Home | Songs By Year | Songs from 1989
Hlne (song)
Buy Hlne (song) now from AmazonFirst, 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
"'Hlne'" is a 1989 pop song recorded by the Canadian singer Roch Voisine. Written and composed by Voisine and Stphane Lessard with guitars played by Carl Katz and keyboards by Luc Gilbert, it was the first single from his first studio album 'Hlne', and was released in November 1989. It is mainly a song in French-language, but contains a line in English as follows: "Hlne things you do / Make me crazy about you". The cover for the CD maxi used the same photograph as that of the album 'Hlne' : Roch Voisine's face with a black background. "Hlne" achieved a great success in France where it topped the singles chart for nine weeks, thus allowing Voisine to launch his international career.
Music video
The music video features the singer and an air hostess who are in love, but who are forced to separate because of professional reasons. She may be French because when, in the video, she writes her name on a mirror with her lipstick, she does end it with an 'e' ('Helene'), as on the single cover. The model who plays the role of Hlne is Ariane Cordeau.
Versions
"Hlne" is available on the 'Roch' collection (2007), also known as 'Best of'.Voisine also recorded the song wholly in English as "Helen" and included this version on the English portion of his bilingual album 'Double' in 1990 (which was in turn released separately as a full-length English album titled 'Roch Voisine' the same year). "Hlne" was also recorded in an acoustic version on his 2003 album 'Je te serai fidle', which appeared as the second track on CD maxi for "Tant pis", released in February 2004. In 2013, he recorded a duet wersion with Cur de pirate, which features on his album 'Duophonique'.
Critical reception
'Music & Media' considered "Hlne" as "a strong ballad, reminiscent of Elton John's early material", which is "vital for your play list".
Chart performance
In France, the French version of "Hlne" started at number 27 on the chart edition of 11 November 1989, topped the chart for non consecutive nine weeks, in alternance with Franois Feldman's hit "Les Valses de Vienne", and remained in the top 50 for 27 weeks, 20 of them in the top ten. and was certified Platinum disc by the French certifier, the Syndicat National de l'dition Phonographique, for 800,000 units. 'Select "Roch Voisine" from the drop-down menu and click "OK"'. Voisine thus became the first Canadian to reach number one on the French SNEP Singles Chart, followed by Bryan Adams, Cline Dion and Garou a few years later.Alex P. King, 'Hit-parade, 20 ans de tubes', 2005, Pascal Ed., p. 9 [http://membres.lycos.fr/vingtansdetubes/HistoireHitparade.pdf Vingt ans de tubes] (Retrieved 23 April 2008)
The French version also peaked at number three in Norway. The English version performed moderately well on 'RPM' magazine's all-Anglophone singles charts, peaking at number 57 on the top 100 and number nine on the Adult Contemporary chart in very early 1990. It also achieved a moderate success in the Netherlands, peaking at number 53 two years after its original release.
Track listings
* 'CD maxi'
# "Hlne" (new English version) 3:42
# "Hlne" (French version) 3:42
# "Hlne" (instrumental) 3:42
* '7" single'
# "Hlne" 3:42
# "Ton Blues" 3:35
* 'CD single'
# "Hlne" 3:42
# "Ton Blues" 3:35
Charts and sales
Weekly charts
1 Duet with Cur de Pirate
Year-end charts
Certifications
See also
* List of number-one singles of 1989 (France)
* List of number-one singles of 1990 (France)
References
Category:1989 debut singles
Category:2013 singles
Category:Cur de pirate songs
Category:Roch Voisine songs
Category:RPM Top Singles number-one singles
Category:SNEP Top Singles number-one singles
Category:Franglais songs
Category:1989 songs
Category:2012 songs
Category:Ariola Records singles
Category:Macaronic songs
Buy Hlne (song) now from Amazon
<-- Return to songs from 1989