Articles | newsweek 120207

Belinda Carlisle will always be a Go-Go, but her new solo album is called "Voila—and it's all in French. La chanteuse spoke with Jac Chebatoris.
 
You've recorded an entire album in French?  
I was approached about making an album, but I had no desire to do another pop one. It kind of came out of left field, and because of my love of French music I had a feeling I could probably do it, but I wasn't sure.  
 
You've got the whole smoky, sultry chanteuse thing going on.  
That's from years of cigarettes and booze.  
 
You sound very natural singing in French.  
I went to Berlitz, but that didn't help. I live between France and England, and soon Austria. When I'm there I go to French classes and I have a French tutor. I had somebody in the studio to help me along, because sometimes I needed an extra ear to kind of go, "No, it's this, it's not that."  
 
You and Jane Wiedlin both did reality shows. Who's the better reality-TV star?  
She is, by far. She's much better. I don't know how she did it because I couldn't bear the whole 24-hour surveillance thing.  
 
People have scrutinized you for years about your weight.  
My name was always followed by how much I weighed. It was horrible. It really does your head in. That's why I didn't have myself airbrushed on the cover of my album. I thought, no, this is me. I'm not thin, I'm voluptuous and I'm extremely comfortable in my own skin.  
 
You had some crazy times in the '80s, which you guys were notorious for.  
We were only extraordinary in that we were girls doing exactly what the boys did, so it was "Oh, my God, they're so wild." But we were really young, we had a lot of money, we had no responsibilities, we were famous and we really took advantage of that.  
 
What if your kid wants to be in a rock band?  
I tell my 15-year-old son when he goes out the door to a party, "If you do drugs, I've done every drug in the book, so I'm going to be able to tell what you're on!"