Bmg Targets France As Market For Swedish Songs

While French-language songs are clearly the premier choice for French music fans, BMG Publishing in Sweden has discovered that there are still opportunities for songwriters in the French market who don't necessarily speak the language.

Stockholm-based BMG has successfully identified a gap for French versions of works penned by its Swedish writers. The trend started last year, when the lyrics to the song "I Like What You're Doing," penned by U.S. writer Billy Steinberg and BMG Music Publishing Scandinavia writers Johan Åberg and Ziggy, were translated by French songwriters Maidi Roth and Doriand and recorded as "Toutes les Femmes de Ta Vie" ("All the Women in Your Life") by local female pop group L5 on Mercury/Island. The act had emerged from the French version of TV talent show Popstars. The single sold in excess of 1.5 million units there, according to BMG.

Several Swedish BMG writers now have songs "on hold" for an upcoming Popstars project, and emerging French artists Priscilla (Jive) and Elsa (Mercury) are among those who have sought to follow the L5 formula, choosing songs co-written by Swedish, U.K., and U.S. songwriters.

BMG Music Publishing France head of song plugging and catalog exploitation Marie Nowak says she "desperately needs music from Sweden" and wants to continue collaborating with Swedish songwriters. "[BMG Music Publishing in] Sweden is my biggest provider of songs," Paris-based Nowak says. "Every time I have a brief and need songs, I can always rely on Sweden. They're my saviors."

Jive's Priscilla has two such tracks on her upcoming album, adapted for France by local songwriter Sheta. The songs are "Blah Blah Blah" by Jörgen Elofsson (BMG) and Steve Mac (19 Music) and "Plus Plus" (originally titled "One Two Three") by Elofsson and Kara Dio Guardio (who publishes her own music).

Meanwhile, Elsa plans to include the song "All I Ever Wanted" on her forthcoming album. The track was written by Peter Kvint (BMG Music Publishing Scandinavia) and Helienne Swedes (BMG Music Publishing France).

Nowak acknowledges there are complications when adapting Swedish pop songs to French and that translators are seldom influenced by the original lyrics: "It's not easy to translate the lyrics, because French isn't a very 'singing' language. For rhythmic tracks like the Popstars songs, it's always difficult for the French lyricist to do a good job." She adds that the original songwriters and the translators do not collaborate on the French-language songs.

"For many years, the policy at French labels was only to sign artists who wrote their own songs," Nowak adds. "It was only five or six years ago that artists [here] became interpreters of songs. The department I'm heading was started only a year ago. Now that there are many more singers who don't do their own music, we don't have enough songs for all the requests we receive."