PARIS (AFP) ― Carla Bruni is to resume her musical career with an autumn tour and a new album that sees France’s former first lady reminiscing about her time spent hanging out with the Rolling Stones.
The first dates for the tour, Nov. 22-24 at the 1,500-seat Casino de Paris, were published on Wednesday, hot on the heels of the release of the first extract from “Little French Songs,” the Italian former supermodel’s fourth album which is due to be released on April 1.
A former girlfriend of Mick Jagger, Bruni has penned a song entitled “Chez Keith et Anita” (At Keith and Anita’s place), which depicts the drug-fueled lifestyle of Stones guitarist Keith Richards and his longtime girlfriend Anita Pallenberg.
Against a breezy, jazzy-pop backing track that she also wrote, Bruni, 45, sings in French: “Someone is rolling a joint/Oh no! I don’t smoke/We’re at Keith and Anita’s place.”
It goes on: “A hotel Sofitel/in Singapore or Brussels/Oh it’s good to be alive/Here at Keith and Anita’s place.”
According to Stones’ historians, Bruni had a passionate affair with Jagger when she was a 23-year-old model at the top of her profession.
Jagger was married to Jerry Hall at the time, while Bruni had been dating Eric Clapton. When the relationship ended, Bruni was left distraught, she was quoted as saying last year.
“I thought I’d never get over it. I used to wake up every morning in despair. I thought I’d never fall in love with someone else.”
The new album will be Bruni’s first since 2008’s “Comme Si De Rien N’Etait” (Simply), whose proceeds went to a charitable foundation.
As the partner and now wife of former president Nicolas Sarkozy, Bruni opted to put her musical career on hold until he left office following defeat in last year’s election.
During her time as first lady, her performances were restricted to a handful of television appearances and a solitary 2009 live outing, at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in honor of Nelson Mandela’s 91st birthday.
Bruni’s previous albums all received reviews which could best be described as mixed and label Naive opted not to renew her contract, although that did not prevent her from being picked up by top French record company Barclay.
