Christine and the Queens and the art of the cover version: interpretations, audience, place

Abstract

More than many pop artists, Christine and the Queens performs cover versions of familiar songs, often on live TV or radio shows. His selections frequently are interpretations of hits from the 1980s and 1990s. However they are more than the chance to share a nostalgic trip with the audience. In France, he often chooses familiar songs by much-loved singers from the French tradition, thus reassuring them of his Frenchness, despite his growing position on the world stage. On platforms overseas, he often selects huge hits by global anglophone stars, so claiming his place amongst the most successful international British and American performers, albeit that he is French. Using interviews, reviews, and music videos, my research looks in detail at two examples of cover versions by Christine and the Queens, one in French and one in English, exploring why these songs were selected for these particular moments. First, I examine his performance of Mylène Farmer’s “California” on Taratata Live in September 2018. In choosing this song, Chris aligns himself not only with one of the most provocative and daring French singers, but also one deeply supportive of the LGBTQ+ community. The track, with its topics of escape and reinvention in Los Angeles, has resonance for Chris’s own experience, and the original video shares themes of transactional sex and power with Christine and the Queens’s own video for “5 Dollars.” Next, I consider his performance of George Michael’s “Freedom! ’90” at the Global Citizen in September 2021. Chris sets himself alongside a very high-profile, gay artist who battled to reclaim his musical and personal identity after an early career in a worldfamous, highly commercial pop duo. In doing so, he lays out his desire to break from the shackles of the success of his first album, Chaleur humaine , and to have the freedom to evolve, as an artist and in his place as a trans man.