“Carla”

In many places in the world, when you happen to hear the name “Carla” come up in conversation, there is a good chance that they are referring to Carla Bruni-Sarkozy. This was already somewhat true before. But since December 15, 2007, when she was spotted with the President of the French Republic, the movement has gained momentum. In a former life, when asked about what events had had an impact on her already seemingly romantic destiny, Carla Bruni would remember that she had been class president seven times. She also remembered getting up on stage dressed as a boy with her hair hidden under a cap, for an end of year show. It was her first public appearance. One parent was even shocked. The past two years have been the stage for events that are at least as noteworthy. What memories will France’s current First Lady take away with her? Her State visit to the UK making her title official? Her trip to Burkina Faso after taking up her functions as ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS? The shot fired just a few meters away at Tel-Aviv airport on leaving Israel? This exposure to the cameras in life and death situations is unavoidable for anyone who has to face history with a cool head and a smile on their lips.

Carla Bruni-Tedeschi was born in 1967 into a wealthy family of Italian industrialists. In 1973, when the Red Brigades were running riot in Italy, the Bruni-Tedeschi family moved to France. After hesitating over whether to begin studying architecture, “Carla” turned to modeling on the advice of her brother, Virginio. After 12 years at the top of her career, crossing paths with the world’s greatest couturiers, she began writing a new chapter that made her just as famous. Carla Bruni published three albums in French and English, establishing her as a writer, composer and performer of folk songs. Her first recording, Quelqu’un m’a dit, sold two million copies and won numerous awards. While preparing the follow-up to the album No Promises, in the same style, as though whispering in the listener’s ear, the singer met Nicolas Sarkozy, who had been elected President of the French Republic six months previously. Separating her two activities as musician and wife of the Head of State, she released her last album to date, Comme si de rien n’était, on July 11, 2008. Although her various lives seem to cross one another without colliding, each is full enough to merit detailing its content. First Lady of France, ambassador for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, president of a foundation in her name that facilitates access to knowledge and learning to fight social inequalities – whatever the field of action, they all echo the commitments that Carla Bruni had, until now, made in the greatest discretion. Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is equally at ease in formal and informal situations. Born at the beginning of the women’s liberation movement, she questions the contradictions that afflict all self-assured people in this period. “She may not have been a suffragette or invented the miniskirt, but she is the very epitome of the modern woman in the way she approaches the world”, notes one of her closest friends.

Ludovic Perrin