Pink Martini has twelve instrumentalists (and sometimes travels with string sections), and performs its multilingual repertoire on concert stages and with symphony orchestras throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Northern Africa, Australia and New Zealand and North America. Pink Martini made its European debut at the Cannes Film Festival in 1997 and its orchestral debut with the Oregon Symphony in 1998 under the direction of Norman Leyden. Since then, the band has gone on to play with over 30 orchestras around the world, including multiple engagements with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, the Boston Pops, the National Symphony at the Kennedy Center and the BBC Concert Orchestra in London. Other appearances include the grand opening of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s new Frank Gehry-designed Walt Disney Concert Hall, with return sold-out engagements for New Year’s Eve 2003, 2004 & 2008; two sold-out concerts at Carnegie Hall; the opening party of the remodeled Museum of Modern Art in NYC; the Governor’s Ball at the 80th Annual Academy Awards in 2008; and the opening of the 2008 Sydney Festival in Australia.
Lauderdale met China Forbes, Pink Martini’s lead vocalist, at Harvard. He was studying history and literature while she was studying English literature and painting. Late at night, they would break into the lower common room in their college dormitory and sing arias by Puccini and Verdi – and the occasional campy Barbra Streisand cover –thus sealing their creative collaboration. Three years after graduating, Lauderdale called Forbes who was living in New York City, where she’d been writing songs and playing guitar in her own folk-rock project, and asked her to join Pink Martini. They began to write songs together for the band. Their first song “Sympathique”– with the chorus “Je ne veux pas travailler” (”I don’t want to work”) – became an overnight sensation in France, and was even nominated for “Song of the Year” at France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards. Forbes, though fluent only in English, sings in 15 different languages.
Pink Martini’s debut album Sympathique was released independently in 1997 on the band’s own label Heinz Records (named after Lauderdale’s dog), and quickly became an international phenomenon, garnering the group nominations for “Song of the Year” and “Best New Artist” in France’s Victoires de la Musique Awards in 2000.
In October 2004, the group released its second album, Hang on Little Tomato.
In May 2007, it released its third album, Hey Eugene!.
A fourth studio album, Splendor in the Grass, followed on October 27, 2009.
Sympathique, Hang on Little Tomato and Hey Eugene! have all gone gold in France, Canada, Greece and Turkey; collectively, Pink Martini's records have sold more than two million copies worldwide.
On New Year's Eve 2005, Pink Martini performed live at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon. This performance was aired live on National Public Radio's Toast of the Nation, and in partnership with Oregon Public Broadcasting was recorded for a live DVD and later broadcast on US public broadcasting and French television.[citation needed] The DVD has been rereleased to retail as Discover the World: Live in Concert, featuring not only the full concert, but several vignettes and a short documentary of the band's history.
The band has collaborated and performed with Jimmy Scott, Carol Channing, Henri Salvador, Jane Powell, Chavela Vargas, Georges Moustaki, Michael Feinstein, DJ Dimitri from Paris, clarinetist and conductor Norman Leyden, Hiroshi Wada, DJ Johnny Dynell and several drag queens from New York City, among others. On June 1, 2007, the band appeared on the long-running BBC Two Later with Jools Holland TV music program. On June 14, 2007, Pink Martini performed on Late Show with David Letterman, performing "Hey Eugene".
Pink Martini played Walt Disney Concert Hall on New Year's Eve for the first two years it was open (2003/4 and 2004/5). They returned to play NYE there again in 2008/9.
In May 2009, the band recorded three concerts with the Oregon Symphony under the direction of Carlos Kalmar for the band’s fifth album … a symphonic record which is slated for a 2011 release.
Pink Martini songs appear in such films as In the Cut, Nurse Betty, Josie and the Pussycats, Tortilla Soup, Shanghai Kiss, Mary and Max, and Mr. & Mrs. Smith and have been used on television shows such as Dead Like Me, The Sopranos and The West Wing, among others.[citation needed] Their song "Una notte a Napoli" is an integral part of the Italian movie Mine Vaganti (2010), by the Italian-Turkish director Ferzan Özpetek. The song "No Hay Problema" is included as background/setup music for Microsoft's Windows Server 2003 and was also used as the background/setup music for an early build of Windows Longhorn, now known as Windows Vista.[citation needed]
In February 2011, the group's lead singer, China Forbes, recorded a video greeting to the European Space Agency's Italian astronaut, Paolo Nespoli, and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Kaleri, on board the International Space Station. The astronauts were preparing to oversee the docking of ESA's Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) cargo vessel, Johannes Kepler, which took place at 17:08 CET on 24 February. The greeting was set to the sound track of Dosvedanya Mio Bombino - one of Pink Martini's signature songs - and was mixed with footage of the actual docking.
In November 2011, they played at the Balboa Theater with the Bonita Vista High School band, Club Blue.
Veronique
Pink Martini Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Black as my heart
Dark hours since we've been apart
A voice in the wind
Keeps calling your name
Veronique
November came
Leaves fall down
Clock's chiming
Please come back my darling
One love
The letters I write
I never shall mail
The world is gray
Wrapped in a veil
No step on the stairs
No one rings the bell
For Veronique
November came
And with it died our love
Tears fall down
Clock's chiming
Don't leave me my darling
One love
The letters I write
I never shall mail
The world is gray
Wrapped in a veil
No step on the stairs
No one rings the bell
For Veronique
Veronique
The lyrics of Pink Martini's song "Veronique" convey a deep sense of loss and yearning for a lost love. The singer describes the darkness that has descended over their life since the love has been gone, and the emptiness that pervades their world. The chorus, "Veronique," is a repeated call out to the lost love. The lyrics are simple but impactful, with imagery of falling leaves and chiming clocks that add to the melancholy atmosphere of the song.
The tone of the song is reflective and mournful, as the singer looks back on what was lost and desperately wishes for it to return. The letters they write but never send suggest a sense of isolation, as they are unable to express their feelings to the one they love. The repetition of "one love" reinforces the idea that the singer's affection for Veronique is all-encompassing, and that they are consumed by their longing.
Overall, Pink Martini's "Veronique" is a beautiful expression of heartbreak and desire. The simple but evocative lyrics paint a picture of someone lost in their own grief, unable to move on from a love that has been lost.
Line by Line Meaning
Black is the night
The world is currently full of darkness and lack of illumination.
Black as my heart
My heart is filled with the same degree of darkness as the night.
Dark hours since we've been apart
Since we've been separated, everything has been melancholic and bleak.
A voice in the wind
I hear a voice in the wind, which I associate with the person I long for.
Keeps calling your name
The voice in the wind repeatedly calls out the name of the person I miss.
Veronique
This is the name of the person that I'm constantly thinking of.
November came
November has arrived and it's a reminder of when things were amiss.
And with it died our love
The arrival of November also symbolizes the death of the love that we once had.
Leaves fall down
As the leaves fall down, they represent how my emotions are falling apart as well.
Clock's chiming
The ticking of the clock highlights how time is passing by and I'm still stuck in this state of sadness.
Please come back my darling
I'm earnestly pleading for the return of the person I miss deeply.
One love
All the love that I will ever have is for the person I am addressing my plea to.
The letters I write
There are letters that I have written out of all my emotions, but will never send citing various reasons.
I never shall mail
I have no intention to ever send the letters that I have poured so many emotions into.
The world is grey
Everything in the world appears to have lost its vibrancy and becomes dull.
Wrapped in a veil
The world is hidden behind a veil, possibly referring to the feelings of being stuck in sorrow.
No step on the stairs
There are no sounds of footsteps coming to visit me or interrupt my thoughts about the person I long for.
No one rings the bell
No one ever comes by and as a result, there is no noisy interruption to my already desolate life.
For Veronique
All of this is happening in the context of missing and longing for Veronique.
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management
Written by: GREGORY TOZIAN, THOMAS M. LAUDERDALE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Jerry Okafor
I always come back to this song since the day I heard it , years ago.
Patrick LohKamp
this song is a reoccurring chapter in my life.
Bertha Martin
Beautiful interpretation of Veronique... Pink Martini....a total talented musical and vocal group....l( this young man sounds like Chet Baker.) sublime
Mc abod
💜 what an amazing song and voice
Veronica Westfall
Love this song
Mutasem Salhi
the more I listen to this song the more I love it
KatherineHodgson1992
i found this in my favourites. how, and when? i'm not sure, but i'm so glad i looked through them again <3
Bianca Gubalke
Stunning accidental find :)
imelle
The lyrics just WOW!
muana1313
Sweet melody...