Read Charles Bremner's Paris blog

Carla Bruni, the chanteuse wife of Nicolas Sarkozy, is to release a new album on which she sings of 30 past lovers and compares one of them to taking hard drugs. But rather than embarrass her husband, her work is likely to give him a boost.

“You are my dope, more lethal than Afghan heroin, more dangerous than Colombian powder,” Ms Bruni sings in one of several love songs on the album, due for release on July 21. On another of the 14 tracks on the record, entitled As If Nothing Happened, she sings: “I am a child/Despite my 40 years/Despite my 30 lovers/A child.”

Aides to Mr Sarkozy were once wary of the past exploits of his new wife, which included liaisons with artists and politicians. Now, as her husband seeks to regain public favour, he is benefiting from “the Carla effect”, a phenomenon that took hold after the couple's successful state visit to London in March. They hope that Ms Bruni's first post-marriage record will boost him further.

“France is not prudish like the Anglo-Saxon countries,” an Élysée Palace aide said. “People will not be shocked by lyrics that are just poetry.”

A poll this week showed that Ms Bruni had approval ratings of 68 per cent — more than double that of her husband, who was given a 64 negative rating. Nearly 60 per cent approved of her continuing her singing career.

Her lyrics were quoted yesterday in an ecstatic review by Le Figaro, a pro-Sarkozy newspaper. Ms Bruni's first album was a hit with two million sales but her second, in English, sold poorly until she married the President in February.

The singer, who performs in a folk-pop style, insists that she wrote most of the material before meeting Mr Sarkozy in November. She wrote one of the mainly autobiographical songs with Raphaël Enthoven, a philosopher with whom she had a son before they separated last year.

One track, however, is a chanson d'amour addressed to the President, Le Figaro's music critic told The Times. In Ta Tienne (Your Own One), she sings: “I am yours, if they diss me or damn me, I don't care a hoot.”

This reflects the defensiveness of the left-of-centre star over her marriage to a President who is disliked by her milieu as a conservative philistine. In an interview yesterday she told VSD magazine: “Criticism, which is useful, risks being blurred, for good or for bad, by the fact that I am the President's wife.”

She has little to fear from the media, who have been gushing over her style, her independent spirit and her musical achievements. Bertrand Dicale, a critic for Le Figaro, heaped praise on the album, calling it a “beautiful success”.

With the blessing of the Élysée and her husband Ms Bruni is embarking on international promotion of her album. She will be on the cover of Vanity Fair in August and she is working with the BBC on a documentary that will be broadcast this year.

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