PHOTOS: MANNY HEBRON | There was a buzz of French accents circulating The Echo Wednesday night. The Los Angeles hipster-French (and faux French) community, complete with striped sailor tops à la Godard’s new wave film Breathless, was in full attendance to support their newest electro pop sweetheart, Christine and the Queens.
The alter-ego of 26 year-old Heloise Letissier, Christine and the Queens took the stage ready to make her L.A. debut. Christine is in a fitted black suit flanked by two featured dancers—with their intricate choreography, it would be wrong to simply call them “back up.”
A crescendo of synth and bass fills the venue. The melody holds a sophistication that draws from the French noir classics. A pulsating rhythm leans ever so slightly behind the beat creating a sleek groove. There is energy of excitement to her playful interaction with the audience but an effortlessly cool vibe in Christine’s vocals. Her performance of “iT,” also the opening track to her English debut EP, “Saint Claude,” released the day prior via Neon Gold and Atlantic Records in the US, was sung as an arrangement of both English and French, like much of the record.
The runaway hit, “Tilted,” also acts as the centerpiece of the evening’s show. A quaint mid-tempo pop tune that is catchy as hell without being derivative, the song’s bouncy choreography quickly became a Christine and the Queens signature. Featuring detailed movements with isolated gestures and graceful weight shifting nuances.
Clearly technically trained, Christine’s more serious tracks like “Saint Claude” or the darker “Narcissus is Back” highlight the outright range of her voice—and the girl can blow. Contrary to some top 40 artists, Christine does not trade pitch for her sweet dance moves, proving that they can, indeed, co-exist.
The concert presented her full EP, as well as the title track of her 2013 release “Nuit 17 a 52” (from her French label Because Music), and a cover of Mr. Kanye West’s “Heartless,” verses spoken in French with English choruses. Christine speaks openly to the audience about how, “with one song, something can be repaired.” A fan of American pop-culture, she makes references to Beyonce and RiRi with a call to action that we should all embrace ourselves as “imperfect divas.”
Christine and the Queens gave a performance bigger than the stage itself. A show already outgrowing the capacity of clubs for theaters and beyond; fittingly, she will follow up her stint of US cities, which included stops at SXSW, by opening for label-mate Marina and the Diamonds.
Though certainly armed with a roster of finely tuned pop songs, Christine and her Queens is much more than another female in this era of pop feminist ruling—many of which hail from her very own label. A more accurate description would be to call her a full on Performance Artist, inspired by the drag community, pursuing a study of secret lives and alter egos through song, dance, theatrics, and lighting. Most likely an instinct developed from her Theater studies at Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon, one of the top universities in France.
Popshop West’s Christine and the Queens-headlined evening had fans and new-comers alike declaring loyalties to the new royalty. Get to know Christine and the Queens, because there is certainly much more to come when this queen takes reign.
