Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1997


Belle (Patrick Fiori, Daniel Lavoie and Garou song)

Buy Belle (Patrick Fiori, Daniel Lavoie and Garou song) now from Amazon

First, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the song. And once you've experienced the song, tell everyone what you thought about it.

Wikipedia article




"'Belle'" is a 1997 song performed by the Francophone singers Patrick Fiori, Daniel Lavoie and Garou, from the musical 'Notre-Dame de Paris'. Released as a single in 1998, it was a hit in France and Belgium, topping the charts for many months. To date, the song is one of the best-selling singles of all time in these countries.

Background and writing



As for the songs from the musical, the text was written by Luc Plamondon, who had also written the musical 'Starmania' in 1978, and the music composed by Richard Cocciante. The musical arrangements were made by Richard Cocciante, Jannick Top and Serge Perathoner who also worked on the musical direction.

"Belle" is a romantic song in which the three singers, who respectively portrayed Quasimodo (Garou), Frollo (Daniel Lavoie) and Phoebus (Patrick Fiori), reveal in turn their love for Esmeralda, before singing together the last verse.

The theme of the song is based in Victor Hugo's novel 'Notre Dame de Paris'. In chapter VI of the Eighth book "Trois coeurs d'homme faits diffremment" (Three men's hearts made differently), Phoebus, Frollo and Quasimodo watch Esmeralda who is sentenced to death. Phoebus is with his fiance and though he pales when seeing Esmeralda proving he has feelings for her, he stays with his Fleur-de-Lys. Frollo is trying once again to propose Esmeralda a salvation, but in return he wants her to become his woman. And finally Quasimodo selflessly saves Esmeralda from death, only because of his enormous love for her.

Other recording



Since its debut, it has been professionally played in Belgium, Canada, China, France, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, United Kingdom and United States, and has been translated into seven languages (English, Spanish, Italian, Russian, Korean, Flemish and Polish). The song has thus been officially adapted in these six languages, but several covers have been made in various languages.

The English-language version of the song, recorded by Steve Balsamo, Garou and Daniel Lavoie, is available on 'Notre Dame de Paris - Version anglaise'.'Notre Dame de Paris - Version anglaise', track listing and chart [https://archive.today/20120709205415/http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?key=43692&cat=a Lescharts.com] (Retrieved 1 November 2008)

Chart performance and records



The song was charted on the French Singles Chart for 60 weeks, which is to date the second single with most total weeks in the Top 100 (the number one is "U-Turn (Lili)", by AaRON, with 61 weeks), and the first one in the top 50, with 49 weeks. It entered the chart at #96 on 9 May 1998, and climbed slowly, reaching number one in its 18th week, which is one of the slowest climbs to first place. It was also the first trio to reach #1 on this chart. It had huge weekly sales when the musical was performed, from 12 September 1998. It stayed at the top for 18 consecutive weeks, which was at the time the record of the most weeks at #1 (this record was beaten in 2000 by Lou Bega's "Mambo no. 5 (a Little Bit of...)", with 20 weeks). After that, the song managed to drop slowly, totaling 31 weeks in the top ten."Belle", in French Singles Chart [http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Daniel+Lavoie+%2F+Patrick+Fiori+%2F+Garou&titel=Belle&cat=s Lescharts.com] (Retrieved 26 April 2008)

Certified Diamond disc by the SNEP, it was the best-selling single of 1998.1998 French Singles Chart [http://www.disqueenfrance.com/fr/page-259376.xml?id=259376&year=1998 Disqueenfrance.com] (Retrieved 26 April 2008)

In Belgium (Wallonia), the single debuted at #24 on the Ultratop 40 Singles Chart, on 6 June 1998. It topped the chart for only six weeks, from 19 September to 24 October, but remained in the top ten for 30 consecutive weeks. It fell off the chart (Top 40) after 44 weeks."Belle", in Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart [https://www.ultratop.be/fr/song/14764/Daniel-Lavoie-_-Patrick-Fiori-_-Garou-Belle Ultratop.be] (Retrieved 26 April 2008) It is the best-selling single of the year1998 Belgian (Wallonia) Singles Chart [http://www.ultratop.be/fr/annual.asp?year=1998 Ultratop.be] (Retrieved 26 April 2008) and the most successful song from 1995 in that country.Best-selling singles in Belgium from 1995 [http://www.ultratop.be/fr/bestall.asp Ultratop.be] (Retrieved 26 April 2008)

In 1999, the song was awarded 'Song of the year' at the Victoires de la Musique.

Track listings



* 'CD single'

# "Belle" 4:36

# "Dchir" by Patrick Fiori 3:18

Charts and sales



Weekly charts



Year-end charts



Certifications



Dadju, Gims and Slimane version



{{Infobox song

| name = Belle

| cover = Belle-by-Dadju-Gims-Slimane.jpg

| alt =

| type = single

| artist = Dadju, Gims and Slimane

| album = Le Flau

| released = 5 April 2021

| recorded = 2021

| studio =

| venue =

| genre = Pop

| length = 4:26

| label = Sony Music Entertainment / Play Two

| writer = Luc Plamondon (text)
Richard Cocciante (music)

| producer = Renaud Rebillaud

| misc =

}}

On April 5, 2021, a cover version was released by trio Dadju, Gims and Slimane on Play Two and Sony Music Entertainment reaching number 36 on SNEP, the official French Singles Chart. A music video was also released in which they play a scene from the musical Notre-Dame de Paris in a modern setting.

References



Category:1997 songs

Category:1998 songs

Category:Daniel Lavoie songs

Category:Garou (singer) songs

Category:Patrick Fiori songs

Category:Ultratop 50 Singles (Wallonia) number-one singles

Category:SNEP Top Singles number-one singles

Category:Pop ballads

Category:Songs from musicals

Category:Songs with lyrics by Luc Plamondon

Category:1990s ballads

Category:Songs written by Renaud Rebillaud

Category:2021 singles

Buy Belle (Patrick Fiori, Daniel Lavoie and Garou song) now from Amazon

<-- Return to songs from 1997



This work is released under CC-BY-SA. Some or all of this content attributed to http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1102013266.