3 Songs Johnny Depp Co-Wrote With and for Ex-Partner French Singer-Songwriter Vanessa Paradis

Years before breaking into his acting career, Johnny Depp was playing in the bands The Kids and Rock City Angels. Throughout his career, Depp continued collaborating with Paul McCartney on “My Valentine,” featuring Natalie Portman, along with everyone from Patti Smith, Shane MacGowan, Iggy Pop, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Marilyn Manson, Oasis, and more.

In 2012, Depp, along with Alice Cooper, Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, and Tommy Henriksen, co-founded the supergroup The Hollywood Vampires.

The band released two albums, their eponymous 2015 debut and follow-up, Rise, in 2019, along with their live album, Live in Rio, in 2023.

For more than a decade, Depp was also involved in his ex-partner, French singer-songwriter Vanessa Paradis’ music career, playing on and co-writing several songs with her from 2000 through 2013, and even painting the cover of Paradis’ 2007 album Divinidylle.

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[RELATED: 5 Songs You Didn’t Know Johnny Depp Wrote and Composed]

“St. Germain” (2000)

Written by Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis

When Depp’s former partner, French singer and model Vanessa Paradis, released her fourth album, Bliss, in 2000, the album featured two songs co-written by the couple: “St. Germain” and “Bliss.” He also plays guitar on the song “Firmaman.”

Sung in French, the lyrics speak to all the ways of finding inspiration and happiness in another person.

For an exile
Pour un exil
This little woman will take you far away
Ce petit bout de femme t’emmènera loin
Everything’s allowed
Tout est permis
I‘ve stepped into her shoes
J’ai mis mes pas dans les siens
She’s truly the sun
Elle est bien le soleil
Since everything revolves around her
Puisque tout tourne autour d’elle
Little wonder
Petite merveille

Not so easy
Pas si facile
To be so pure in a world that’s less so
D’être aussi pure dans un monde qui l’est moins
A thousand and one symphonies
Mille et une symphonies
She’ll create in no time
Qu’elle inventera en un rien
Finally happiness
Enfin le bonheur
It’s all the colors
C’est toutes les couleurs
Of her heart
De son c?ur

“Bliss” (2000)

Written by Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis 

Bliss also marked the recording debut of Paradis and Depp’s daughter Lily-Rose, who, while still a baby, had her voice recorded and added to several tracks on the album, including the Paradis-penned “La Ballade de Lily Rose.” Lily-Rose is heard cooing during “Firmaman” and says “Mama” on “La Ballade de Lily Rose,” and “Dada” at the beginning of the one song Paradis and Depp co-wrote, “Bliss.” 

“That is something totally selfish,” said Paradis. “In this family LP, Johnny and I wanted to have our daughter’s voice engraved on this record for the rest of our lives, to have a souvenir from all these happy moments we shared, altogether. It’s really a personal pleasure and not something we did to introduce her to the world.”

One of three songs Paradis sings in English on the album, the romantic ballad about getting lost in the intimacy of love, closes the album.

Bliss
Dear smoky room
Stardust in the eyes
Anything will rise
Our bellies bloomed
Sunset red fly toes
Haunted mind
Where I go, there it goes
Your soul within mine
I’m a book in my dreams
See what I love you means
Far from the ground
Below the sky
No way around
Is where we hide
Between the sound
Before the light
My love and I live in never to be found

“New Year” (2013)

Written by Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis

A year after Paradis and Depp divorced, and more than a decade after the release of Bliss, the two wrote another song together: “New Year.” Appearing on Paradis’ 2013 album, Love Songs, “New Year” also features backing vocals from their daughter, Lily-Rose Depp. 

For an exile
This little piece of woman will take you far
Everything is allowed
I put my footsteps in his
She is the sun
Since everything revolves around her
Little wonder

Not so easy
To be so pure in a less pure world
Thousand and one symphonies
That she will invent in nothing
Happiness at last
It’s all the colors
From his heart 

Photo: Kevin Winter/Getty Images