LA POUPÉE QUI FAIT NON (DUET WITH KHALED)

“La Poupée qui fait non” (“The Doll Who Says No”) is a 1966 song written by Franck Gérald (lyrics) and French singer/songwriter Michel Polnareff (music).

It is the first single of the career of Michel Polnareff released on May 26, 1966 and which was a great success with around 200,000 sales.

It was recorded by Polnareff, becoming an immediate success in France and one of Polnareff most definitive songs. Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin/The Yardbirds) played guitar on the recording. It also appeared as the last track in his album Love Me, Please Love Me.

Michel Polnareff (born 3 July 1944, Nérac, Lot-et-Garonne, France) is a French singer-songwriter, who was popular in France from the mid-1960s until the early 1990s with his penultimate original album, Kāma-Sūtra. He is still critically acclaimed and occasionally tours in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Michel was born into an artistic family: his mother, Simonne Lane (1912-1973), was a Breton dancer and his father, Leib Polnareff (Russian: Лейб Полнарёв) or Léo Poll was a Russian Jewish immigrant from Odessa who worked with Édith Piaf. (YAY! anther Russian – ❤✌) He attended the Cours Hattemer, a private school. He learned the guitar, and after his studies, military service, and a brief time in insurance, he began to play his guitar on the steps of the Sacré Cœur.

Polnareff also played with his image: black glasses, fancy trousers, and ambiguous provocations. His song L’Amour avec Toi

could not be played before 10 pm because it was considered “pornographic” at the time in France (the song is mild by today’s standards). From 1969 on, Polnareff was hugely successful: tours, music videos, hits. He also became the target of scandalmongers.

Polnareff also made language versions of the song in German (“Meine Puppe sagt non”), Italian (“Una bambolina che fa no, no, no”), and Spanish (“Muñeca que hace no”) which helped the song get airplay all over Europe and become hits in language versions by local artists in 1966.

There have been tens of covers of the song in English and various languages in the following decades. Polnareff’s version from the album Live at the Roxy was also released as a single in 1996, exactly 30 years from the original.

Apparently, a collaboration between Mylène and Michel Polnareff had been envisioned and had even started in the 90s, the singer said this in his autobiography Polnareff by Polnareff published by Editions Grasset in 2004:

“Paul-René (Paul-René Albertini, CEO of Sony Music France, editor’s note) dreams are that we record a duet together. Farmer /Polnareff the idea was not bad. I like Mylène but we could not make it to work. After a first meeting at the bar of the Sunset Marquis, the rock’n’roll hotel in LA, we nevertheless tried. only a tiny refrain: “Vilaine Mylène / Gentille Camille / Put that Vanessa.”

Wow! Did you know that? I had no idea. Would be really cool though…

I love when Mylene does duets. She is an excellent team player – she always makes the other one shine and very willing to be just a part of the beautiful whole. What an endearing quality!

Lets reminisce her other duets, shall we?

1. Regrets duet with Jean-Louis Murat
2. Looking for my name (duet with Moby)
3. Slipping away (Crier la vie) duet with Moby
4. C’est pas l’heure with Line Renaud
5. Les mots with Seal / Abe Laboriel Jr, Gary Jules
6. Mad World with Gary Jules
7. Never tear us apart (with INXS and Ben Harper) a
8. Stolen Car with Sting
9. N’oublie pas (with LP) 
   

And what is your favorite duet?

It is in the show ” Tip Top” on TF1 on October 24, 1996 that Mylène performs for the first time the cover of Michel Polnareff’s title, La poupée qui fait non, in duet with Khaled.

A very surprising association resembling more a commercial triumph than a real artistic crush. I personally think it did bring a different dimension to the Mylene’s image – the image that she just recently so successfully reinvented with the release of the comeback album Anamorphosée. I am not tired to say it again how amazed I am by Mylene, being able to stand up tall and proud, being a powerhouse of a music-making after such a hard fall as a failure of Giorgino (which I btw love dearly)

She is, however, despite of all of the negative predictions, didn’t just crawl in and disappear from view, she took her time to germinate new seeds of music genres, new very empowering rock driven album and, no doubts, much deeper personal understanding of her life mission. I respect her and I am proud of her is if she is my own sister! And of course, trying new things and music directions became her signature from that time on. She is in the best sense of the word a Chameleon 😊 She reinvents herself from an album to an album and from a song to a song. She is to me like a kaleidoscope – no matter how long you are looking in, there always will be something new to see.

In 1997 Khaled also had a very big commercial success after the release of his album composed by Jean-Jacques Goldman and in particular the hit Aïcha.

A “studio” version of this raï-influenced cover (version which was not offered on any medium) was therefore recorded before this televised performance. Rare fact, no involvement of Laurent Boutonnat for this duo. Thierry Rogen supervised the recording at Mega Studios which lasted a total of only four hours.

A very relaxed atmosphere, Khaled confident after: “Mylène? This girl is too much fun! We laugh like crazy when we see each other.” (“Mylène Farmer International Fan Club” – May 1997 – N ° 16)

The two remixes of the song “Say It Like You Used To Club Remix” and “I want a man mix” were produced by Thierry Rogen and Mylène Farmer.

tour 1996

Mylène sang La Poupée qui fait non with Khaled only on two dates of the 1996 Tour in Geneva and Bercy on December 10 and 12, 1996. A performance chosen to become the first single from the album Live in Bercy immortalizing this tour.

The single was sent to radio on April 03, 1997.

There was more than a warm reception of the extracted singles of Anamorphosée . The single will reach the 10th place of airplay radios France on June 29, 1997. The title will rather experience strong rotations on peripheral radios reaching the 4th position of airplay dedicated to these radios at the end of April.

The single was released on April 29, 1997.in three commercial media: a 2-track CD, a limited-edition digipak maxi CD and a classic maxi CD, ie not limited and with a crystal box. He entered the 06th place of the French top 50 which will remain his best ranking since he then begins a rapid fall, only remaining classified for eight weeks. It will painfully pass 90,000 copies, approximately. The Belgians will reserve a much warmer welcome to this single, which is enjoying great success in this country, ranking 05th in the utratop in French-speaking Belgium and becoming the 41st biggest success single for 1997. The album Live à Bercy is in stores on May 21, 1997.

Khaled

Let’s talk a little but about Khaled. I don’t how about you, but I was absolutely unfamiliar with him before this duet.

Khaled Hadj Ibrahim (Arabic: خالد حاج إبراهيم‎, born 29 February 1960), better known by his mononym Khaled (Arabic: خالد‎, pronounced [ˈxaːled]), is an Algerian musician, singer and songwriter born in Oran. He began recording in his early teens under the name Cheb Khaled (الشاب خالد, Arabic for “Young” Khaled, as opposed to the traditionalist Sheikh elders). He was crowned “King of Raï” in the first Raï festival in Oran and has since become the world’s best-known Arab singers.

To date, Khaled has sold over 80.5 million albums (10 diamond, platinum, and gold) worldwide. This turned him into one of the bestselling Arabic singing artists in history.

Khaled is considered one of the most-selling Arab singers of all time.

On 16 October 2003, Khaled was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

Grammy – Dawn Elder, Kc Porter, India Arie, Stevie Wonder, and Khaled.

Khaled’s signature song, the 1993 hit “Didi”,

became extremely popular in the Arabic-speaking countries and also in several other continents, including Europe, where it entered top charts in France, Belgium and Spain, and in Asia, including India and Pakistan. The song was also used in a Bollywood films Shreeman Aashiq and Airlift and a Mollywood film titled Highway. Khaled and producer Don Was appeared on The Tonight Show on 4 February 1993.

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lyrics with translation

C'est une poupée
Qui fait "non, non, non, non"
Toute la journée
Elle fait "non, non, non, non"
Elle est
Elle est tellement jolie
Que j'en rêve la nuit
C'est une poupée
Qui fait "non, non, non, non"
Toute la journée
Elle fait "non, non, non, non"
Personne ne lui a jamais appris
Qu'on pouvait dire oui.
Sans même écouter
Elle fait "non, non, non, non"
Sans me regarder
Elle fait "non, non, non, non"
Pourtant je donnerais ma vie
Pour qu'elle dise oui
Pourtant je donnerais ma vie
Pour qu'elle dise oui
Mais c'est une poupée
Qui fait "non, non, non, non"
Toute la journée
Elle fait "non, non, non, non"
Personne ne lui a jamais appris
Que l'on peut dire oui
"Non, non, non, non"
"Non, non, non, non"
"Non, non, non, non, non, non"

She's a doll
Who goes "no, no, no, no"
All day long
She does "no, no, no, no"
She is
She is so pretty
that I dream of it at night
She's a doll
Who goes "no, no, no, no"
All day long
She does "no, no, no, no"
No one ever taught him that you
could say yes.
Without even listening
She goes "no, no, no, no"
Without looking at me
She says "no, no, no, no"
Yet I would give my life
For her to say yes
Yet I would give my life
For her to say yes
But she's a doll
Who goes "no, no, no, no"
All day
She does "no, no, no, no"
Nobody ever taught her
to say yes
"Non, non, non, non"
"Non, non, non, non"
"Non, non, non, non, non, non"