French first lady Carla Bruni to release new album
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - French first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy will release her third album next month, her U.S. label said on Wednesday, a signal that the pop singer is not letting official duties interfere with career goals.
The album, "Comme si de rien n'etait" (As if nothing had happened), comes on the heels of a memoir to be published this week, in which Bruni details her whirlwind romance with President Nicolas Sarkozy, her husband of four months.
The Italian-born model wrote or co-wrote 12 of the 14 songs, and will donate her share of the royalties to unspecified charitable and humanitarian causes, said a spokeswoman for Downtown Records.
The New York-based label will release the album in the United States under license from Bruni's French label Naive Records.
Downtown released her 2007 album "No Promises," in the United States earlier this year. It has sold a modest 6,000 copies to date, according to tracking firm Nielsen SoundScan. Worldwide sales stand at 380,000, said Downtown.
In her book, "Carla and Nicolas, the real story," Bruni praises not only her new husband's "physique," but also his "five or six brains."
According to extracts published in Le Point magazine Wednesday, she also told the book's authors that she had no intention of ditching her singing career.
"I have no intention to change job. I have a function, but it is not a job," she said.
(Reporting by Dean Goodman and Tamora Vidaillet)
