Carla Bruni review: Easy charm from the first lady of sultry French pop

A fortnight from her 50th birthday, Carla Bruni finally played her first British concert in an Islington church adorned with candles and a Christmas tree.

Her most memorable appearance in the capital was a decade ago on a state visit as first lady of France, a role which raised her profile but hampered her touring career.

On her latest album, French Touch, she’s targeted an international audience by singing covers in English. At the Union Chapel, her rendition of Depeche Mode’s Enjoy the Silence was alluring, while a sensitive interpretation of Willie Nelson’s Crazy steered clear of sentimentality.

At times, the Italian-French singer’s choices seemed brave or maybe just foolhardy. A jaunty, Gallic take on Perfect Day featuring an accordion was all wrong and things threatened to get worse with her appropriation of British punk. “I don’t know if I should be singing The Clash in London,” said Bruni, as she launched into their loping tune Jimmy Jazz. Yet her finger-clicking version sounded like she was a genuine fan.

Switching to her own French-language songs, Bruni and her talented band created a captivating intimacy, even if it was impossible to avoid a mental image of her serenading husband Nicolas Sarkozy with her breathy, yearning vocals on J’arrive a Toi. “All I have, really, is love songs,” she simpered. It was lapped up by the French fans, along with her warm tribute to Johnny Hallyday, whose funeral she had attended in Paris that morning.

The covers returned with a delicately devastating The Winner Takes It All, Bruni strumming acoustic guitar on Stand by Your Man and shimmying to a bongo beat for the Rolling Stones’ Miss You, perhaps a nod to ex-boyfriend Sir Mick Jagger.

While she looked like a former supermodel out of her depth during a bizarre attempt at AC/DC’s Highway to Hell, Bruni’s easy charm and gushy reaction to her London audience meant you overlooked the musical mishaps.

For the encore, she ascended to the pulpit (“I just can’t resist”) for Leonard Cohen’s hymnal Hallelujah. It was a send-off that earned an adoring standing ovation for the first lady of sultry French pop.