This Place Where I Can Shout That I Love You

Christine and the Queens “Rendez-vous avec toi”

Christine and the Queens have released two versions of this song – one sung in English, the other en français. I’m obviously fluent in the former, but can at best sorta comprehend the latter. So this is a fun little test for me: How much does singing in English actually matter to me?

This has been on my mind recently because I’ve gone through one of my periodic phases of getting obsessed with Antônio Carlos Jobim’s “Águas De Março” and listening to every interpretation of the song I can find. (It’s a standard, so there are a LOT of versions.)

The primary version of “Águas De Março” has lyrics written in Portugeuse, but Jobim also adapted the song to English. There were some changes in the adaptation – some local Brazilian references are removed, he changed some parts to account for March being the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere and the start of spring in the Northern Hemisphere – but the melody and everything important about the composition is the same.

But it’s not the same. “The Waters of March” can be more moving to me on a lyrical level because I can connect with the sentiment more directly, but I’ve never heard a recording of that version – including Jobim’s own recording of it – that has the whimsy and delight that I hear in most iterations of “Águas De Março.” And maybe a lot of that comes down to the degree to which Elis Regina defined the song, particularly in her duet version with Jobim. A lot of women who have sung it over the years have done their best to channel Regina’s playful, sexy, oddball, slightly weary charm.

I don’t really hear that silliness or flirty spirit in the English renditions, which tend to lean harder on the melancholy in the lyrics and the bittersweet qualities of Jobim’s composition. But that’s probably because the early defining recording of “Waters of March” was by Art Garfunkel. Art and Elis… very different vibes.

Anyway, Christine and the Queens! As with “Águas De Março,” I’m primarily drawn to the song for musical reasons. It’s that glorious bass line, it’s in how the piano chords ring out, it’s the busy yet unobtrusive hard percussion, it’s that lead keyboard refrain. It’s the sheer force of the production, which reminds me a lot of Justice’s first record without necessarily sounding like Justice. The vocal melody is fantastic and wonderfully emotive, and when Chris sings it in English a lot of it sounds more like singing than words. The phrases that do stick out for me make it clear I’m listening to a love song, but I can already feel that in the music.

If I only ever heard the English version I wouldn’t question anything about it, but the French version just feels more natural to me. The translation isn’t adding anything to the music that I couldn’t pick up intuitively. So the French version wins!

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