Music video description
Joe Le Taxi is a song written by Franck Langloff and Etienne Rod-Gil for the then fourteen-year-old Vanessa Paradis. The song was included on the artist's debut album M&J (Marilyn & John), released in 1988. It was the only French-language song to reach the top three in the UK charts since the 1969 song Je T'aime... Moi Non Plus by Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbourg.
The song was an international success, leading Vanessa Paradis to make a name for herself as an actress and model as well. She made her big screen debut in the 1989 film "Nights of Blanche" and won the French equivalent of an Oscar for the role. She also signed a £300,000 contract with Chanel, which greatly increased her international recognition. The singer became associated with Lennym Kravitzem, which was the author of her next hit "Be My Baby."
Many years after her musical debut, in 2011 Vanessa Paradis stated that her teenage fame was the result of coincidence and a happy coincidence. In turn, she described her hit Joe Le Taxi as a simple rumba that unexpectedly became a pop song and was so successful.