"Je ne sais pas pourquoi" (), also known as "I Still Love You (Je ne sais pas pourquoi)" in Australia and New Zealand, is a song by Australian recording artist and songwriter Kylie Minogue from her debut studio album Kylie (1988). Released as a single on 10 October 1988 by PWL, the song has subsequently appeared on most of Minogue's hits compilations including Greatest Hits (1992), Ultimate Kylie (2004) and, most recently, Step Back in Time: The Definitive Collection, released in 2019. Like most of Minogue's material between 1988 and 1992, it was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman.
Background
The song, with its French inspired theme and accompanying video, was released as the fourth single in October 1988, and was taken from the debut studio album Kylie. It was written and produced by Stock Aitken Waterman, who produced Minogue's first four studio albums. "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" is a teen-pop ballad, which is also inspired by dance-pop, which features instrumentals including drum machine, synthesizers, and some minor guitar riffs. Producer Pete Waterman claimed the idea for the use of French in the song came from observing the fascination that many younger fans had with language and mastering pronunciation.
The video to "Made to Heaven" solely involves Minogue dancing in front of a bluescreen with images of her previous five videos sampled behind her. She was surrounded by a halo of light and it was the last video before she began to routinely involve dancers and choreographed routines in her videos and performances. Kylie performed "Made in Heaven" at the "Royal Variety Performance" in front of the Queen Mother where she announced it as her new song - "Made in Heaven" was however never released as an A-side anywhere but it was used as the B-side to the international releases of both "It's No Secret" and "Turn It into Love". "Je ne sais pas pourquoi" was the 20th biggest selling single of 1988 in the UK.
Chart performance
"Je ne sais pas pourquoi" was successful in the United Kingdom, where it debuted at number 11 on the UK Singles Chart, rose to number two where it stayed for three consecutive weeks, behind Enya's "Orinoco Flow", which allowed it to receive a silver disc awarded by the British Phonographic Industry. In 2020, Alexis Petridis of British daily newspaper The Guardian ranked the song at number 11 in his "Kylie's 30 greatest singles" list, adding that it "saw [Stock, Aitken and Waterman] dial down the tinniness to something approaching subtlety: it also had a genuinely lovely tune". In 2023, in the same newspaper, he listed the song at number 13 in his "Stock Aitken Waterman's 20 greatest songs – ranked!", adding that it was "the first sign that the trio realised they had something special on their hands and stepped back from their blaring one-size-fits-all approach: a succession of earworm melodies that feels relatively subtle by their standards in the late 80s." In 2023, Robert Moran of Australian daily tabloid newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald ranked the song as Minogue's 57th best song (out of 183), adding, "The sort of wistful pop which, 35 years on, still feels like Kylie's bread and butter. Today, it would kill in a mix next to some Carly Rae (maybe listened to at 1.5x speed)".
| style="text-align:center;"| 11
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! scope="row"| Europe (European Hot 100 Singles)
| style="text-align:center;"| 8
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!scope="row" |Europe (European Airplay Top 50)
| style="text-align:center;"|16
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!scope="row"|Luxembourg (Radio Luxembourg)
|align="center"|1
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!scope="row"|South Africa (Springbok Radio)
|align="center"|27
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!scope="row"|UK Dance (Music Week)
|align="center"|3
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Year-end charts
{| class="wikitable plainrowheaders" style="text-align:center"
|+ 1988 year-end chart performance for "Je ne sais pas pourquoi"
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! scope="col"| Chart (1988)
! scope="col"| Position
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! scope="row"| UK Singles (OCC)
| style="text-align:center;"|20
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! scope="row"| West Germany (Media Control)
| style="text-align:center;"|97
|}
Certifications
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