Christine and the Queens, the project of French musician Héloïse Letissier, makes danceable, minimalist, queer synthpop, switching effortlessly between English and French lyrics.
Christine and the Queens, the project of French musician Héloïse Letissier, makes danceable, minimalist, queer synthpop, switching effortlessly between English and French lyrics.
She just dropped her sophomore album, Chris, both as an English and a French language version. It’s the more mature follow-up to her critically acclaimed debut album Chaleur Humaine (or titled simply Christine and the Queens for its U.S. release), which was a tribute to her teenage years.
Exploring gender isn’t new to her music — in Chaleur Humaine, she declares boldly on opening track “iT”: “I’m a man now / And there’s nothing you can do to make me change my mind.” But Chris finds her adrogynizing her character, particularly on lead single “Girlfriend” featuring DâM-FunK. She appropriates sweaty, masculine desire and makes it feminine, backed by a funky ’80s beat, singing, “Girlfriend / Don’t feel like a girlfriend / But lover / Damn, I’d be your lover.”
Her new Chris persona also finds her more exposed and more confident, cutting her name down to a single syllable and unapologetically singing about female lust. Her live shows are just as slick and mesmerizing as her music — she’s a dancer, too, and euphoric choreography is the centerpiece to her shows.
Fri., Oct. 26, 8 p.m., $36, Fox Theater, 1807 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, TheFoxOakland.com.
