Live à Bercy

Infobox Album | Name = Live à Bercy
Type = Live album
Artist = Mylène Farmer


Released = May 21, 1997 (album, VHS)
May, 1999 (DVD)
Recorded = Paris
Genre = Rock
Length = 118:13
Label = Polydor
Producer = Laurent Boutonnat
Reviews = * Allmusic Rating|3|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:a9fyxqqjldje link]
Last album = "Anamorphosée"
(1995)
This album = "Live à Bercy"
(1997)
Next album = "Innamoramento"
(1999)Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Alternate cover
Type = Live album


Lower caption = Collector edition - "Spider"Singles
Name = Live à Bercy
Type = Live
single 1 = La Poupée qui fait non
single 1 date = April 29, 1997
single 2 = Ainsi soit je...
single 2 date = August 20, 1997

"Live à Bercy" is the second live album by Mylène Farmer, released on May 21, 1997. It was also produced as a video.

Background

After the successful concerts tour of 1996, whose shows were spread out from May 25 to December 15, a live album was recorded and produced by Thierry Suc, and sponsored by NRJ. It was remixed in studio to give it a better sound. The re-orchestrations, composed by Laurent Boutonnat, were very dynamic with very rock sonorities. ["L'Intégrale Mylene Farmer", Erwan Chuberre, 2007, City Ed., p. 193-194 (ISBN 978-2-35288-108-7)] The photos illustrating the booklet were realized by Claude Gassian. The track listing contains songs from the four studio albums of Farmer, but "Anamorphosée" was sharply privileged, because all its songs were included on the album, except "Eaunanisme". This live was released on May 21, 1997."Le Dictionnaire des Chansons de Mylène Farmer", Benoît Cachin, 2006, Tournon Ed., p. 188-190]

In May, a musical video of the concert was also realized, first as a VHS. For the first time, François Hans participated in the shooting of a live. As for the previous live album "En concert", several scenes were re-filmed without the audience. The live video contains nevertheless numerous errors of editing, because it was compiled from four shows : three at Bercy and another in Geneva. It contains besides a making of and new images.

Two years later, in May, 1999, the video was released as a DVD, which constituted moreover the first DVD of the singer. However, it doesn't contain the bonuses available on the cassette. The DVD was dedicated to the singer's brother, Jean-Loup Gautier, died on October 26, 1996 after a road accident."Le Dictionnaire des Chansons de Mylène Farmer", Benoît Cachin, 2006, Tournon Ed., p. 188-190]

All the formats had a huge success.

Critical reception

Generally well-received by media, the album was nevertheless criticized for having been too much remixed in studio. For example, the journalist Caroline Bee declared : "Everything is emphasized : Mylène's voice, the shouts of the public, Abraham Laboriel's powerful drum, the bass and both guitars, impeccable. All that gives a perfect whole, without dissonance, but which sounds more as an album studio than as a real transcription of concert". ["Mylène Farmer - La part d'ombre", Caroline Bee, Antoine Bioy & Benjamin Thiry, 2005, Archipel Ed., p. 364-365]

Chart performances

In France, the album debuted at number 3 on French Album Chart, on May 24, 1997. It then reached its peak position, #2, for two consecutive weeks, and for two other weeks two months later. Andrea Bocelli's "Romanza", then Era's eponymous album made it unable to reach number one. It remained for 18 weeks in the ten ten, and dropped until #36 on November 8, but managed to re-entered the top 20 the week after and there stayed for nine weeks. It almost kept on dropping the months after and left the chart (Top 75) after its 44th week of attendance, on March 28, 1998. Three days before, the album achieved Double platinum status by the SNEP, the French certificator, for a minimum of 600,000 copies sold.1998 certifications, by SNEP [http://www.disqueenfrance.com/certifications/album.asp?forme_certif=13&annee=13 Disqueenfrance.com] (Retrieved April 3, 2008)] "Live à Bercy" is to date the best-selling live album in France, with about 900,000 sales.

The video, both the VHS and the DVD, reached the first position on the French Videos Chart. They were both certified Diamond videos on October 24, 2001, for more than 100,000 sold copies and thus became the most sold videos of a concert in France.

In Belgium (Wallonia), the album went straight to number 4 on June 7, 1997 and then peaked at #2 for 12 consecutive weeks (Era topped the chart then). After 18 weeks in the top ten, the album slowly dropped the four following months and disappeared from the chart (Top 50) on March 31, 1998, after 35 weeks of attendance.

ingles

References