La Femme – Band at Hollywood Palladium

French psych-punk rock group La Femme was founded in 2010 in Biarritz by keyboardist Marlon Magnée and guitarist Sacha Got. Later on, a number of members joined, including bassist Sam Lefevre, drummer Noé Delmas, Lucas Nunez, and former lead singer Clémence Quélennec (till 2019). Clara Luciani, Jane Peynot, and Marilou Chollet are among the other members.

Some have characterized the band's sound as mesmerizing and synthetic. It incorporates punk, yéyé, and cold wave components along with musical inspiration from Kraftwerk, Sparks, and The Velvet Underground.

Between 2010 and 2013, La Femme put out three EPs: La Femme EP, La Podium #1, and La Femme. April 8, 2013 saw the release of their debut full-length album, Psycho Tropical Berlin. In February 2014, La Femme won the French award Victoires de la Musique in the category "Album revelation". On April 2, 2021, the group released Paradigmes, their third album, which included a number of previously released tracks.

The band didn’t make their name known overnight. Faced with challenges on where to play and who will listen to them, Paris proved to be too crowded for La Femme to get people’s attention.

Then they pulled off something that really made them, which seemed to fool the whole French music business. After recording a special EP for a minor label, the band believed that touring America would help them become well-known. They then sent out 100 emails to US venues, requesting gigs once more. Once more, there were just two responses, but one of them offered assistance.

Magnée says, “We went to US with $3,000 each and this girl found us 20 gigs. In France at the same moment, our EP was released. So the industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?’ So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.”
Perhaps the real meaning of La Femme can be found in the impact of the gothic mantras of Clémence Quélennec, Marlon Magnée, and Sacha Got combined with the guest vocal skills of Clara Luciani, Jane Peynot, Naomi Greene, Mathilde Marlière, Angela Hureau, Battista Acquaviva, and Sarah Ben Abdallah. Got describes the inclusive ideology of his band as akin to a solar system - “Nothing is frozen.”