Mademoiselle

Mademoiselle is an album of B-sides, rarities and exclusives by the American singer Elice Claire. The album was released exclusively through iTunes, HMV and Chanel Stores on 13 June 2011. The album was first mentioned by Elice Claire in an interview with 4Music on 11 May 2011. The album was originally intended for worldwide release, but later decided by Elice's team to be an UK & US release only, due to the fact that some of the singles were not released in other regions. The album also marked as Elice's temporary return to music, after her retirement in the summer of 2010. To promote the album, Claire released the single "Scattered Echoes" with pop singer Ben Johnston on 13 June 2011.

Album history
Mademoiselle was inspired by B-sides collections such as Scraps: Volume One by Indigo Peak and The Good That Won't Come Out by Alesha. During Elice's hiatus from music in order to return to University, she was presented with a deal with Chanel to be the ambassador and spokesperson for their new line of handbags. Chanel's designer Karl Lagerfeld said it would be interesting if Elice released an album or an EP with new songs to promote the handbag. Elice however had no time to record a new album, since she was busy with her classes in Columbia University. Elice's team then suggested to Elice that she could release a rarities album and maybe record a new song for it. In Spring of 2011, Elice wrote and recorded two new songs for the rarities album. One of the songs, "Mon Destin Douce (C'est Une Belle Vie)" was initially written in Italian by Elice. According to the singer, she wrote the song for her fiancé. The French version of the song was worked exclusively to be used in Elice's commercial ad for Chanel's line of handbags. The second new song, titled "Reverie" was recorded in March 2011. According to Elice, she wanted these new songs to be positive and not sad ballads. For the title of the rarities album, Elice knew from the very start it had to be called Mademoiselle, since it would only be appropriate because the line of handbags by Chanel was also titled Mademoiselle. When it came down to selecting the tracks to be featured in the album, Elice’s team picked all of the original b-sides featured on the singles the singer released in the UK only. Elice also decided to include a song called “Forbidden Ecstasy” which was meant to be released as Elice’s farewell single in the spring of 2010, but it was later canceled in favor of another song. The song, “Forbidden Ecstasy” was later given to Helena Rossi, who released it as a single in January 2011. Two other songs, “Sunset Boulevard” and “A Love to Remember” were chosen to be added to the album, since they proved to be fan favorites in the United States. Originally, the album was to be released worldwide, but since Elice did not achieved success outside the UK, it would’ve seen like a waste of time to break different markets with a rarities album. For the American release, the album tracklist was completely altered; most of the UK B-sides were tracks featured on Elice's debut album. Mademoiselle is considered Elice's third studio album in America, as all of the songs on it were never released there.

Day/Night album cover theme
Prior to the album's release, Elice had an idea to do a "day and night" theme to an album, but with her retirement in August 2010, the singer was never able to come forward with the plan. When Elice was approached by Chanel to release an album, she quickly suggested doing the "day/night" theme to the album. Chanel however, was reluctant to spend money on two separate shoots for the album, and therefore saying no to Elice's idea. Elice's record label Elixir Entertainment then suggested to Chanel if they could simply do two different album covers with the day/night theme instead of the entire album, and Chanel agreed to it. For the night cover, Elice re-used one of the pictures from her Intimate Encounter photo shoot, meanwhile for the day cover; Elice did a brand new shoot. After both covers were revealed, Elice asked fans to vote for their favorite. The cover with most votes would be considered the main cover; however both covers would still be available for sale. The day cover won the poll by 63% of the votes and therefore becoming the album's main cover.

Promotion
In order to promote the album in the UK, Elice decided to add a new version of "Scattered Echoes", a duet with Ben Johnston to the track list. The song was released as a single on 13 June 2011. On the weekend of 19 June 2011, the single entered the UK charts at number one. Even though Elice was busy touring the world, doing press conference and attending fashion shows in order to promote Chanel's line of handbag. She recorded three specials with 4Music. The first special was a three-part intimate interview, which aired on May 10, 11 and 12. The second special was two hour countdown of Elice's favorite songs that she wrote for other acts and the third and final special was a reflection on the singles she released. The three specials were record on April 2011 at her home in New York City. Elice returned to the UK in June for one week in order to do interviews, attend press conference for Chanel and fashion shows. Claire and Johnston are also scheduled to do one performance of "Scattered Echoes" together. Elice also covered the fashion issue of Interview Magazine where Johnston was the interviewer. In the interview Elice discussed her deal with Chanel and also talked about her album and the duet with Johnston. Elice also revealed that she doesn't think she's a good singing, saying "I'm not quitting music because I don't love it. I'm quitting because I'm not good at it... I'm obviously not the best singer... I was never a natural at it." On 4 June 2011 Elice co-hosted URAPS Idol 12, where the week's theme was "Elice Claire songs". Although uncredited of being a singer by many critics, Elice gave an outstanding performance as a judge. According to Nielsen Soundscan, Uraps Idol 12 ratings increased dramatically from the previous weeks with Elice's appearance on the show, and critics praised her humble but naughty personality. On the results show, Claire performed the song "Reverie" with her Top 11 contestants. The singer also performed the single "Scattered Echoes" with Ben Johnston. To promote the album in the United States, Elixir Entertainment released the track "Mon Destin Douce (C'est Une Belle Vie)" as a single. The music video and song was added to radios and TV stations on the week of 20 June 2011. The digital release of the track is scheduled for 19 July 2011. Although "Mon Destin Douce" was planned as a Chanel exclusive music video for British fans who purchased Mademoiselle; it was made available on VEVO on 15 July 2011.

iTunes countdown
The promotional campaign included a deal with iTunes to release three unreleased songs from the rarities album. After 2009's iTunes fiasco, where the retailer leaked three new songs from the 'Countdown to Intimate Encounters' by mistake, left Elice wondering if it was a wise idea to do another iTunes Countdown. Elice's independent record label, Elixir Entertainment advised the singer that it would be a good idea to do the iTunes countdown, especially since the singer was unable to do a proper promotion for the album. The first song to be released was "Forbidden Ecstasy", followed by "Mon Destin Douce" and "Reverie".

Critical
Mademoiselle received mixed reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 62, based on 12 reviews, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Rolling Stone's Eric Harisson commented that the rarities album is as "entertainment" as was Elice's previous records, however the album lacks power vocals and more upbeat tracks. Jon Pareles of DigitalSpy criticized Elice's comment on Interview Magazine about not being a good singer, and wondered how "real" the album really sounds. Tracks "Reverie" and "Mon Destin Douce (C'est Une Belle Vie)" received positive reviews by BBC, who commented "the new new songs on the rarities album could possibly be her [Elice] best works yet", but stated that the rest of the songs are very nonevent compared to Elice's work on both studio albums. The Guardian's writer Trishelle Sheffield gave it two out of five stars and criticized Claire for her lack of commitment to music and lack of talent after her [Elice's] comment on Interview Magazine. The Observer presented the album with a four out of five stars, claiming the unreleased tracks and some of the b-sides sums up Claire's outstanding career. Brandon Greenblatt from the Daily Star argued that the B-sides album is an excuse from Elice's party to record an album, and felt that all the b-sides were "boring" and "uninspiring", at the same time, noting that the new track "Reverie" is without a doubt her best song to date.

Commercial
Compared to Claire's previous studio albums, her rarities album Mademoiselle proved to have a good commercial performance in the UK Charts. On the week ending of 19 June 2011, the album debuted at number one on the Urapopstar Top 40 Albums, with a first-week sales of 117,551. Mademoiselle became Elice's second-best first week seller. Her debut album Strictly Confidential opened at number one in January 2010 with 91,000 copies, her second album Intimate Encounters opened at number one in November 2009 with roughly 100,000 copies sold and her third studio album Carpe Diem entered the charts in June 2012 at number with with 217,000 copies sold in its first week. The album also received Silver certification in it's first week for the shipment of 100,000 copies. On its second week, the album remained at the top spot, selling 84,000 copies and getting its gold certification. After four weeks on the chart, the album reached Platinum status, and remained in the top ten. On 28 May 2012, Mademoiselle re-entered the album charts. As of 16 September 2012, the album has sold a total of 811,004 copies.