce
Les discours trop prolixes
Que de la rhétorique
Lâchetés familières
Qui nous rendent guerrières
Faire de leur vie un empire
(Blood and tears)
Faire l'amour à Marie
(Blood and tears)
Et Marie est martyre
(Blood and tears)
Sur le mur, nos soupirs
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, saigner, notre enfer
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Blood and soul)
Faites-le-nous, dans le texte, le sang, c'est le sexe
They said
"(Hey bitch, you're not on the list")
("You witch, you suck, you bitch")
They said
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, saigner, notre enfer
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Blood and soul)
Faites-le-nous dans le texte, le sang, c'est le sexe
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, saigner, notre enfer
(Fuck them all)
Faites l'amour, nous la guerre, nos vies à l'envers
(Blood and soul)
Faites-le-nous dans le texte, le sang, c'est le sexe

Nature is changeable
We breathe like they lie
Devastatingly
Nature is a killer
In the days of the favorites
So many successes
For the man behind a
Beauty who is busy with
Make their life an empire
Blood and tears
Make love to Mary
Blood and tears
And Mary is a martyr
Blood and tears
On the wall, our sighs
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, bleed, our hell
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Blood and soul)
Do it to us in the text, blood is sex
Innocent by nature
We
handle elegance And with an expert hand
With a sword, we pierce
Speeches too prolix
Only rhetoric
Familiar cowardice
That make us warriors
Make their life an empire
(Blood and tears)
Make love to Mary
(Blood and tears)
And Mary is martyr
(Blood and tears)
On the wall, our sighs
Make love, we war, our lives upside down
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, bleed, our hell
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Blood and soul)
Do it to us, in the text, blood is sex
They Said
"(Hey bitch, you're not on the list")
( "You witch, you suck, you bitch")
They Said
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, bleed, our hell
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Blood and soul)
Do it to us in the text, blood is sex
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, bleed, our hell
(Fuck them all)
Make love, we make war, our lives upside down
(Blood and soul)
Do it to us in the text, blood is sex