France Gall, the popular French singer who won the Eurovision Song Contest back in 1965 on behalf of Luxembourg, is not happy about the tribute album released by the French pop singer Jennifer and is making sure everyone is aware about it. 

Three months ago the French tabloid Oops! announced that the winner of the very first edition of the French Star Academy, Jennifer, was working on a tribute album made of covers of France Gall‘s most successful songs. The release of the album was supposed to match with the end of the popular TV talent show The Voice in which Jennifer is one of the four main judges. Initially, the project was titled I love France but was denied by the young singer until very recently. Jennifer finally admitted she was working on such a project and stated to French newspaper Le Parisien that she would have preferred talking about it with France Gall before and that she really would like her to accept this tribute.

Since then, the promotion of the album eventually titled Ma déclaration has started, supported by the release of a first single, a cover of France Gall’s 1965 Eurovision winning entry for Luxembourg, Poupée de cire, Poupée de son, penned by the great Serge Gainsbourg. Jennifer has made a lot of interviews, being regularly asked about her motivations but mainly about the reaction of France Gall to such a project. And one must admit that the answers of the young singer are not very convincing, somehow contradictory even. She stated that France Gall listened to her covers and that she was even given a copy of the album. But the truth is that the two singers have never met for years.

Tired and fed up with the different interviews given by Jennifer, the 1965 Eurovision winner requested a right of reply in the French newspaper Metronews. « We have never talked either directly or in any other way about this project neither before, nor during, nor after its recording, neither since then by the way. I have never known about it nor heard anything from it; I have never ‘validated’ this project. I have never given any ‘green light’ as I have never known about it till now. I will not talk about it any longer.”

Quite a clear statement made by France Gall, who despite being very discreet since the death of her husband and mentor Michel Berger, who wrote her best songs, remains one the most popular female singers in France. And it probably explains why her name does not appear anywhere on the tribute album by Jennifer and is not even pronounced during the TV commercial promoting the album, referring to it as a tribute to an “exceptional artist”. And she is for sure an exceptional artist…