L'Âme-stram-gram
"L'Âme-stram-gram" is a 1999 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was the lead single from her fifth studio album Innamoramento and was released on 9 March 1999. The lyrics were written by Farmer and the music was composed by Laurent Boutonnat. Musically, the song has techno and dance influences which marked an artistic change in the singer's career, although the rest of the album contains more pop songs. Based on a famous children's counting rhyme, the song is primarily about confidence, secret, and confession and uses the lexical field of psychoanalysis; however, the many puns and double entendres can also provide another meaning explicitly referring to sexuality. Inspired by the romantic comedy horror film A Chinese Ghost Story, the expensive eight-minute music video was shot by Hong Kong film director Ching Siu-Tung in Beijing and displays Farmer portraying twin sisters who have supernatural powers; the first being kidnapped by Chinese bandits and rescued by her sister, who dies in the process, causing the first twin to commit suicide. Farmer promoted the song by performing it on three TV shows and then singing it on two of her subsequent tours. The single peaked at number two in France and was certified as silver for having over 125,000 sales. It was also a top ten hit in Belgium (Wallonia). Background and writing As of January 1999, Farmer had not appeared on television for over a year and a half, the last time being the release of the live singles from the album Live à Bercy. At that time, it was rumoured that the singer's return was imminent, with the release of a very rhythmic single named "The Small World" and a new album whose name would be "Mes Moires". These rumours were incorrect; however, as early as February, the radio station NRJ aired Farmer's new single, titled "L'Âme-stram-gram". This techno and dance song seemed to display a major change in Farmer's musical register. According to Farmer, the choice of this single was made haphazardly, as she said in an interview: "This happened like that. Laurent [Boutonnat] wrote a rhythm, and I confess that I really want, precisely, something rhythmic, even a little lighter." Promotional envelopes were released in a limited edition respectively on 2 and 6 March and contained, in addition to the CD single, the song's lyrics written by Farmer. As noted in the magazine Instant-Mag, there was a spelling mistake in the word "immiscer" and an erasure. The remixes, deemed "rather successful" by French author Julien Rigal, were not produced by Boutonnat, unlike Farmer's previous singles, but by Perky Park and Lady B. The art cover of the various formats, made by Italian photographer Marino Parisotto Vay, showed Farmer behind blue veils. Lyrics and music "L'Âme-stram-gram", whose lyrics were written in Milan, has techno influences and a subdued singer's voice, making it more heavenly. The music used more synthesizers and bass guitar than the songs from the previous album, Anamorphosée; the song, however, was not representative of the