Live à Bercy

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

Live à Bercy
Live album by Mylène Farmer
Released	21 May 1997 (album, VHS) May 1999 (DVD) January 2020 (LP)
Recorded	Paris
Genre	Rock, pop
Length	118:13
Label	Polydor
Producer	Laurent Boutonnat
Mylène Farmer chronology
Anamorphosée (1995) Live à Bercy (1997) Innamoramento (1999)
Alternative cover
Collector edition - "Spider"
Singles from Live à Bercy
"La Poupée qui fait non" Released: 29 April 1997 "Ainsi soit je..." Released: 20 August 1997

Background

After the successful concerts tour of 1996, whose shows were spread out from 25 May to 15 December, 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.^[1] 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 album was released on 21 May 1997.^[2]

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 26 October 1996 after a road accident.^[2]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[3]

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".^[4]

Commercial performance

In France, the album debuted at number 3 on French Album Chart, on 24 May 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 top ten, and dropped until #36 on 8 November, 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 28 March 1998. Three days before, the album achieved Double platinum status by the SNEP, the French certifier, for a minimum of 600,000 copies sold.^[5]

The video, both the VHS and the DVD, reached the first position on the French Videos Chart. They were both certified Diamond videos on 24 October 2001, for more than 100,000 sold copies.

In Belgium Wallonia, the album went straight to number 4 on 7 June 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 31 March 1998, after 35 weeks of attendance.

Track listing

Album

Disc one

1. "Ouverture" (4:41)
2. "Vertige" (6:24)
3. "California" (7:12)
4. "Que Mon Cœur Lâche" (4:42)
5. "Et Tournoie..." (4:30)
6. "Je T'aime Mélancolie" (5:14)
7. "L'autre..." (5:46)
8. "Libertine" (5:34)
9. "L'instant X" (9:41)
10. "Alice" (5:28)

Disc two

1. "Comme J'ai Mal" (4:41)
2. "Sans Contrefaçon" (4:22)
3. "Mylène S'en Fout" (5:37)
4. "Désenchantée" (7:26)
5. "Rêver" (8:26)
6. "Laisse Le Vent Emporter Tout" (6:29)
7. "Tomber 7 Fois..." (5:05)
8. "Ainsi Soit Je..." (4:39)
9. "La Poupée Qui Fait Non" (duet with Khaled) (4:39)
10. "XXL" (7:26)

Cassette

A-side

1. "Ouverture"
2. "Vertige"
3. "California"
4. "Que mon cœur lâche"
5. "Je t'aime mélancolie"
6. "L'Autre"
7. "Libertine"
8. "L'Instant X"
9. "Alice"

B-side

1. "Comme j'ai mal"
2. "Sans contrefaçon"
3. "Mylène s'en fout"
4. "Désenchantée"
5. "Rêver"
6. "Laisse le vent emporter tout"
7. "Ainsi soit je..."
8. "La Poupée qui fait non" (duet with Khaled)
9. "XXL"

VHS/DVD

Act I

1. "Ouverture" (4:45)
2. "Vertige" (6:20)
3. "California" (7:30)
4. "Que mon cœur lâche" (4:35)
5. "Et Tournoie..." (4:30)

Act II

6. "Je t'aime mélancolie" (5:20)
7. "L'Autre..." (5:50)

Act III

8. "Libertine" (5:40)
9. "L'Instant X" (9:36)

Act IV

10. "Alice" (5:25)
11. "Comme j'ai mal" (4:35)

Act V

12. "Sans contrefaçon" (4:20)
13. "Mylène s'en fout" (4:45)
14. "Désenchantée" (8:15)

Act VI

15. "Rêver" (8:00)
16. "Laisse le vent emporter tout" (6:25)
17. "Tomber 7 fois..." (6:00)
18. "Ainsi soit je..." (5:00)
19. "La Poupée qui fait non" (duet with Khaled) (4:30)

Encore

20. "XXL" (7:00)

Personnel

• Laurent Boutonnat – arranger, producer
• Jermaine Brown – dancer
• Yvan Cassar – arranger, clavier, director, keyboards, musical director
• Bertrand Chatnet – mixing
• Jeff Dahlgren – guitar
• Christophe Danchaud – dancer
• Mylène Farmer – concept, primary artist, vocals
• Emmanuel Feyrabend – mixing, mixing assistant
• Claude Gassian – photography
• Khaled – performer
• Abe Laboriel Jr. - drums
• Henry Neu – design
• André Perriat – mastering
• Philippe Rault – consultant, producer
• Brian Ray – guitar
• Thierry Rogen – engineer
• Carole Rowley – choir/chorus
• Brian Thomas – dancer
• Paul Van Parys – executive producer
• Jerry Watts Jr. - bass
• Donna DeLory - Dancer/back vocalist

Charts

Weekly album charts Initial weekly chart performance for Live à Bercy Chart (1997–1998) Peak position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[6] 2 European Albums (Music & Media)[7] 17 French Albums (SNEP)[8] 2 2020 weekly chart performance for Live à Bercy Chart (2020) Peak position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[9] 46 Weekly DVD charts Chart (2010) Peak position French Music DVD (SNEP)[10] 5 Swiss Music DVD (Schweizer Hitparade)[11] 7

Year-end album charts 1997 year-end chart performance for Live à Bercy Chart (1997) Position Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[12] 13 European Albums (Music & Media)[13] 81 French Albums (SNEP)[14] 11 Year-end DVD charts Chart (2006) Position French DVDs (SNEP)[15] 52 Chart (2007) Position French DVDs (SNEP)[16] 99 Chart (2009) Position French DVDs (SNEP)[17] 57 Chart (2010) Position French DVDs (SNEP)[18] 56

Certifications and sales

Region	Certification	Certified units/sales
Album
Belgium (BEA)[19]	Gold	25,000*
France (SNEP)[20]	2× Platinum	600,000*
Switzerland (IFPI Switzerland)[21]	Gold	25,000^
Summaries
Worldwide	—	900,000[22]
VHS
France (SNEP)[23]	Diamond	100,000*
DVD
France (SNEP)[24]	Diamond	100,000*
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone.

Formats

Audio

• Double CD
• Double CD – Promo - "Spider" (2 CD + VHS)
• Cassette (Doesn't contain "Et Tournoie..." and "Tomber 7 fois...")

Video

• VHS
  • Plastic case with hologram logos
  • Plastic case with silvery logos
• 12" Laserdisc
• DVD
  • Plastic case with hologram logos
  • Plastic case with silvery logos

References

1. L'Intégrale Mylene Farmer, Erwan Chuberre, 2007, City Ed., p. 193-194 (ISBN 978-2-35288-108-7)
2. Le Dictionnaire des Chansons de Mylène Farmer, Benoît Cachin, 2006, Tournon Ed., p. 188-190
3. AllMusic review
4. Mylène Farmer – La part d'ombre, Caroline Bee, Antoine Bioy & Benjamin Thiry, 2005, Archipel Ed., p. 364-365
5. 1998 certifications, by SNEP Disqueenfrance.com Archived 12 December 2008 at the Wayback Machine (Retrieved 3 April 2008)
6. "Ultratop.be – Mylène Farmer – Live à Bercy" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
7. "European Top 100 Albums" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 14, no. 25. 21 June 1997. p. 19. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
8. "Lescharts.com – Mylène Farmer – Live à Bercy". Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
9. "Ultratop.be – Mylène Farmer – Live à Bercy" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
10. "Mylène Farmer – Live à Bercy" (in French). Classement Officiel des ventes de DVD Musicaux. Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
11. "Swiss Charts – Music DVD Top 10: 25-04-2010". Swiss Hitparade. Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
12. "Rapports annueles 1997" (in French). Ultratop. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
13. "European Top 100 Albums 1997" (PDF). Music & Media. Vol. 14, no. 52. 27 December 1997. p. 7. Retrieved 8 December 2022.
14. "Classement Albums – année 1997" (in French). SNEP. Archived from the original on 11 October 2012. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
15. "Cité de la musique: rapport 2006" (PDF). Observatoire de la musique / GfK. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
16. "Cité de la musique: rapport 2007" (PDF). Observatoire de la musique / GfK. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
17. "Cité de la musique: rapport 2009" (PDF). Observatoire de la musique / GfK. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
18. "Cité de la musique: rapport 2010" (PDF). Observatoire de la musique / GfK. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 January 2016. Retrieved 17 June 2016.
19. "Ultratop − Goud en Platina – albums 1997". Ultratop. Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
20. "French album certifications – Mylène Farmer – Live à Bercy" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Archived from the original on 23 September 2012.
21. "The Official Swiss Charts and Music Community: Awards ('Live')". IFPI Switzerland. Hung Medien. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
22. "Mercredi, RFM diffuse le concert de Mylène Farmer "Live à Bercy 97"" (in French). RFM. 21 June 2016. Retrieved 5 February 2018.
23. "French video certifications – Mylene Farmer – Live a Bercy" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 3 January 2018.
24. "French video certifications – Mylene Farmer – Live a Bercy" (in French). Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 3 January 2018.