By Ifan Llewelyn
Since its release back in 2011, ‘Chic, C’est la Vie’ has been a staple in countless pre-drinking sessions, where gay men kick back with a glass of bubbles for a giggle over this dance hit. It’s hyper-produced electronic beats and evocation of glamour are all too often misunderstood. What they might neglect to realise is that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to the half sung but mostly spoken words of Countless Luann De Lesseps. She has lived a fair few lives in her lifetime, from housewife, to reality star, to convict, to equestrian, to cabaret star. Her biography reads like the description of one of Madonna’s new personas. It hasn’t been an easy ride for the Countess, and her lyrics reflect that more that she may think.
In ‘Chic C’est La Vie’ we get a rare glimpse inside the psyche of a woman who’s climbed her way to the top of the Manhattan social heap. The track climbed high on the dance charts, and due to the tracks complete lack of musicality, there must be something alluring hidden in its lyrics. Ifan Llewelyn investigates .
Ladies and gentlemen
This is the countess speaking
We have arrived.
In the song’s opening, the Countess adopts the persona of a pilot as he announces a triumphant landing. Presumably we’re landing at the top as the Countess has, but where have we come from?
Gems, jets, silhouettes, champagne in the sky
Fine premieres and fireworks, every single night.
Her bright luxurious world of ‘gems’ and ‘jets’ suddenly come in stark contrast with the ‘silhouettes’ that haunt her. Allusive shadows that crowd her life. But all to suddenly she distracts herself with ‘champagne’, though it’s still tinged by being ungrounded, something the she longs to be. The premiers she busies herself with are ‘fine’, but they keep coming, ‘every single night’. It’s relenless.
Gold, diamonds, caviar
Life is but a dream
when every day you’re living in, is featured on TV.
Once again her life is littered with glamour, though it doesn’t seem real to her. She still feels up in the air, unable to connect with her reality. ‘Life is but a dream’ and she finds it difficult to connect to. She feels as though she is ‘living in’ the days of her life as opposed to just ‘living’ them. It’s a role she’s playing, she’s just a character, reinforced by the fact that her life is featured on TV.
Confident and Cool, passion is the key
Live the life you wanna live
There’s no sympathy.
These are qualities she’s desperate to cling on to. Facing life’s troubles she must remain confident in herself, and stay unemotional, detached and ‘cool’. She might be doing what she wants to do, living the life she wants to live, but unfortunately she can’t find ‘sympathy’. Her detachment means that others find it difficult to connect to her. She’s stuck living an estranged life.
Don’t forget to see the best
Life can be so soft
The little things can take you down
So it’s best to brush them off.
Here the Countess takes a moment to remind herself to be the best, for she must always be at her best. That’s what’s expected of her. Her ‘soft’ life malluable, there is nothing solid she can pin herself onto. It’s here she makes an admission of the ‘little things’ that could take her down if she acknowlegded them, but like her worries, her fears, her hopes and aspirations, she just brushes them off.
Hair done, jewellery on
Oh mirror on the wall
Who’s the fairest in the land
I guess it’s not his call.
Checking her reflection she runs a checklist of her appearance, making sure she’s maintaining her fabulous veneer. Like Snow White’s wicked queen she asks the mirror ‘Who’s the fairest in the land?’, painting herself as the villain in her own story. When the mirror answers and doesn’t give her the answer she so craves, she deems is not ‘his call’. It is significant that her mirror is masculine, since we can presume that it has been the men in her life that have called her appearance into questions.
Beauty, class and elegance
Lie within the soul
Money, power and romance are waiting for us all.
Where she once listed material treatures, she now lists the virtues she deems important. ‘Beauty, class and elaegance’ are a trinity of superficial qualities that the Countess preoccupies herself, ironically claiming that they lie ‘within’ her very soul. These qualities are on the surrface, and yet they lie in her soul, suggesting that her soul resides on her surfface. She is empty inside.
Chic c’est la vie, sa bonne sa bonne.
Chic c’est la vie, sa bonne sa bonne.
We reach the Countess’ battle cry. Chic, that’s life. Her life is no more or no less than the quality of being ‘chic’. It is said in a language foreign to the Countess to reflect her estrangement from herself. This chorus strikes a chord that is both re-assuring to herself, and has a motivational quality. Life is chic, it’s good, it’s good. He has to keep reminding herself over and over again.
Limousines, the party scene, adventures everyday
Fabulous and feminine in every single way
In the second verse she’s back to listing, but this time intermixing material goods, and lavish experiences. Once again the adventures are ‘everyday’. The life of the Countess is unrelenting and constant. Here she implicates her gender with ‘fabulous and feminine’, suggesting that these two are in some way related. The indication is that she musn’t only act her best but in a specifically feminine way. It’s exhausting.
Confident and cool
You know you hold the key
Find your dreams within yourself
And live with dignity
Here the lyrics of the pre-chorus are augmented, from being ‘passion is the key’ to ‘you know you hold the key’. If passion is the key and you’re the one holding it, then why isn’t it her key? Where is her passion? She’s distracting from her own lack of passion by claiming you should have a hold on yours. The focus continues to be on you as she tells you to find your dreams within yourself. You get a feeling that she’s a lost cause, a cautionary tale, telling you to hold on to what you have since she never could herself.
Attention!
Jill bring your jewellery
Cindy bring those crystals
Ramona bring that pinot
Sonja, her men
Kelly, the jelly beans
Alex and Simon
And i’ll bring the diamonds
Attention! The Countess is playing yet another role, this time playing an Admiral or a Commander calling her troupes to action. One by one, she calls on her friends to bring something of theirs along to an imagined event. She summates her friends in material items, just as she has been doing to herself throught the song. These are loaded metaphors, with Ramona’s ‘Pinot’ hiting at her suspected alcoholism, and Sonja’s ‘men’ guesturing to her promiscuity.
It soon breaks down with ‘Alex and Simon’ who disrput the pattern having not been told to bring anything. The intrusion of the married couple throws the Countess off, and she returns to herself saying she’ll ‘bring the diamons’. The tension set up here is clearely related to her divorce that was finalised two years prior to the release of this song. She swiftly returns to her battle cry, ‘chic, c’est la vie’, reasssuring herself it’s good… it’s good.
You can’t help but wonder, the Countess’ life might be ‘Chic’, but exactly how ‘bonne’ is it?
