On est tous des imbéciles

"On est tous des imbéciles" (English: "We Are All Fools") is a 1984 song recorded by French artist Mylène Farmer. It was released in February 1985 as her second single after "Maman a tort" and its English-translated version "My Mum Is Wrong". Although the song was provocative and rather critical of show business, it was often well received in the media. However, in spite of good reviews and an intense promotion on television by the singer, the sales of the single were disappointing. After the moderate success of her first single "Maman a tort", Farmer decided to record a new song. Jerôme Dahan had already written some songs for her including "Be Bip Bou Rock'n Roll / L'Amour au téléphone" and "I Do Love You" which, however, were never released. "Be Bip Bou Rock'n Roll" was just recorded as a demo and Farmer said she often listened to this song. Finally, "On est tous des imbéciles" was released as a single under the RCA label. In an interview, Jérôme Dahan said that he wrote the song at the same time as "Maman a tort", when Farmer had not yet began her singing career. Dahan, who composed both the song's lyrics and music, remains the only songwriter to having entirely composed a song for Farmer. When he wrote the lyrics of "On est tous des imbéciles", Dahan thought he would be the singer of the song. In addition to the two traditional media (12" single and 7" maxi), a promotional vinyl was sent to radio stations, which displayed an entirely red cover with the words "Mylène Farmer est une imbécile, et vous?" (Mylène Farmer is a fool, what about you?) written on it. No music video was produced at the time, because as explains by Dahan, "the television did not agree with the record companies for the rights on their airing". Because of copyright issues, this song remains unavailable on any of Farmer's albums, including her first studio album Cendres de Lune, and her best of Les Mots. However, Farmer has apparently never disowned the song. This single marked the end of the collaboration between the duo Farmer/Boutonnat and Jerôme Dahan, and also with RCA.