A life of music and poetry: What to know about Carla Bruni's music career

The model and France's former first lady built a sterling career as a singer songwriter

Carla Bruni's music is inspired by her personal life and love for poetry. Getty Images

From the catwalk to the top of the French charts, Carla Bruni's journey from in-demand fashion model to acclaimed singer-songwriter is more natural evolution than calculated career choice.

Born in Italy before moving to France as a seven-year-old, Bruni is the daughter of Italian concert pianist Marisa Borini and classical music composer Alberto Bruni Tedeschi.

With such a background, coupled by a love of poetry and literature from a young age, it was only a matter of time before Bruni found her natural expression as musician and lyricist.

Ahead of her Dubai Opera performance on Friday, here is what you need to know about Bruni’s extensive and eclectic music career.

1. Her debut album set the tone for her career

Bruni made an immediate impact with her debut album Quelqu’un m’a dit, released in 2002.

It is distinguished by minimal arrangements that often have her husky voice paired with sparse guitar. The sonic intimacy allows her lyrics to take centre stage with the largely melancholy songs examining everything from spurned relationships to the hard-earned wisdom that comes with age.

The album's title track sets the tone with its folk-inspired guitar arrangements as Bruni probes the unexpected consequences of romance.

“I am told that destiny is making fun of us. It doesn't give us anything and it promises us everything,” she sings. “It appears that happiness is within reach. So we reach out and we find ourselves crazy.”

The more sprightly J’en connais, with its Bossa Nova groove, has her making playful distinctions between fulfilling relationships and fleeting romances. “I know so many that it takes all my time and even my mom who loves me dearly, she tells me: 'It isn't right, it isn't good all this nothingness. Go back on the straight and narrow'.”

Topping the French and Belgian charts, songs from the album featured in the 2005 indie American film Conversations with Other Woman and British teen comedy Skins. Her subsequent world tour also established her as a serious singer-songwriter.

2. She released music while being first lady of France

Carla Bruni is married to former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. EPA

Being France's first lady did not overshadow Bruni's burgeoning career. Four months before marrying Nicolas Sarkozy during his presidency in 2008, she released a third album Comme si de rien n'était. Translated to As if Nothing Happened, the album hinted at the social pressures to come with being one of France's most recognisable public figures.

Standout track Déranger les pierres hints at the life disruption as it marries a percolating percussion with her serene vocals as Bruni compares her changing personal circumstances to stones being overturned.

Bruni's self-wrote lyrics show that she welcomes the change: “I want to disturb the stones. Change the face of my nights. Do away with your mystery. And time, that's my own affair.”

Bolder in spirit while maintaining her trademark hushed intimacy, the album strengthened Bruni's musical pedigree and maintained her artistic voice amid her changing personal circumstances.

3. From bossa nova to French chanson, the musical colours of Carla Bruni

While her songs are rooted in France's rich folk music tradition of chanson, Bruni songs have incorporated various genres over the years.

The tropical and Latin American sounds of Bossa Nova are apparent in numerous popular songs such as 2002's Raphael and 2008's La possibility d’une ile. Bruni also embraced her heritage with a string of Italian cover songs over the years, including her 2008 take of Francesco Guccini's Il vecchio e il bambino and the 2013 original Dolce Francia.

Translated to Oh, Sweet France, the latter lyrics pay tribute to her adopted homeland for embracing her as a child. “Oh, sweet France, dear country of my childhood,” she sings in the lilting chorus. “You cradled me with hope so I've kept you in my heart. Now I wander beneath a thousand blue skies.”

4. She is inspired by the great poets

Bruni's most ambitious musical endeavour remains her second album No Promises.

Released in 2007, it is her only English album to date and where she merges some of the poetry of influential English poets to original musical arrangements.

The approach brought fresh perspectives to celebrated work by W.B Yeats in songs Those Dancing Days Are Gone and Before the World Was Made; as well as Emily Dickinson in the haunting I Felt My Life With Both My Hands.”

Speaking to French news outlet RFI, Bruni said she was attracted to the project by the economy of language exercised by these famed British poets.

“They wrote in a much simpler style. There are no really old-fashioned words here,” she said. “And the poets on my album tackled very modern themes in their work, especially the women whose poetry can be really hard hitting at times.”

5. Her latest album is multilingual

Bruni makes her UAE concert debut on the back of her eponymous sixth album. Released amid the pandemic in 2020, it is one of her eclectic works to date with songs delivered in French, English, Italian and Spanish. While it maintains the elegiac moods of previous releases tracks such as Marianna finds her occasionally loosening up as in the breezy pop of Marianna and the string arrangements of Les separes.

With so much material to choose from, her Dubai Opera performance should be an ideal showcase from one of France’s most intriguing artists.

Carla Bruni performs at Dubai Opera on Friday. Show starts at 8pm; tickets from Dh350