Cycling doping scandals inspire "prank" song

By Dominique Vidalon

PARIS (Reuters) - The French record label behind a hit single inspired by Zinedine Zidane's fateful head-butt on Italian defender Marco Materazzi at the soccer World Cup hopes to repeat the success with a dig at the Tour de France.

The world's most famous cycle race starts in London on Saturday under the shadow of a series of doping scandals, and La Plage Records has come up with a song referring to a blood doping agent called "EPO Te Quiero" ("EPO I Love You") to lampoon the event.

The song is an allusion to doping agent erythropoietin (EPO) and includes the chorus "EPO te quiero, grace a toi je serai numero uno" ("EPO I love you, thanks to you I will be number one") sang in Spanish and French.

The accompanying video features composer Franck Lascombes dressed as a Mexican musician and riding a bicycle as he sings.

Launched a week ago, the song is already attracting widespread attention on the Internet, where it has generated 85,000 unique views, including more than 52,000 on the Web site www.dailymotion.com.

Small independent label La Plage Records (www.laplagerecords.com) shot to fame last year with "Coup de Boule" about the Zidane drama, which was bought by Warner Music France and went on to sell 460,000 singles in France and 600,000 ringtones.

"We are in talks with three large music labels and we expect to sign soon," Sebastien Lipszyc of La Plage Records told Reuters by telephone, referring to "EPO Te Quiero." He called the song a "prank."