New album could play out badly for France’s first lady

By ELAINE GANLEY

The first lady sings; will the new album score?

PARIS — She charmed the queen of England, captivated Israel, impressed President Bush and won over the hardest sell of all — the French.

But can France’s first lady, top model turned songstress Carla Bruni, who married President Nicolas Sarkozy in February, keep spinning the magic once her new album comes out Friday?

Its success, or failure, could be an affair of state.

The Italian-born Bruni (officially Bruni-Sarkozy) makes an unlikely spouse for any national leader. But in France, where a deep conservatism runs through the lush heartland, she is in many ways the very antithesis of a first lady.

A self-described modern woman, the 40-year-old one-time single mother makes no secret of her freewheeling past, including high-profile trysts with the likes of Mick Jagger and Eric Clapton.

Yet although the French have been scandalized by Sarkozy’s splashy lifestyle and his very public divorce just months after winning office, they have taken to Bruni in a big way.

With her high society upbringing and easy elegance, Bruni has gained accolades from the media and favorable ratings in opinion polls.

“She has even shown herself to be a very intelligent woman,” said Jean-Luc Parodi, a longtime political analyst. “The way she has handled herself since her marriage shows a real finesse in understanding both the president and French society.”

The title of the new album — her third — is revealing: “Comme si de rien n’etait” (As If Nothing Had Happened). It will be released in many European countries Friday, sandwiched between the G-8 summit in Japan and a summit of world leaders in Paris on Sunday. The album comes out in the United States in August, under its French title.

At the Elysee presidential palace — where the first lady maintains an office but has yet to take up permanent residence — Bruni’s fortunes are of keen strategic interest. An aide and friend of Sarkozy’s, Pierre Charon, has been assigned to guide her through the minefields of French politics.

“For the moment, she’s a good card,” said Colombe Pringle, executive editor of the celebrity magazine Point de Vue, before adding: “It can turn very fast. ... It might backlash.”

“It’s important that [the album] is good,” she said.