Nouvelle Star

For those of you who haven't been keeping up... Jules was voted off of Nouvelle Star this evening. I confess to having seen Nouvelle Star more often than American Idol. Maybe it is because I now have Wednesday evenings free. Maybe it's a bizarre desire to see all of the candidates and judges wearing an inordinate amount of makeup, giving them a freakish mannequin-like appearance. Or maybe it's because the results are announced at the end of each show (which is possible because France is in one time zone) and I don't have to wait for a week to know which "candidat" France loves most.

The French love Americans, well at least American "chantuers." All of the final five candidates sang two songs each, including one song in English. Ycare did a decent job with "Bang Bang" by Cher and Nancy Sinatra, Amandine made her way through "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, but Benjamin stole the show with "Just the Two of Us" by Bill Withers. Though I was tempted to vote for Benajamin, I decided to save the 50 cents it would cost and put it toward an almond croissant. I guess I love my pastries just a little bit more than my Nouvelle Stars. [Yeah, in France callers pay for everything from voting for their favorite idol to the weather and traffic.]

American movies and music - that must be why so many more French people speak English than vice versa. But I'm still wondering where poor Jules, who was voted off tonight, learned this little stunt. Maybe some performances are universal.

Within minutes of the show's completion, (I had to go search for their logo) all of the performances were already on the web. C'est incroyable! Vraiment. http://www.nouvellestar.fr/videos/