because of an impromptu change during the recording session. “I started beat-boxing with my mouth, because I didn’t like the drums in the foreground. It was very African somehow, and we added bongos and congas.” It turned out to be a happy coincidence, just like so much of Petite’s life. “I’m really glad that we shot it in Africa, because this was heaven for me. It changed my whole point of view. Even in fashion. I used to wear only pale colors, and when I got there, we changed the whole wardrobe to scarves that we saw with strong colors just jumping out, with red and yellow.” Petite performed at the L’Oreal Party at Cannes Film Festival this year and recently collaborated with the band Pnau on a new track. “It’s getting more and more and more busy, but I love it. I’m living my fantasy.” Currently Petite is teeming with excitement for her debut album release. “I’m going to call it Milk Bath. You know why? It’s a bath of milk... Because I deal with psychoanalysis, and the first meal a baby has in life is milk. That’s what needs and desires are about – it starts with the milk.”
So I like all this destiny that connects you with things, that gives you your path in life.” Another influence of hers is cinema. “Every video of mine is kind of an homage to a movie that I love. For example, “Backpack” is for the movie L’Enfer which is “Hell” in English, by HenriGeorges Clouzot, where Romy Schneider is doing a ski [scene], and I wanted to make an homage, and I came to the same location. I started to learn water skiing for a month for this video.” The strawberry blonde Petite pays homage to another blonde from the cinemas, bombshell Brigitte Bardot, from And God Created Woman. In her song “Baby Love,” which was filmed in Africa, Meller dances amongst a throng of local boys and girls. “This joyful thing, it really uplifted me from the broken heart and the pain, so it’s all about dancing the pain away. And the Brigitte thing is to show that, as the scene in the movie, it’s hysterical dancing of pain and releasing.” As a fan of cinema, especially French cinema, Petite‘s music videos are littered with film references. “I sprinkle movies I love into my videos,” she says. Nairobi was chosen as the setting for the “Baby Love” video 101