Ollie’s open mic at the Ptit Bonheur la Chance practically never fails to provide me with a theme for this blog, and yesterday was no exception – despite that Ollie was off somewhere else neglecting his duties to us and leaving his MC job to Tristan, who did great job of it. But despite Ollie’s absence, and despite a slightly quiet start, the evening picked up steam very quickly. And there was something about it that seemed to be inspiring the women performers of the night because that was where I saw all sorts of fabulous new things, and great sounds and emotions.
For that reason, I will not put up any of the men in videos – although I was tempted to put up Tristan’s great “Tickle Me Pink.” (And I thank Tristan for doing videos of my three songs, too!)
No, the show belonged to the women and their songs and voices: I was touched by them all (I wish) and unfortunately one who hit me most I did not record, since I was submerged in emotion. (That was Aurore Clement’s second song.) But check out these performances. Victoire’s a cappella song in particular was great, and the first time I heard her voice – on the first song – I immediately thought of Melanie from the 1960s/70s (Look What They Done to My Song, Ma…). I told that to Victoire afterwards, and I’m hoping she will try the Melanie song, because the couple of bars she sang in the street made my feel goosebumps.
Then there was a young woman from the United States somewhere, Honor. She had a very nice voice too and did a nice song and then a duo with another woman. And then there was Kerry from Alabama, who was really in good form. And Fannie, who is French but also Swedish, and she who does a very mean “Chelsea Hotel” this time decided to do a Swedish song. Beautiful. Was it that that inspired Ayse Ayhan of Turkey to do a Turkish song after her English one? Very nice there too. And I was thinking that was a good preparation for my trip to Istanbul next week….
All in all, then, the woman OWNED Ollie’s joint last night. No question about it.