(French to English translation by Janice Doxsey)
Melanie, the star of MIDEM launched in France by Eddie Barclay.
Melanie represents a special trend in modern American folk music. Influenced (whether voluntary or not) by Bob Dylan, she belongs to the post-Dylan group, of which she is in the process of becoming one of the best members. Her voice is mellower than that of Joan Baez and above all more natural and firm, and it allows her to get the most from her interpretation of songs.
She composes songs of a remarkable quality.
Her words are lived before they can be thought, in our opinion, this is one of her basic qualities.
ARTIE (BUDDAH) RIPP judges at MIDEM and wants to launch his artists in France
Artie Ripp is the president of Buddah Records, a division of the American record company Kama Sutra. He was at MIDEM to find out what was going on internationally in the music industry.
"In my opinion, MIDEM is an important show that allows contact between foreign firms for the promotion of unknown artists. Melanie, who represents a particular trend in modern American folk music. Her records are distributed in France by Barclay Records. Melanie's final contract arrangements were not finalised during MIDEM but before, between Eddie Barclay and myself. I don't think that MIDEM ought to be just a means of finalising music business but above all to show the contacts that can be made with foreign firms, difficult to contact during the year. I think at present, the Americans are in the strangest of positions. People come to see us, hear our records and talk about different things. The practical side of MIDEM is that, in one week, you can see all the foreign representatives (France, Germany, Brazil, Japan) and eventually have discussions with people who may not use their contacts immediately, but will do later. Only the worst Americans think that MIDEM isn't a waste of time, the rich people can think the opposite. For me, all that it means is that it allows me to introduce artists like Melanie into France. For the moment the introduction may be small (what we would like to do is bring our artists to France and present them like Melanie at the Olympia, an American with Becaud so that the public can judge our records). That is what we have the intention of doing in the future with Barclay.
Kama Sutra and Buddah are two diverse record companies. Together they form a huge explosive concern, who will risk everything in spite of its ups and downs (very deep downs in fact)."
With a sale of about 90,000 records a week, they are going through a good phase at the moment.