France: Cherie Inspired Me to Sing On, Says Bruni

Carla Bruni yesterday said Cherie Blair had inspired her to keep singing after marrying the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy.

Bruni's promotion for her new pop album, Comme Si de Rien N'était (As If Nothing Had Happened), went into overdrive yesterday when she offered two hours' free listening time on her website. The mix of love songs, laments for lost youth and metaphors about antelopes has been mostly well-received in France, although Le Monde said yesterday that the album was short on emotion.

Her label is waiting to see how the public responds to the breathy love songs, which conjure up images of the president with lyrics such as "I want your laugh in my mouth" or her likening of her lover to an addiction stronger than Afghan heroin.

Bruni confirmed the album's proceeds would go to charity.

The ex-model invited French state radio into her Paris mansion, where Sarkozy prefers living, rather than in the Elysée.

In her living room, dominated by a bust of her mother, a statue of the writer Alexandre Dumas and a grand piano, she said that Blair had encouraged her not to give up her career. "Tony Blair's wife, who continued to work as a lawyer for her husband's entire leadership, told me that it was also frowned upon when she kept working, but that she worked every day and it was fundamental for her to keep her profession," she said.

In a poll last week, 55% of French people said Sarkozy used Bruni to boost his image. Yesterday she said she had "no political role" and was still a woman of the left. Bruni also said she had taken French nationality and was no longer Italian.