Earlier this spring France’s Madame Monsieur drew our attention to the plight of refugees trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean with their moving song “Mercy” — the story of a little girl born on a migrant rescue ship.
And last Saturday — the 18th of August — the duo revealed that they will soon meet the little girl, and her mother, who have been in their hearts and minds ever since they heard her story way back in 2017.
Following their performance in Metz, in northeast France, we noticed users had commented on their Instagram post that they were excited about an apparent meeting between the electro-duo and Mercy and her mother. One user wrote: “We hope to see photos or videos when you meet Mercy.”
According to fans at the event, Emilie mentioned the imminent meeting during the concert, saying that she would meet Mercy and her mother, who left their refugee camp more than a month ago.
We reached out to the duo — one of our favourite discoveries of the year — and they confirmed that they will, in fact, meet young Mercy and her mother Taiwo Yussif soon.
Speaking to wiwibloggs they said: “It’s true! We can’t wait to meet them!”
Merci, Mercy
Madame Monsieur represented France in this year’s Eurovision Song Contest with the song ”Mercy”, the song which was inspired by the little girl Mercy who was born aboard an SOS MEDITERRANEE rescue ship in March 2017.
The duo dedicated the song to the humanitarian volunteers and to Mercy herself — a symbol of all the children “born in improbable conditions who get caught up in the situation.”
In April the story of this little girl became even more real when French journalist Eric Valmir of “France Inter” shared the news that Mercy was alive and well on Twitter, along with an adorable photo that showed the young Nigerian looking healthy, bright and happy.
Avec @apuglia nous avons retrouvé #Mercy née sur #Aquarius @SOSMedFrance l'an dernier et qui a inspiré la chanson de @MadameMonsieur qui representera la #France à @Eurovision. Reportage en Sicile dans le camp de réfugiés où elle vit avec sa mère. A venir sur @franceinter pic.twitter.com/3jyOnn7OCq
— Eric Valmir (@ericvalmir) April 20, 2018
The story grew even more beautiful when Taiwo, Mercy’s mother, got to listen Madame Monsieur’s song for the first time.
”It’s really beautiful” Taiwo said, overcome with emotion.
A media whirlwind ensued. Wiwibloggs editor William even wrote about Madame Monsieur for Billboard, the iconic American music magazine, and mentioned the duo in The New York Times.
One million views on Youtube
There is, of course, much more to Madame Monsieur than their signature hit. At the end of July, the duo also published a music video for their new dance song, ”Comme Une Reine”. The touching music video is about believing in yourself, forgetting everything else and just feeling free and proud — like the dancer from the video who gets rid of all her insecurities and just hits the dance floor.
Yesterday, the duo posted on their Instagram that the music video has reached one million views on Youtube. Emilie Satt and Jean-Karl Lucas celebrated the achievement by gifting their fans with a beautiful, acoustic version of the song. You can watch it below.
Emilie’s pure and unique voice and Jean-Karl’s sweet guitar warms the heart. We love them. We love their chemistry. And we can’t wait for more music from them. Merci, Madame Monsieur!
What is your message to Mercy and her family? What do you think about the music video of “Comme Une Reine”? Let us know on the comments below.
Mercy, Mercy, – hands up, readers, come on – Mercy, Mercy 😀 😀 😀