Going anywhere nice this year?

When I was in Spain in June, this was all over the radio and music TV channels like a bad case of prickly heat. Weirdly I was watching German MTV at the time. Kate Ryan with her Ella Elle L'a seemed a bit premature; a bit TOO holi-holiday - we hadn't cracked open the P20 and were as pasty as milk. Now though, it's the perfect holiday fromage - complete with bad dancing in the charter flight aisle at 0:35 - and a bona fide hit all over Europeland. The UK remains stubbornly impervious to foreign language Euro hits though so it ain't going to get clearance for landing on this side of the Channel in a hurry.

Kate Ryan, despite the name, is actually Belgian and she's been a staple in the Euro charts for years since her biggest hit Désenchantée. Have a listen to her English language album Alive from a couple of years ago here which features Je T'Adore, the (quite brilliant) Eurovision shock flop.

Anyhoo, back to the song. Kate's version belies the fact it's actually about... Ella Fitzgerald! Hence the missing comma. If Ella, Elle L'a (to reinstate said comma) seems familiar, it's because a singer called France Gall (the French Petula Clark) had the original hit back in 1987. Have a look at the video here. Like Kate's cover of Voyage Voyage, the song was trés grande en France reaching number 2 and spending four months in the Top 50. The choice is yours. Which do you prefer?

Ella Elle L'a - Kate Ryan (zShare)

Ella, Elle L'a - France Gall (zShare)