May 21, 2008

By By Lars Brandle, London

Carla Bruni, the singer, former supermodel and headline-grabbing wife of France's president Nicolas Sarkozy, will release a new album in Europe this July.

Paris-based independent label Na?ve will issue the new set, which will be named "Comme Si De Rien N'Etait" ("As If Nothing Had Happened") after a photograph by Carla's brother, Virginio Bruni Tedeschi. The photograph is expected to feature on the album cover.

At Bruni's request, royalties from the album will be donated to unidentified charitable and humanitarian causes, according to a spokesperson for Na?ve.

Bruni's second album "No Promises" opened at No. 1 in on the Billboard European Top 100 Albums Charts in January 2007, after opening at the top in France. The set has sold 380,000 copies worldwide to date, including 110,000 copies in France, the spokesperson adds. Bruni's debut album "Quelqu'Un M'a Dit" topped the chart in France back in 2003.

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