Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son

About Poupée de Cire, Poupée de Son

"Poupée de cire, poupée de son" (English: wax doll, rag doll) is a song recorded by French singer France Gall. The song was written by Serge Gainsbourg. It is best known as the Luxembourgian winning entry at the Eurovision Song Contest 1965, held in Naples. The song, inspired by the 4th movement (Prestissimo in F minor) from Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 1, was the first song to win Eurovision that was not a ballad. It was nominated as one of the 14 best Eurovision songs of all time at the Congratulations special held in October 2005. As is common with Gainsbourg's lyrics, the words are filled with double meanings, wordplay, and puns. The title can be translated as "wax doll, rag doll" (a floppy doll stuffed with bran or chaff) or as "wax doll, sound doll" (with implications that Gall is a "singing doll" controlled by Gainsbourg). Sylvie Simmons wrote that the song is about "the ironies and incongruities inherent in baby pop"—that "the songs young people turn to for help in their first attempts at discovering what life and love are about are sung by people too young and inexperienced themselves to be of much assistance, and condemned by their celebrity to be unlikely to soon find out."This sense of being a "singing doll" for Gainsbourg reached a peak when he wrote "Les Sucettes" ("Lollipops") for Gall. more »