THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Nicolas Sarkozy has been revealed to be a frustrated romantic crooner with the emergence of footage of the French president singing along to a video of the country's veteran rock and roller Johnny Hallyday.
Just days after a new book quoted his ex-wife Cécilia accusing him of being a serial philanderer obsessed with performing "karaoke until 4am", the cringe-worthy footage of Mr Sarkozy taken from a television show is proving a hit with users of French internet sites where it is posted.
In the long-forgotten clip from the Thé ou Café? talk show, there is more than a hint of an Elvis quiff about Mr Sarkozy's jet black hair as, microphone in hand, he swivels his hips and warbles along to the 1976 hit Gabrielle.
Its tortured lyrics, including lines like "Your love strangles my life", painfully reflect the momentous changes in the President's personal circumstances.
Since obtaining a divorce last October, Mr Sarkozy, 52, has enjoyed a whirlwind romance with the former supermodel turned singer Carla Bruni, 40, and the pair are expected to marry.
Miss Bruni has even set up a "pop music room" at the Elysée palace. But in outspoken attacks reported in no less than three new books last week, the President's former First Lady has accused him of being a love cheat with a "behavioural problem".
One of the worst manifestations of this, she alleges, is his reliance on late night karaoke sessions which he has in the past used to woo other women. Nicolas Sarkozy's karaoke crooning >>> By Peter Allen in Paris
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