Émilie Simon (born 1978 in Montpellier, France) is a French singer and composer of electronic music,
In May 2003, she released her debut album Émilie Simon. The electronic album was critically acclaimed and went on to become a commercial success. To promote her album, she did numerous live performances and TV appearances all over France. In 2004, she was rewarded with a Victoire de la musique in the ‘Electronic Album’ category for the album.
Two music videos were made to promote Émilie Simon for the songs “Désert” and “Flowers”. The English version of “Désert” had an identical music video to the French version. Émilie Simon was also re-released in certain parts of the world with additional tracks. Despite having been released for over three years, the album was still charting in the French mid-price album charts in late January 2007.
More recently, Émilie Simon has begun performing and releasing CDs in the United States. Her first U.S. release, The Flower Book, came out November 2006. The release was followed by a brief tour to New York and Los Angeles. In April 2007 Émilie released her second recording in the United States, The March of the Empress, and a third, The Big Machine, in 2011.
In 2006, Émilie Simon released her third album, Végétal, in which she uses the sounds of plants, as hinted by the name. The lyrics play with words, always relating to flora. The album also contains more elements of rock music. This comes forward in some of the more lively tracks, such as “Fleur De Saison”, where she plays an electric guitar. The sound remains nonetheless that of electronic music while her voice maintains its candor, softness, and beauty.
A music video has been aired for the first single “Fleur de saison”, the second one called “Dame de Lotus” has also been already aired. The album utilizes Opendisc technology which enables access to special content such as songs and music videos on her official website. Végétal is her only album to have more than one cover image. Currently, three separate covers exist for the album.
In late 2006, she released The Flower Book in the USA (April 2007 in Canada), a compilation album of her first three records, with some added material from her short international tour which included stops in New York and Los Angeles. She also used MySpace to convey messages to fans. Furthermore, “Désert” was released in vinyl in the US. The track “Rose hybride de thé”, originally from Végétal, is officially the first single release intended for US audiences.
On 5 March 2007, Émilie Simon released her first live album, titled À l’Olympia. The set exists as a sole CD or DVD, and contains live footage from a concert recorded on 19 September 2006. Songs from all of three of her albums are present in the recording.
As a follow-up to Simon’s debut U.S. release, The Flower Book, La Marche de l’empereur was released on 3 April 2007.
