Why Carla Bruni swapped Italian for English

In her native Italian, she explains, reading a simple menu sounds like poetry, but the words can be hard for non-natives to decipher.

French, her main professional language, is wonderful for writers but lacks tonality – "Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr! Rr!" she explains for emphasis, exaggerating the Gallic uvulars.

But English, in which the singer, model and former first lady of France recorded her latest album, is the language of rock'n'roll.

"It has a rhythm and it has a sort of tempo that Latin languages don't have," Bruni told AFP.

"English is a natural singing language."

French Touch, which comes out on Friday, consists entirely of covers, including Crazy by Patsy Cline, Tammy Wynette's Stand By Your Man, Miss You by The Rolling Stones and Enjoy Your Silence by Depeche Mode.

It is Bruni's second English album following 2006's No Promises, in which she adapted poetry. Bruni composes music on guitar but says she doesn't feel comfortable writing lyrics in English.

Bruni said she was not so much offering an alternative interpretation of The Stones or others as she was performing songs she loved.

"It has no logic and no reason," she said of her album with a laugh. "All of these covers were made with a lot of fun – but also with a lot of modesty."

Carla Bruni sits by her man, former French president Nicolas Sarkozy. Photo: Bertrand Langlois/AFP