July
18
Even If He Sings 'Michelle' Paul McCartney Is Not French Enough for Quebec
By Daniel Frankel
Paul McCartney is looking to work it out with Quebec nationalists who don’t want the non-French-speaker to perform in Quebec City to help celebrate the locale’s 400th anniversary Sunday.
The kerfuffle made front-page news in the local Globe-Mail newspaper Friday, with McCartney responding to a protest petition launched by Quebec painter Luc Archambault.
The painter had called for the former Beatle to “inform about the situation in which we (francophones) live in Quebec” during his free concert in front of some 200,000 Sunday. A number of Quebec nationalists have voiced concern regarding the presence of McCartney’s English lyrics at the celebration.
“Come on Quebeckians (sic), love me, baby,” McCartney told the paper, adding he doesn’t feel informed enough to make such a political statement.
“I’m not that fluent, but I love speaking French,” McCartney added. “If anything, most English people learn French in school. If they are going to learn a language, it’s French. In my school, it was weird, because I learned Spanish and German. I never learned French in school… so yes, I’ll be looking to speak a bit of French.”
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hi!
you are completly wrong by saying that , i was there at the show and we were over 200,000 and everybody was more then happy with the effort that Sir Paul did with is french,
anyway those few who started that moaning are just a bunch of morrons for the vast majority of Quebecers, so don't worry,
bye.
Posted by: buddyweiser | July 21, 2008 at 08:16 AM
That's too bad. I'm from Quebec City and I consider myself to be a nationalist, but these nationalists who made the news last week (there were actually 3-4 of them) are just plain stupid extremists in the eyes of the vast majority.
The show was great! A perfect night!
Posted by: Patrick Matte | July 21, 2008 at 08:18 AM