"Christine", also released under the titles "Cripple" and "Tilted", is a song by Héloïse Letissier who records under the name Christine and the Queens. "Christine", which is recorded in French, was released for download on 13 October 2014 through Because Music as the third single from her debut studio album Chaleur humaine (2014). It was, however, originally recorded in English titled "Cripple" in 2012, and a later English version was released as "Tilted" on 3 March 2015.[2] It was named one of the ten best songs of 2015 by Time magazine.[3] "Christine" was a number one hit on both of Belgium's Ultratop charts and peaked at number 3 in France, while "Tilted" became a top 20 hit in Ireland and the United Kingdom.
According to Héloïse Letissier, when she first wrote the song, it was written in English. It was originally recorded under the title "Cripple" for an EP, Mac Abbey, in 2012. However, when she performed the song in Brighton in May 2013, the chorus "I actually do enjoy being a cripple" was poorly received by the audience. Letissier said: "... there was a huge embarrassed silence. I thought it was really ambiguous! But it's not."[4][5] She reworked the lyrics in French as "Christine" for her 2014 debut album, and from this she made another English version, "Tilted".[6] The English and French versions are not an exact translation and have significant differences in their lyrics, for example the English version begins with "I will die before Methuselah / So I'll fight sleep with ammonia," while the French version may be translated as "I start books at the end / And I hold my head high for nothing " (Je commence les livres par la fin / Et j'ai le menton haut pour un rien).[7]
Letissier said that the song is "an easy song with an uneasy subject. It's about feeling out of place, not finding your balance, or being depressed even, but with playful images, with a song you can dance on." She explained that the song is about "embracing the fact that you can't really find your balance", which in her case is embracing her own awkwardness and the feeling of being imperfect. It would therefore be about "embracing who you are", and "being proud of who you are and where you stand".[8] She also explained the English title of the song: "The French song is talking about the same difficulty of turning on your feet. I was searching for lots of images or words that could fit, and I just stumbled upon this word, to tilt or be tilted, and I was exactly trying to find this image. It's literally talking about not finding your balance with a playful image."[8]
Music video[]
A music video to accompany the release of "Christine" was first released onto YouTube on 18 December 2014 at a total length of three minutes and fifty-six seconds.[9] The minimal and largely blue and black visuals in the videos for "Christine" and the English version "Tilted" are identical, and feature Letissier and her dancers performing intricate dance routines on a platform.[10] During the last scene of Better Things' second-season finale, the music video was reenacted by Sam, Frankie, Duke and Phyllis as a graduation gift for Max. Pitchfork would go on to name the sequence as one of "The 10 Best Music Moments on TV in 2017".[11]
