Post by davidhr on Feb 1, 2011 11:08:49 GMT -5
As promised, Lara opened the Asian winter games yesterday, with her new song ‘Always’, Lara having written the lyrics to Igor Krutoi’s music. They also collaborated on another song presented by a singer named ‘Sumi Jo’, called ‘Fire in the Heart’. Videos of both of these are available on youtube (see also larafabiannews.com and Christina’s Greek and English Treasure Box site). It’s great to have them – the song, the presentation and Lara are all extremely beautiful, though unfortunately the commentators talk a lot during the performances. Lara was most likely not singing live, but the question arose as to whether this was a new pre-recorded version, different from the portion of ‘Always’ that became available several weeks ago. Some fans thought it was – I’m not convinced, at least as far as Lara’s singing is concerned.
An article on the games appears at:
www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGXIOEIQj3UTZ92IZ8ITzO9R9aYg?docId=CNG.bc937a1a30aafcea92c02296ce113ff6.de1
and it is a sign of Lara’s true star prominence that outside of a Kazakh opera star, Lara is the only performer mentioned in it. Both in the article and at the show her Belgian origins were emphasized (no more ambiguity as to a French or Quebec affiliation, or Italian for that matter).
Still in the international arena, the set list for the David Foster and Friends CD/DVD, “The Hit Man Returns”, was made available at
www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8439461
where it is obviously also available for pre-ordering (the CD, at least). As one can see, both of the songs involving Lara, her solo of Caruso and her duet with Michael Bolton of ‘The Prayer’ are included (perhaps the least they could do given the gargantuan effort Lara went through to get to Las Vegas for the live show’s taping). And this is despite the fact that another version of Caruso was performed that evening (and included). It suggests, as has been rumored, that Lara was supposed to perform ‘Adagio’ instead, but didn’t arrive in time for rehearsal with the orchestra (her performance of Caruso, you might remember, was done with David Foster playing the piano).
The other new media event was the radio broadcast of Lara’s appearance on “On Repeint La Musique” on France Bleu, the radio station that has been most favorable to Lara in the last few years. The show was primarily to promote the ‘best of’ release, and to that end both of the new songs were played, and there was extensive discussion of the ‘virtual duet’ with Ray Charles. Interestingly, the one old song they played was the ETI version of ‘Je t’aime’, the ‘more fragile’ version as both the hosts and Lara referred to it. One imagines this provides an inkling of what they believe the audience is most open to at this point in time. Other subjects that arose were Lara’s career in Canada, and her old piano that is now in her daughter’s room.
And, inevitably, the topic of the Mlle. Zhivago project came up, which Lara is finding it impossible to keep out of her French interviews, awkward since the CD has not been released there. Here she discussed how rapidly she wrote the lyrics to Mlle. Zhivago once she heard the music (2 weeks), and how quickly the album itself was recorded (2 months). And Chris Mayne who handled the choral work on the album (e.g., Ever Ever Land) called in, and the station played a wonderful example of the chorus in action on ‘The Water Song”. Lara’s approach is to introduce Mlle. Zhivago as a musical movie – but when the host asks whether there is also a CD she has to admit there is. Her next move is then to say she wants the CD and DVD to be released together in Europe, hence implying the reason for the delay in releasing it in France. She will eventually be forced to provide it to the French speaking countries if indeed it is the focal point of her career in the coming year (but notice that now both in China and Kazakhstan, she did not sing anything from that album when given a chance to promote it).
The 'Best of' dropped 7 places to #25 in the list of compilations in France, and the DVD gained 4 places, to 32nd. In Belgium both the CD and the DVD are in 10th place. The CD sold 45,700 copies in 2010 according to Infodisc.
As to other events on the horizon (or not) in France: it was reported this week that Lara was not on the final list of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (French version) for this year, much to the relief of a number of her fans who thought it would have been demeaning. One wonders how they chose which participants to include; it would be hard to find someone more appropriate than Lara who is not a professional dancer, which none of these are (of the women, there is one singer, two actresses and one fashion model). Perhaps it is an indication of the show’s perception of Lara’s reduced popularity in that country…or, of course, maybe Lara never formally applied in the first place, despite her wistful comments about it. On the other hand, Lara will continue acting as ‘godmother' for the AICOM (musical comedy) contest, and offer her class in singing to one of the high-ranking winners, as was the case last year. And she is reportedly on the list to be one of the guests on the French version of X Factor to be recorded later this year (probably in the summer). Whether she really appears or not will likely depend on her schedule; at least she won’t have to worry about having a passport, which she claimed prevented her from appearing on the final of the Ukrainian X Factor show New Year’s Eve ☺.
Now on to the biography, cogent points from pp. 26-30:
**It’s been widely reported that Lara, thinking the name ‘Crockeart’ was not sufficiently mellifluous or pronounceable, chose the last name of a favorite uncle of hers on her mother’s side, who had died young. She therefore says she took the name to honor him. Of course it was also her mother’s maiden name…dropping off the ‘o’ at the end to ‘de-Italianize’ it.
**While the Belgian radio station RTBF was the one to help Lara record and air her first records, it was a rival station RTL that promoted her for Eurovision, having heard her 45 record and seeing her perform. She was the entry for Luxembourg, who often used people from beyond their borders to represent them.
**And Luxembourg chose French producers (to complete the mismatch) to shepherd Lara through the experience. Unfortunately, they hired their own writer/composer and so jettisoned Marc Lerchs from Lara's team, two weeks before the departure for Eurovision. Lara was too inexperienced to object – this taught Pierre that he had better learn the business! However, at the press conference in Luxembourg to announce their official contestant, against their wishes Lara invited Marc to join her, and sang two of his songs. [We’ve recently seen Pierre’s camcorder recording of this…].
**Lara had a case of nerves before the contest, and came down with bronchitis. Nevertheless, after the first part (the ‘rehearsals’) she was in the lead and everyone expected her to win. However, as we know, Celine Dion, already well-known in the French speaking world, came in first, with Lara dropping to fourth (the 2nd and 3rd place finishers have not been heard from again). Even then, there were people who, for whatever reason, strongly disliked Lara – a well-known producer saw her in the hallways before the final voting and told her she would never go anywhere.
**Her song, ‘Croire’ (written by the French team of Jacques Cardona and Alain Garcia) sold 600,000 copies in Europe in its various incarnations (released also as “Trust” in English and “Glaub” in German).
**The competition was held in Ireland, and while there, Lara met a 31 year old Irishman and fell hopelessly in love with him. She quit school, in effect abandoned singing, left Belgium, and went to live with him in Ireland. Unfortunately, he was already married, with a wife and children. At the end of two years she became convinced that he would never love her the way he loved his family, and returned home. On the positive side: the story of her passion gave birth to the song ‘Si tu m’aimes’, and her realization of the inevitable recounted in ‘Tu t’en vas’ – both great songs! It set in motion her understanding that she should use the events of her personal life as source for her singing material.
The Chinese New Year is celebrated this coming week (February 3rd, actually – ‘The Year of the Rabbit’). Lara’s performances have already been recorded, but she may well be present in Beijing for it. It certainly seems as if Lara’s collaboration with Igor Krutoi is going full tilt, and if she follows through on the schedule she mentioned in ‘the word from Lara section’, Lara will be going to New York next, probably to record an English album with him. Given that his music seems to be perfect for her voice, it would seem a win-win situation.
David
An article on the games appears at:
www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gGXIOEIQj3UTZ92IZ8ITzO9R9aYg?docId=CNG.bc937a1a30aafcea92c02296ce113ff6.de1
and it is a sign of Lara’s true star prominence that outside of a Kazakh opera star, Lara is the only performer mentioned in it. Both in the article and at the show her Belgian origins were emphasized (no more ambiguity as to a French or Quebec affiliation, or Italian for that matter).
Still in the international arena, the set list for the David Foster and Friends CD/DVD, “The Hit Man Returns”, was made available at
www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=8439461
where it is obviously also available for pre-ordering (the CD, at least). As one can see, both of the songs involving Lara, her solo of Caruso and her duet with Michael Bolton of ‘The Prayer’ are included (perhaps the least they could do given the gargantuan effort Lara went through to get to Las Vegas for the live show’s taping). And this is despite the fact that another version of Caruso was performed that evening (and included). It suggests, as has been rumored, that Lara was supposed to perform ‘Adagio’ instead, but didn’t arrive in time for rehearsal with the orchestra (her performance of Caruso, you might remember, was done with David Foster playing the piano).
The other new media event was the radio broadcast of Lara’s appearance on “On Repeint La Musique” on France Bleu, the radio station that has been most favorable to Lara in the last few years. The show was primarily to promote the ‘best of’ release, and to that end both of the new songs were played, and there was extensive discussion of the ‘virtual duet’ with Ray Charles. Interestingly, the one old song they played was the ETI version of ‘Je t’aime’, the ‘more fragile’ version as both the hosts and Lara referred to it. One imagines this provides an inkling of what they believe the audience is most open to at this point in time. Other subjects that arose were Lara’s career in Canada, and her old piano that is now in her daughter’s room.
And, inevitably, the topic of the Mlle. Zhivago project came up, which Lara is finding it impossible to keep out of her French interviews, awkward since the CD has not been released there. Here she discussed how rapidly she wrote the lyrics to Mlle. Zhivago once she heard the music (2 weeks), and how quickly the album itself was recorded (2 months). And Chris Mayne who handled the choral work on the album (e.g., Ever Ever Land) called in, and the station played a wonderful example of the chorus in action on ‘The Water Song”. Lara’s approach is to introduce Mlle. Zhivago as a musical movie – but when the host asks whether there is also a CD she has to admit there is. Her next move is then to say she wants the CD and DVD to be released together in Europe, hence implying the reason for the delay in releasing it in France. She will eventually be forced to provide it to the French speaking countries if indeed it is the focal point of her career in the coming year (but notice that now both in China and Kazakhstan, she did not sing anything from that album when given a chance to promote it).
The 'Best of' dropped 7 places to #25 in the list of compilations in France, and the DVD gained 4 places, to 32nd. In Belgium both the CD and the DVD are in 10th place. The CD sold 45,700 copies in 2010 according to Infodisc.
As to other events on the horizon (or not) in France: it was reported this week that Lara was not on the final list of ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (French version) for this year, much to the relief of a number of her fans who thought it would have been demeaning. One wonders how they chose which participants to include; it would be hard to find someone more appropriate than Lara who is not a professional dancer, which none of these are (of the women, there is one singer, two actresses and one fashion model). Perhaps it is an indication of the show’s perception of Lara’s reduced popularity in that country…or, of course, maybe Lara never formally applied in the first place, despite her wistful comments about it. On the other hand, Lara will continue acting as ‘godmother' for the AICOM (musical comedy) contest, and offer her class in singing to one of the high-ranking winners, as was the case last year. And she is reportedly on the list to be one of the guests on the French version of X Factor to be recorded later this year (probably in the summer). Whether she really appears or not will likely depend on her schedule; at least she won’t have to worry about having a passport, which she claimed prevented her from appearing on the final of the Ukrainian X Factor show New Year’s Eve ☺.
Now on to the biography, cogent points from pp. 26-30:
**It’s been widely reported that Lara, thinking the name ‘Crockeart’ was not sufficiently mellifluous or pronounceable, chose the last name of a favorite uncle of hers on her mother’s side, who had died young. She therefore says she took the name to honor him. Of course it was also her mother’s maiden name…dropping off the ‘o’ at the end to ‘de-Italianize’ it.
**While the Belgian radio station RTBF was the one to help Lara record and air her first records, it was a rival station RTL that promoted her for Eurovision, having heard her 45 record and seeing her perform. She was the entry for Luxembourg, who often used people from beyond their borders to represent them.
**And Luxembourg chose French producers (to complete the mismatch) to shepherd Lara through the experience. Unfortunately, they hired their own writer/composer and so jettisoned Marc Lerchs from Lara's team, two weeks before the departure for Eurovision. Lara was too inexperienced to object – this taught Pierre that he had better learn the business! However, at the press conference in Luxembourg to announce their official contestant, against their wishes Lara invited Marc to join her, and sang two of his songs. [We’ve recently seen Pierre’s camcorder recording of this…].
**Lara had a case of nerves before the contest, and came down with bronchitis. Nevertheless, after the first part (the ‘rehearsals’) she was in the lead and everyone expected her to win. However, as we know, Celine Dion, already well-known in the French speaking world, came in first, with Lara dropping to fourth (the 2nd and 3rd place finishers have not been heard from again). Even then, there were people who, for whatever reason, strongly disliked Lara – a well-known producer saw her in the hallways before the final voting and told her she would never go anywhere.
**Her song, ‘Croire’ (written by the French team of Jacques Cardona and Alain Garcia) sold 600,000 copies in Europe in its various incarnations (released also as “Trust” in English and “Glaub” in German).
**The competition was held in Ireland, and while there, Lara met a 31 year old Irishman and fell hopelessly in love with him. She quit school, in effect abandoned singing, left Belgium, and went to live with him in Ireland. Unfortunately, he was already married, with a wife and children. At the end of two years she became convinced that he would never love her the way he loved his family, and returned home. On the positive side: the story of her passion gave birth to the song ‘Si tu m’aimes’, and her realization of the inevitable recounted in ‘Tu t’en vas’ – both great songs! It set in motion her understanding that she should use the events of her personal life as source for her singing material.
The Chinese New Year is celebrated this coming week (February 3rd, actually – ‘The Year of the Rabbit’). Lara’s performances have already been recorded, but she may well be present in Beijing for it. It certainly seems as if Lara’s collaboration with Igor Krutoi is going full tilt, and if she follows through on the schedule she mentioned in ‘the word from Lara section’, Lara will be going to New York next, probably to record an English album with him. Given that his music seems to be perfect for her voice, it would seem a win-win situation.
David
