Nicolas Sarkozy may be a teetotaller whose ”Speedy Sarko” persona is powered by early morning runs and chocolate dessert. But his wife’s much awaited ballad suggests he gives her even stronger stuff.
Le Figaro on Wednesday obtained a sneak copy of Carla Bruni’s pop-folk album. On one track she sings: ”You are my drug; more lethal than heroin from Afghanistan, and more dangerous than Colombian cocaine.”
It is perhaps not the most apposite of metaphors to evoke just before Paris hosts an Afghan donors’ conference and the president attempts to influence Colombia over its jungle guerrilla groups holding a Frenchwoman hostage. But Bruni’s manager has insisted the ditty was written before the ex-model had met Sarkozy.
Le Figaro, right-wing and largely pro-Sarkozy, delivered a gushing review of the album, Comme si de rien n’était (As if nothing had happened), released on July 21. The paper commended her for moving away from folk and closer to the breathiness of chanson française — ”in short, less America, more France and more Beatles”. It praised one track, Une enfant, in which she sings: ”I am a child, despite my 40 years, despite my 30 lovers.” On another, she lets rip: ”They can curse me, they can damn me, I don’t care.”
Bruni gave an interview to a glossy magazine on Wednesday in which she posed with her guitar and seemed to style herself as a kind of Bono figure, praising him and Bob Geldof for their activism and stressing that all the proceeds of her album would go to charity.
The communications offensive is a new phase in the Sarkozy couple’s highly public marriage, as the First Lady shares insights into their relationship.
Recently she gave an interview for a saccharine book account in which she said she fell for his ”five or even six brains”.
The book also tells how on New Year’s Eve after a dinner at the Elysée, the president’s official residence, Bruni strolled through the private apartments together with Rachida Dati, the Justice Minister and Sarkozy protégé, and also a friend of his former wife.
As the two women passed the president’s bedroom, Bruni pointed to his double bed and said: ”You would have liked to occupy it, wouldn’t you?” – guardian.co.uk