Sibérie m'était contéee

Infobox Album |
Name = Siberie m'etait contéee
Type = Album
Artist = Manu Chao


Background = orange
Released = 2004
Recorded =
Genre = Chanson
Length = 72:58
Label =
Producer =
Reviews =
Last album = Radio Bemba Sound System
(2002)
This album = Sibérie m'était contéee
(2004)
Next album = La Radiolina
(2007)

"Sibérie m'était contéee" sic or "Siberie m'etait contéee" ["sic"] (" [the story of] Siberia was told/recited to me", but see discussion below) is the first French language-only album by Manu Chao, released in 2004. This album features, along with a CD, an oversized book with lyrics to songs from the album and previous Manu Chao albums, as well as illustrations by Jacek Woźniak. Hit singles include "Petite blonde du Boulevard Brune" ("Little blonde from Brune Boulevard" which is a parisian boulevard). The album's songs refer heavily to Paris, and Parisian life. The song "Helno est mort" (Helno is Dead) is dedicated to the memory of his friend Helno (Noël Rota), the singer of Les Négresses Vertes who died of a drug overdose in 1993.

pelling of the title

Note that the title incorporates an intentional misspelling ("contéee" instead of "contée"). It may or may not incorporate an intentional dropping of acute accents in "Sibérie/Siberie" and "m'était/m'etait".

The grammatically correct title would be "Sibérie m'était contée". The title as written in capital letters on the album cover is "SIBERIE M'ETAIT CONTÉEE". To interpret this, it is necessary to understand that the French language usually drops accents (diacritics) on capital letters, but nevertheless very often retains the accent for capital É (E with acute accent) when it occurs in a word-final or near word-final position, because in this position it could be mistaken for silent "e" and the word could be mistaken for another word: eg, "conté" (told [masculine] ), "conte" (tale).

Thus, nearly all French language references interpret the title as "Sibérie m'était contéee" (Amazon.fr, album reviews, etc). However the official Manu Chao website manuchao.net gives the title as "Siberie m'etait contéee" (without accents on "Sibérie" or "m'était") even though "Sibérie" appears elsewhere on the same webpage with the accent. It is not known if this dropping of accents in "Sibérie" and "m'était" actually reflects the singer's intentions or was merely done by the site's webmaster.

Puns and wordplay

The title is a pun or wordplay. There are many books or articles in French with the title "Si X m'était conté" or "Si le X m'était conté" (for masculine nouns X) or "Si X m'était contée" or "Si la X m'était contée" (for feminine nouns X). These translate literally as "If X was told to me" or figuratively as "What X is all about" or "An introduction to X". Thus in "Sibérie m'était contée" the first syllable of "Sibérie" (Siberia) could be interpreted, in wordplay, as the word "si" (if): "If "'bérie'" was told to me" (whatever "bérie" --which just happens to rhyme with the French pronunciation of Paris (Par-ee)--might be). It can be another wordplay with Tiberi (jean) mayor of Paris until 2001.

Note also a 1974 album by Melina Mercouri with the title "Si Melina m'était contée".

The album cover also includes the words (in capital letters): "…A TOUS LES PECHEURS DU FLEUVE AMOUR…", which is also a pun. It can be understood as either "to all those who fish the Amur river" (a river in Siberia), or as "to all the sinners of the river Love". The French words "pécheur" (sinner) and "pêcheur" (fisherman/fisher) are spelled the same way when the accent is dropped in capital letters.

Track listing

#"Le P'tit jardin"
#"Petite blonde du boulevard Brune"
#"La valse à sale temps"
#"Les mille paillettes"
#"Il faut manger"
#"Helno est mort"
#"J'ai besoin de la lune"
#"L'automne est las"
#"Si loin de toi, je te joue"
#"100.000 remords"
#"Trop tot, trop tard"
#"Te tromper"
#"Madame banquise"
#"Les Rues de l'Hiver"
#"Sibérie fleuve amour"
#"Les petites planètes"
#"Te souviens tu..."
#"J'ai besoin de la lune remix"
#"Dans mon jardin"
#"Merci bonsoir..."
#"Je suis fou de toi"
#"Les yeux turquoises"
#"Sibérie"