Ladies first | 8 March 2018

You can’t move for women’s voices on the airwaves at the moment — Julie Walters on Classic FM leading off its new big series on turning points in music. Kate Molleson and Georgia Mann joining Sarah Walker and Fiona Talkington on Radio 3 (which this week also gave a big nod to female composers such as Amy Beach, Florence Price and Sofia Gubaidulina). Emma Barnett spicing up the political interview on Radio Five Live. It feels a bit like tokenism, too much too late. As if it’s going to make up for all those centuries of men in the driving seat of life. But the effect of hearing women’s voices almost whenever you switch on is like drinking fresh lemonade on a hot day, slightly acidic but invigorating.

Take Carla Bruni on Radio 2. Not exactly a feminist icon. And to begin with her late-night series on Wednesdays, Carla Bruni’s C’est la Vie (produced by Paul Smith), was all a bit soupy as she talked about falling in love with her husband Nicolas Sarkozy. I never expected to last the full hour but found myself drawn in by Bruni’s intimate way of talking as if to me alone, her connection with the microphone, her voice so soft and sultry. She brought a completely different tone to the nation’s favourite station. It was like being taken direct to Paris.

Her choice of music was not exactly eclectic, and her own tracks featured perhaps a mite more than was necessary (including a rather ghastly version of Tammy Wynette’s great anthem ‘Stand By Your Man’). But she did also give us Jacques Brel, Françoise Hardy, Leonard Cohen and of course Serge Gainsbourg (so overrated). It’s impossible not to succumb to her deftness of touch, her straightforward love of harmony and melody; nothing jars, no hard feelings.