"Souviens-toi du jour" | ||||
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Single by Mylène Farmer | ||||
from the album Innamoramento | ||||
B-side | "Remix" | |||
Released | 2 September 1999 | |||
Format |
CD single, CD maxi, 12" maxi, digital download (since 2005) |
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Recorded | 1999, France | |||
Genre | Dance-pop, pop rock, house | |||
Length |
4:55 (single version) 5:03 (album version) |
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Label | Polydor | |||
Songwriter(s) | Lyrics: Mylène Farmer Music: Laurent Boutonnat |
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Producer(s) | Laurent Boutonnat | |||
Mylène Farmer singles chronology | ||||
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Innamoramento track listing | ||||
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"Souviens-toi du jour" (English: "Remember the Day") is a 1999 song recorded by French singer-songwriter Mylène Farmer. It was the third single from her fifth studio album Innamoramento and was released on 2 September 1999. Inspired by Primo Levi's book If This Is a Man, the song deals with the theme of the Holocaust. The song is perhaps best remembered for its controversial music video, which was generally viewed as disrespectful towards its own subject matter.
Initially, Farmer wanted to release the ballad "Et si vieillir m'était conté" as third single from the album Innamoramento. However, although promotional plans were already made, she changed her mind and preferred to release "Souviens-toi du jour", as her record label Universal wanted to market a rhythmic single to obtain higher sales than that of the previous single, "Je te rends ton amour".
The song was much broadcast on radio, reaching a peak of number eight on French aiplay chart four months after the promotional CD had been sent. Some radios stations, including NRJ, aired the 'sweet guitar mix' version of the song.
Among the various promotional formats, there was an orange envelope released on 2 September 1999. This envelope contains a silvery pocket within which there are seven stones transparent. This is undoubtedly a "reference to the symbol of memory in the Jewish religion".
The song openly refers to Primo Levi's book If This Is a Man, in which the author recounts his experience in the concentration camps. On the back of the cover of the various formats, words in Hebrew "Zokher eth Ayom" are written and are also part of the lyrics. Farmer explained in an interview : "It is in Hebrew and it means exactly "Remember the Day", it is in the Torah. When I wrote this song, because (...) I have a bedside book called If This Is a Man precisely by Primo Levi, and which evokes the deportation and I wanted to talk about that (...), there are several possible readings but that's what I thought and to this idea, the need to remember these things." However, as stated by Instant-Mag, the song is "full of hope and resolutely turned towards the potentiality of human beings to overcome its hatred", while the book seeks to "prove that the concentration camps were able to make the man inhuman, removing the brotherhood and mutual aid". In its lyrics, "Souviens-toi du jour" is "the continuation and the antithesis of "Désenchantée", and is a plea for an alternation, a sublimated power, held by an ideal". Some words of the song also refer to a poem by French author Pierre Reverdy, Esprit pesant.