Sébastien Tellier (born 1975) is a French singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He is currently signed to Record Makers, a French independent record label
[edit] Biography
Tellier's first album, L'incroyable Vérité (The Incredible Truth), was released in 2001. Tellier went on tour with Air in support of the album and was joined on stage by world-renowned theremin player Pamelia Kurstin. L'incroyable Vérité is a pop album featuring styles from lo-fi electronica to bizarre cabaret tunes. Its sleeve featured Tellier in full evening dress on the front, while the back of jacket had a shot of him cavorting in a playboy's pool. He instructed listeners only to listen to the album by candle light. The track, "Fantino", was chosen by Sofia Coppola for the soundtrack to her 2003 film Lost in Translation.
Tellier followed L'incroyable Vérité with his second studio album Politics (2005), which, like his third album Sexuality (2008), took a single term as both its title and theme. The album dealt with ways of power and governance, in as much as it discussed the relative merits of genocide versus ketchup, as well as the tennis-playing opportunities presented by the Berlin Wall. The most prominent song on Politics was "La Ritournelle", a string-led tune, which featured Nigerian drummer, Tony Allen, drummer and musical director of Fela Kuti's band Africa 70 from 1968 to 1979.
Since the release of Politics, Tellier has also recorded an acoustic album of his more popular songs, Sessions (2006), which topped the French iTunes Store chart; this was repackaged for the British market as Universe (2006), to include both highlights from the French CD, as well as compositions from Tellier's score for the film Narco.
In 2007, Tellier contributed songs to and collaborated with Mr. Oizo for the soundtrack of Oizo's feature film directorial debut, Steak.
His third studio album Sexuality (an 11-track meditation on love-making) was produced by Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk.
[edit] Eurovision Song Contest 2008
On 7 March 2008, it was announced by Bruno Berberes, head of EBU delegation in France, that Tellier would represent France in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008. It was held in Belgrade on 24 May 2008, with Tellier's song "Divine". This was the first time in the history of the contest that the nominated French entry was to be performed largely in English,[1] which caused controversy,[2] leading to Tellier pledging to increase the amount of French in the song prior to the competition itself.[3] In total, the entry received 47 points, placing Tellier joint 18th from 25 competitors.
