Album 30/30: D’eux (1995)
PART II IS HERE FOR YOU WITH “THE FRENCH ALBUM” AND SO IS THE END.
SO…as this is the last day of November, this also is the very last article I am dropping (of this kind) in 2025.
Do not let this disastrous kind of a news distract you from the fact that, I, the author, editor, and publisher of all these pieces, had a really marvelous time preparing and doing them.
An image for the journey
It altogether felt like anticipating a future run.
Under such circumstances, you will naturally agree with me that the “before” part is always not so amazing. It feels so wrong and against nature to go out and, run instead of walking or simply taking out the car in order to run errands (even more simple). Every single time, the worse is to gather enough motivation and discipline within you in order to keep going regularly.
Then, however painful the preparation is, “the day-of” comes to hit kind of different. You certainly go through the highs and lows of a sport performance of course. But, after the suffering, the blood and the tears, happens the part where you feel higher than the clouds. This, at last, makes all the bad parts suddenly feel worth it.
They really did not lie to us when they promised you would feel more energized after consuming energy yourself. Otherwise, why else would you keep on putting yourself through it and repeat yesterday’s mistakes over and over until time totally runs out? It is the good old tale of life, or at least so am I learning it.
Where I am at ?
For the ending, I find myself, for the first time in this adventure, in a really unlikely position.
I am not, as per usual, sitting at my home table after a work day.
Instead, today is an off day and a travel one on top of that. In the present time as I am writing these lines, I am indeed in a moving vehicle, which I am only taking because I have no other choice and not because some kind of noble purpose is driving me such as caring about the environment for instance (I really wish it was). This bus is now taking me back to my initial place after a week-end spent with my folks thinking about how lucky I am to have them with me in this life.
For leaving them again and for ending another writing chapter, the sadness inhabiting my body is double this time.
It is to a point that it is making me forget how uncomfortable it is to be trying to make out a story in a sitting position, without anything concrete to hold my writing tool, and with less than the space one needs to move their arms in all directions without pocking someone who did nothing to them to deserve it in return (no arms and leg rooms, no freedom truly is the price to pay!). Additionally, my eyes may be focused on the screen, I am still very aware that the environment around me is constantly changing. The motion sickness can be very real at times, especially on an empty stomach.
In this position, I have to find it in me to feel like I have my habitual bubble, my cocoon, my favorite space when usually writing, because it lets me be inhabited by the muses of inspiration, to let them come over to me and stay.
I am, all in all, impressing my own self by how easy it is feeling.
How quickly I am in capacity to live with the fact that many strangers are currently sitting around me, in present time. They could well be looking over in my direction, trying to make up what (the hell) I am hoping to achieve by writing these paragraphs on my computer. Under normal occasions, I could not and would not put out my computer in fear of judgement.
However today, I feel unusually driven, engaged and concentrated to fulfill my task until the very end and no one can take that away from me. This is what is happening to someone under a tight deadline. Or someone in the position of looking at the bright side of things, despite the existence of the bad: I could not be more happy to tell you that this journey is marked, for once, by a lack of noise coming from my fellow passengers. So is that of the smell of sandwiches and chips put together in a hurry to have at least some lunch to chew on.
The intention:
Under these conditions, how does one create the ending that fulfills both the expectations of the author and that of the readers?
It is a question to which I do not think there is a right or wrong answer. The spider web gets even more complex to untangle for me with the interference of my personal life.
Both points are why, again, I will unfortunately have to keep on trying new stuff and finishing them, sometimes not in the way that would accommodate/satisfy us both, qualifying it perhaps as an abysmal failure on my part. I will have to keep on disappointing us to get on the other side of it.
For now, as the first ending article I have to create in my lifetime, I imagine that I will win you over by putting under the magnifying glass someone who puts everyone in agreement. This time, as already spoiled yesterday, it is Celine Dion.
I pursue this same logic of staying on the less controversial and debatable topics by picking a musical project of hers which pleased both the critics and the fans. It is “D’eux” (1985); the best-selling album in French of all time. “Of All time”, let me repeat it one more time for you in case you did not hear or process this information yet.
By purposefully staying in the safe zone for the finale episode; while I am at little risk to lose your interest until the last word, I am aware of the existence of a trap in which I very much could fall into. Indeed, because this album is so appreciated, it already has been discussed and commented over by countless people in the past including Celine Dion herself. For being the ultimate cultural reference, it has already been the subject of anniversary renditions, of interviews, of TV specials etc. Out of all the possibilities you could name, I am pretty sure that all already are done in this case.
On top of that, my situation of not being in a still place until the evening, also known as when the article should be published if I am following the normal schedule, got me to an even trickier place. I indeed had to make the bold choice to give this article a direction before listening to the album at all. While it is time management as its finest, it could also well be a terrible, regretful decision!
So, how do I keep on contributing to making it special?
The chosen methodology
You have been kept up to date with the context; you hopefully can picture well the state I am in both mentally and physically at the time of making this. Now, the red carpet can officially be rolled out!!
For me, it was, first and foremost, about struggling internally and therefore going back and forth with the possibilities on as to how to comment on a landmark project, with a different angle of attack than what already is out there.
Then, after much consideration, the definitive answer became the album’s title as it is the starting point.
About “D’eux”: speaking French allows you simultaneously to know that “D’eux” means in English “Them” and, more importantly, that this word sounds exactly the same as how one pronounces “Two” (which is written “Deux”).
From this observation stemmed the following interpretation on my part: that with this album, Céline Dion was going to talk about a duo, two humans/real people, from which she was distancing herself otherwise she would have named them “Us”.
I transposed this same point of view to the review and consequently landed on the choice to analyze the impacts that having two collaborators all over his project has.
Indeed, we could well innocently think that Céline Dion is the only one contributing because her name is the only one on the disk and because she is the only one singing. We would not be wrong, just 50% right. Because, there are 2 names attached to “D’eux” (to few exceptions that are Erick Benzi and J. Kapler, I hope I am not forgetting anybody else): Céline Dion and Jean Jacques Goldman.
Giving your work to someone else is not unusual for the music industry
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I am sure you understand that although unofficial, the crossover between two French speaking musical geniuses which already have had the right to their very own article in this adventure, is now getting real!!
This makes it very exciting in my eyes as this is a reflexion of how the music industry, just like the publishing scene, is made up of diverse people with “fluid” occupations:
- Sometimes, people with very separate professions, songwriters and singers, come together: this often is the case for Celine Dion’s music; as I came to learn it, she rarely does both and mostly focuses on the singing aspect.
- Sometimes, artist have this double hat of singer/songwriter making them be the masters over the whole creative process.
- Sometimes, at last, the singer/songwriter decides to give the music they made, based on their own experiences, over to another singer: this is what Jean Jacques Goldman did for “D’eux”.
This atypical working relationship made me wonder whether it was profiting to both parties involved, the writer and the interpreter. As simpler people would say, is this a “win-win” type of case? Or as scientists have it in their lexicon: symbiosis or parasitism?
Here’s what the listening experience of “D’eux” made me believe.
On the one hand, from the writer’s point of view (the very origin of the unstoppable chain of dominoes that gracefully fall over one after the other leading them to us), the true mystery of them all, the unsolvable enigma/cypher giving me a tough challenge is to understand what could be the trigger in the decision of giving songs you wrote to another colleague. Why Jean-Jacques Goldman did this, why?
On a more personal note, I find it utterly difficult to make sense of it just because I could not picture myself in such shoes (at least for now).
Yes, I am simply an amateur and not a professional writer. Yes, I do not have an audience following my every move. Yes, I mostly center my content around pop culture news.
Despite all that, I truly feel that with every new article I craft, there is a part of me that I let go of in the process. Things feel personal with every publication (perhaps of my writing style which is mostly about turning my spoken thoughts into words on a sheet of paper ?). This is why I prefer keeping my work for myself instead of passing it over to someone who would give to it their own sauce, process to have their name labelled on it first before my contribution.
However, in Jean Jacques Goldman’s case, I am very aware that him letting go of his tracks truly worked in his favor in the end:
- Making the most successful album of all time, in terms of sales, he probably makes more money than Celine Dion herself.
- Being the one standing in the shadow while associated with one of the most famous pop stars of our generation, he has this double advantage of the balance: he does not have as much light on him as Céline Dion herself, that’s for sure, and he is simultaneously able to keep enough of it on his side in order to consolidate his career. This inevitably turned him into a person with credibility and an impressive résumé both as producer and artist himself.
- My guess is that he was the one making the move in Céline Dion’s direction so he probably already had the dream and vision for a collaboration long before we saw the end product. Working with your hero can’t be that bad, can it ?
- Finally, what I like most over this move, it probably has no interest for Jean-Jacques Goldman himself, is that it made him collect the “little fun fact “to be uncovered by the audience while scrolling through his career history summarized: for newbies to his music, one day, they will inevitably come to learn that he once worked with Céline Dion herself and that makes him even more cool than how he already appears. If I was him, I would truly shout it on every occasion I would get. Really.
While the positive aspects of this instance can’t be denied, I stay contemplating how one is able to distance themselves enough from their own diary to the point that they are fine with someone else having their imprint on it. I am conflicted. Is it all because there is a greater goal than can be achieved? Is it because their creation simply does not fit in with the storyline they have made up for their self-titled career? Is it the result of pure circumstances, to the likes of the infamous quotes such as “in another life, things could have different”?
I am overthinking it as this point. And I am realizing that I am circling around one same idea: that writing for others as artist yourself seems less like a sign of greediness and more of selfishness, and of you knowing what is best. It is about understanding your limits: being aware of when your own contribution could be best, and when it ends, meaning someone else can take over and do a better job than you every could selling the story to others. I am admirative and speechless.
Let’s now switch on the other side. Celine!
On the other hand, from the interpreter’s point of view, Celine Dion in this story, I believe that the work isn’t less difficult.
For me, the biggest hurdle to overcome is the ability to appropriate to yourself tracks that you know are written by someone else who audiences already are familiar with in their own way. How do you gladly take it, add another layer to it in full conscience while knowing of the origins? How do you make it appear/pretend as if this was your story?
Once again, I land on the same idea, again, that it is all possible only by knowing who you are and what you are capable of (in my opinion).
We can now only wonder now if this duo works.
I would say for my part that it is a yes and no answer. It is definitely not the best album I have listened to in the past 30 days.
Yes, Celine Dion and Jean Jacques Goldman managed to mix their vastly different music styles.
The alchemy is there between the full guitar and sometimes disco compositions of Jean-Jacques Goldman and the voice of Celine Dion whose performances seem so effortless to my ears. Moreover, without much astonishment, the two still manage to enrich their respective catalogs of their hits, with “Pour que tu m’aime encore” (in english: “So that you can love me again”) and “Destin” (in english: “Fate”). Jean-Jacques Goldman is even heard on “Les derniers sont les premiers” (in english: “The last are the first”) and “J’irai où tu iras” (in English: “I will go wherever you go”) thus not remaining completely hidden behind.
The blending is almost perfect, I imagine the work it took to achieve this, with the exception of a few pleasant surprises like the sensuality, playfulness and sexiness of “le ballet” and “regarde-moi” (in english: “look at me”), or the religious connotation on “Mémoire d’Abraham” (in english: “Memory of Abraham”), and “Prière païenne” (in english: “Pagan prayer”), where she finally gives us a certain depth that takes us to church.
I appreciated these pieces more than the rest because they made Celine Dion evolve, break her usual mold, challenged her, and gave her an entirely new direction to her artistry beyond the very classic and expected. I felt that the coded sounds of the 80s, although encapsulating the times when the album came out, wore her down more than they did her a favor (reminiscent of Jeanne Mas), especially the ballads of the synthesizers “Vole” (in english: “Fly”), “Pour que tu m’aimes encore” (in english: “So that you can love me again”) and “J’attendais” (in english: “I waited”).
Although good, I find it hard to believe that this is the best-selling French album of all time because it lacked depth, character and soul to me. It is very polished. It turns out that there is no formula that exists for both the commercial and critical success. However, I can’t forget how the writer and interpreter in this story, respectively Jean-Jacques Goldman made it work. It is both surprising and logical in my eyes. “Surprising” because of my personal take on what I would do in such a situation and “logical” because it is just like a romantic union of two people with two different backgrounds, who cross paths with one another once and it is enough for them to recognize something in the other and decide to give it a shot by both working on themselves. Or at a later stage, two parents wisely deciding on having a kid together.
I have to give in that this album made me respect Jean-Jacques Goldman and Celine Dion even more. There was a probability ro lose something in the fire, the deal, or the bet, there still was an enormous success in the end. It is owed to them both.
I now question myself whether such an unlikely album could have happened in an earlier stage of Celine Dion’s and Jean Jacques Goldman’s career. And what about later ?
The timing is after all key. You might be lucky enough to get to meet the love of your life on this Earth; it does not make it the criteria deciding on whether it will be a working relationship in the end. The “when” question remains of the uttermost importance.
It is how I am making it known to you that it feels appropriate for me to put down my pen, and stop. Knowing when to begin and when to end is an art, as I learned with this article, one which I am slowly but confidently learning the tricks and techniques of, with the more experience I am gathering. The intuition tells me that the time, to end both this article and the 30 days journey, is now.
This was the last article. I hope you enjoyed it. I will be seeing you a next time. In advance, because I will not be meeting you in the meantime, let me wish you a merry Christmas wherever you are in the world. Take care of yourself and those around you!! Sending love to you!
An article written by NICA — November 30th 2025 — France
