Born
in 1967 in Turin, Italy to a concert pianist (mother)
and an industrialist and opera composer, Carla Bruni
moved with her family to France at the age of 5 to
flee the Red Brigades terrorist group.
She learned to play the piano and guitar at a young
age, inheriting her family’s love of music,
which surrounded her from her earliest childhood.
Also passionate about literature and writing, she
composed songs in her spare time.
After studying architecture, Bruni embarked on a modelling
career in 1985, attaining super model status and becoming
the symbol for top fashion houses until 1997.
In the late 1990s, Bruni changed direction when she
decided to launch a music career, first as a songwriter
for Julien Clerc, for whom she wrote several songs
for his album Si j’étais elle (If I Were
Her), then as a singer-songwriter-composer for her
first album, Quelqu’un m’a dit (Someone
Told Me), released in 2002.
Composed with the help of Louis Bertignac, who also
produced the album, Quelqu’un m’a dit
was an instant hit. Acclaimed by critics, the album
sold two million copies.
In 2003, Bruni won the Prix Raoul Breton, awarded
by SACEM (French association of songwriters and composers)
to recognize and encourage an up-and-coming songwriter
or composer. She was awarded the Victoire de la Musique
for Best Female Artist the same year.
On 15 January 2007, Bruni released her second album,
No Promises, which sets English poems to music. Among
the poets she selected were Yeats, Auden, Emily Dickinson,
Christina Rossetti, Walter de la Mare and Dorothy
Parker. This second work, which sold more than 400,000
copies worldwide, shot to the top of the charts in
both France and Europe.
Her
third album was released in 2008 and is entitled Comme
si de rien n’était (As If Nothing Happened),
the title of a photographic work by her brother Virginio
Bruni Tedeschi that appears in the album’s booklet.
Produced
by Dominique Blanc-Francard, the album comprises 14
titles, most of which were written and composed by
Bruni with the exception of La Possibilité
d’une Ile, a poem by French author Michel Houellebecq
and set to music by Bruni; Déranger les Pierres,
with lyrics by Bruni set to music by Julien Clerc;
and two previously performed pieces, You Belong To
Me, a title popularized by Bob Dylan and featured
in the original film score of Natural Born Killers,
and Il Vecchio e Il Bambino, written by Italian anarchist
Francesco Guccini.