Vanessa Paradis let house into her album: Julien Jabre’s remix of ‘Les épines du cœur’

Julien Jabre has made a house version of a new Vanessa Paradis song — and it sits officially in her album’s tracklist.

The Apple Music catalogue records it.

The remix is called ‘Les épines du cœur (Julien Jabre Remix)’, runs 4 minutes 3 seconds and sits eighteenth of nineteen on the deluxe edition of ‘Le retour des beaux jours’, released on 10 October 2025.

The album appeared that day in two shapes: a standard edition of 12 tracks and an Édition Deluxe of 19. The title song had already been issued as a single earlier, on 29 August 2025.

The deluxe’s seven bonus slots split neatly in half. First come three alternative versions: a demo of ‘I Am Alive’, a demo of ‘Make You Mine’ and an acoustic ‘Les initiales des anges’. Then four remixes: The Ninety2 on ‘Les épines du cœur’ (2:57), Clyde Bessi on ‘Trésor’ (3:34), Jabre on ‘Les épines du cœur’ (4:03) and Keefus Ciancia on the title track (6:41).

The original ‘Les épines du cœur’ is track eight of the standard album and runs 2 minutes 54 seconds. The song was written and composed by Étienne Daho, published by Satori Song. So Jabre was not handed filler — he was handed a piece written for the singer by one of the central authors of French popular music.

The video only arrived in December

The video for ‘Les épines du cœur’ came later, in December 2025. It was shot by photographer and director Karim Sadli, who also served as executive producer; production by New Light Films, producer Virna Martini, director of photography Elodie Tahtane. The choreography was by Willow Evann, with twelve dancers in frame. It was filmed with Chanel’s support.

Vanessa Paradis is a French singer and actress whose career began in 1987 with ‘Joe le taxi’. ‘Le retour des beaux jours’ is her new studio album.

What Paradis herself said about the album

She spoke about the record’s title in an interview with Madame Figaro.

“The title is not a manifesto, especially at a moment when the world is doing so badly… It is the title of one of Étienne Daho’s songs, and I think naming it that is still a good omen: it does not mean the fine days are here, but it can suggest that we are calling for them.”

“And besides, art and music are meant to do us good, that is their vocation.”

Who Julien Jabre is

Jabre was born in 1976 into a French-Lebanese family and belongs to the French house school. His ‘Swimming Places’ became one of those 2000s records that stop belonging to their author: Defected devoted a House Masters edition to him in 2009, shared with DJ Gregory and running to twenty-nine tracks. Beyond his own releases he has worked with DJ Deep, Martin Solveig, Black Coffee and Virgil Abloh.

And in April the remix became a single of its own

On 24 April 2026 ‘Les épines du cœur’ came out as a release of its own — no longer a bonus at the end of an album. It holds three versions of one song: the original (2:54), ‘The Ninety2 Remix’ (2:58) and Jabre’s version (4:03). The Apple Music catalogue records the line-up.

The difference in running time is no trifle: Jabre’s version is 69 seconds longer than the original — exactly the length at which a track starts living in a DJ set rather than only in headphones.

A live version of the song exists separately — a fragment of the documentary ‘Vanessa Paradis, la soirée’ by director Julien Peultier, shot by Panthéon Films and Bangumi during work on the record. The film is available in full on France.tv.

On the deluxe it was the longer of the two versions of ‘Les épines du cœur’ — and on its own single it became a separate entry, made by someone who came to this song not from pop but from the dancefloor.