Atypical dance song, "Ça m'énerve", interpreted by Helmut Fritz, was a huge success during the summer of 2009. With this title, which caricatures Parisian social life, the singer with false German accents ranks number 1 in the Top Singles for four weeks. But behind the hit "Ça m'énerve" hides Éric Greff, a singer-songwriter, originally from Forbach in Moselle.
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Everything starts from a documentary on Karl Lagerfeld
The story of his song begins in October 2008. At that time, Eric is 33 years old. He is at the end of his rope, has no more money, totally desperate for the silence of record companies who do not want him and his compositions. One evening, he watches a documentary devoted to the German designer Karl Lagerfeld, whose work he admires. He then understands all the genius of Lagerfeld to have made himself a real character of rockstar with a look all his own.
And it is while being inspired by the famous couturier that the next morning, Eric Greff wrote the lyrics of "Ça m'énerve" by quoting fashionable brands like Zadig et Voltaire or Jimmy Choo, as well as famous places Parisians like L'Hôtel Costes, Ladurée or Le Milliardaire.
It remains to be found how to sing this song and make the text more impactful. Eric Greff decides to take the German accent from Lagerfeld by pressing on the consonants. He thus created a character he named Helmut Fritz, then finalized his song with producer Laurent Konrad and signed a distribution contract with Sony Music.
39 million views on YouTube
The disc was released on March 15, 2009 and for the promotion, a clip directed by Nicolas Benamou stages the fictional and caricatured character of Helmut Fritz, an excited loser who gets upset and who gets kicked out of all the trendy restaurants and clubs in Paris. This humorous clip is multi-broadcast and totals 39 million views on YouTube. It greatly contributes to the success of the song, which sells more than 500,000 copies and ranks number 1 in the Top singles in France.
For the record, Eric Greff's great regret is that he never met Karl Lagerfeld to thank him for having inspired Helmut Fritz. He just learned from a relative that this song made him laugh a lot.