So today it’s the bicentenary of the poet I’ve spent my career researching. Many of you will know of the mega @baudelaireproj. So today I thought I’d try and do 200 songs for #Baudelaire200 - all using Baudelaire’s poems. Chip in with suggestions too! https://www.baudelairesong.org/ 

1/ First up has to be the incontournable L’Invitation au voyage set by Duparc in 1870 #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/2khdZsqPL3JpxuoZ37S9XA?si=W31eyK7jQkeUj4PTrfnGzA

2/ The earliest song we know about also uses L’Invitation au voyage, by Jules Cressonnois in 1863. #Baudelaire200 Not many recordings exist but this gem of an album has it https://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/dw.asp?dc=W6918_GBAJY0652301

3/ New Baudelaire songs are being written as we speak because his poetry inspires so many songwriters (over 750 of them, in fact!). One of the latest is a whole album by @SusannaMagical released late 2020 #Baudelaire200 Baudelaire & Piano https://open.spotify.com/album/6UMfvIFmpCpEJOD7RCYMZe?si=_56wi_CoTmGJ4d1ZcXeFRw

4/ While most songs use the original French poem text, many are set in translation, some using new translations, others published translations. A complete set of Baudelaire songs in English, French, Spanish by @baudinabox is super inspiring #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/2kASk6VZjVXo2v04xXIItH?si=I4lHMIgjRAamT6dWeapLKw

5/ For the “complete” Baudelaire in song you’d have to also look to Léo Ferré who released a centenary album of Les Fleurs du mal in 1957 #Baudelaire200 Lots of them available in compilation https://open.spotify.com/album/6QZoMau2XCRioz9w7ECm1Z?si=PoT8QOhsSBaEnaBOtEBl7g

6/ Perhaps more famous than Ferré is Serge Gainsbourg’s Le Serpent qui danse from 1962 with its bossa nova-esque chanson-style setting semi-spoken, semi-sung #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/2r3J1CwajGHKhajSlDixvb?si=SlOasPfyS3Kkx4R5-5-KBw

7/ Perhaps the strangest of all the Baudelaire songs is the extraordinary virtuosic feat by Diamanda Galás using Les Litanies du Satan #Baudelaire200 this track comes with a health warning but it’s worth it for the impressive use of the human voice! https://open.spotify.com/track/3Wij3Osx39agAHlNQYYVBk?si=HNYzapQ7QqSGANWzedJTCg

8/ At the opposite end of the spectrum from harrowing satanic chant is Hymne - a reverential, adoring poem written for an “angel” of a woman Baudelaire loved (Mme Sabatier) and set by Fauré in 1871 #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/51QQ0MI2OxBJCBgfAhzoEw?si=SPVNvH9ESBebZpeGQD-Zmg

9/ Baudelaire’s imagination and desire is picked up in a number of poems, often about “exotic” women. This song from 2016 by @ExsangueMusic does justice to the complexity #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/6gWGThst2wBhju8FrZgYUY?si=Fl1_n1d5TDuzO9KQ680k2A

10/ Of Baudelaire’s many vices the intoxication of wine inspired a whole group of poems, three of which were set by Alban Berg in an extraordinary 1929 concert aria - Der Wein - using Stefan George’s German translation #Baudelaire200 https://open.spotify.com/track/7wy5PTJSSGddF8aiy2aCBM?si=ecFCk82YQ8iFJcohoOoHng