Bruni back to black

Carla Bruni, the former French first lady, returns to music since her husband left office

Wearing a low cut black jacket and wrapping her arms around her guitar, Carla Bruni gives the camera a sultry stare.

It is all part of a publicity campaign to launch her new album Little French Songs, her first since her husband Nicholas Sarkozy left office and released her of her duties as the French first lady.

Speaking in New York, where she is promoting her album and has just announced a US tour that will take place next year, Bruni said that although her music took a back seat while her husband was running the country she never really left her "old life" and that she thinks her voice has improved over time. This is the 45-year-old's fourth album and she desribes is as "folk music with a little pop".

Since she married Sarkozy in 2008, Bruni has become a very public figure and it is expected that one of the most talked about tracks on the album will be Mon Raymond (My Raymond),a pet name she has for her husband. "It's a love song so obviously it's about my husband," Bruni says about the number, which playfully likens her man to a pirate, albeit in a necktie. "But you only get it if you listen to it. So of course some of the media (don't get it) and I understand that."

The other tracks, of which there are 11 in total, include Chez Keith et Anita, where Bruni imagines what the home of guitarist Keith Richards and former actress and model Anita Pallenberg was like and J'arrive a Toi (I'm Coming to You) about someone who has found love but who is also sad.

Bruni began her musical career in 1997 and her first album Quelqu'un m'a dit (Someone Told Me), was released in 2002 and sold two million copies. - AP