Carla Bruni, first lady of France, is making her debut on UK television tonight, appearing on the opening show of the new series of Later Live: With Jools Holland (BBC Two, 10pm), alongside Sir Paul McCartney, Metallica and Kings of Leon. There can be no doubt that the hype surrounding Bruni's musical career has risen to fever pitch recently, due largely to her being the wife of Nicolas Sarkozy - it is hard to imagine anyone getting so excited were she not. Opinion on her musical talent on the web appears to be divided - hardly surprising given this promo clip advertising her 2007 album No Promises, which reveals a patchy and mannered, breathless singing voice - tinyurl.com/yrugq7.

She actually sounds much better when singing in French (not her native language either - she's Italian), as the live performance of L'amour at tinyurl.com/2rn2po from 2007 attests. She's a decent guitar player, too.

Owing to security concerns, Bruni has declared she won't be performing in public again until her husband steps down, so if you are a fan of her melancholic plucking, tonight is as close as you'll get, for a while at least.

Bruni may have her critics, but at least she has a better singing voice than the former First Lady and recent presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, captured here absolutely mauling The Star Spangled Banner in Iowa in 2007 (tinyurl.com/2nu8b6). And then there's Nancy Reagan, who made a memorable contribution to the rock lexicon when she appeared in the star-studded anti-drugs video, Stop the Madness, commissioned by the Reagan Administration in 1985.

Joining Nancy was David Hasselhoff, New Edition, a really young Whitney Houston (who said Americans don't get irony), La Toya Jackson, Herb Alpert, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Casey Kasem: tinyurl.com/j9bsf. In particular, note the curious footage of a rabid monkey and Day-Glo toast, which one assumes is meant to represent the kinds of crazy hallucinations you have when you're on drugs.

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