music

Publications by New Journal Enterprises

Home

Archive

Competition

The Review - MUSIC - grooves with CHARLOTTE CHAMBERS
Published: 31 January 2008

Birkin, the first singer to have an X-factor

PREVIEW
JANE BIRKIN
Roundhouse

ONE of the original rock chicks, English-rose Jane Birkin was hot on the heels of Mars bar fan Marianne Faithfull in the 1960s.
But although she’s done all this amazing stuff, Ms Birkin is still – unfairly perhaps – best known for her simulated orgasm on Je t’aime.
“I’m not really aware of her work” and “who?” were just some of the responses garnered from uncultured members of the office when I threw her name out.
But don’t worry. Some out there are fully aware of her significance, such as the Roundhouse, which is staging her one-off charity show on March 1.
Birkin has never really got past the breathy porn-like voice-over that she provided for her husband Serge Gainsbourg’s biggest hit outside of France in the late 1960s. Banned by the BBC and slammed by the Vatican, the song was one she said recently she didn’t actually even like and hadn’t wanted to do.
But that’s the way life goes. If it hadn’t been for that song, she may never have had the other successes she achieved along the way, such as winning a Best Actress nomination in the Césars, getting an OBE for services to acting and being awarded Female Artist of the Year in France – her adopted home – in the 1990s.
But the thing she probably takes most seriously is her charity work, under which banner the Roundhouse fundraiser gig falls. When her nephew Anno Birkin died in a car accident a few years ago, a charity, Anno’s Africa, was set up to provide art and education for youngsters across the continent.
So although most under-30s only know Je t’aime as the soundtrack to a John Smith’s Bitter ad featuring some frisky ladybirds, Birkin has a lot under her belt.
Gainsbourg originally wrote and recorded the song with actress Brigitte Bardot before she urged to him not to release it because she thought it was too X-rated – something Birkin may wish she’d done too.
Although she was perhaps a bit more peripheral than Faithfull, Birkin has had a meaningful and long career.

• Jane Birkin is at the Roundhouse on March 1. 0844 482 8008

Comment on this article.
(You must supply your full name and email address for your comment to be published)

Name:

Email:

Comment:

Check Prices, Availability & Book Online
Receive Online Discounts and Instant Confirmation

» Rock & Pop
» Gig Listings
» Classical & Jazz
» C&J Listings
» Book concerts/gigs
» Buy CDs