Post by davidhr on Sept 18, 2012 10:41:44 GMT -5
Lara continued with her round of promotions this past week. While there was nothing as showy as the ‘Chabada’ appearance from last week, we still learned a bit of news.
**For ‘Le Secret’, Lara made a round-trip to Quebec in order to help conceive the album. 2013 will be devoted to promoting it in the media, and touring for it. And she sings very strongly on this album – no more of this pussyfooting around to appease critics.
**She is planning to eventually do another album with Igor Krutoi. Given the time frame listed above, she said it will not be until 2014-2015. (No mention of Sumi Jo or Dmitri Hvorostovsky, whose album with Lara was rumored for this fall…).
**With that in mind, in at least some of her promo appearances, she has given up the pretext that her Russian adventure is over. In fact, Ciné Télé Revue has a contest called “Take off with Lara to Russia”, for people to visit her on her upcoming trip.
**Lara is still angry about the response of some critics to her Bel RTL interview. At issue is Lara’s tendency to discuss philosophy (including some non-ordinary ideas about reality), and to give her opinions honestly. Because of the comparison that is being made between her and Jean-Claude van Damme, she says, in ‘Le Magazine – Moustique’ she is now being referred to as “van dammerie". Defiantly, she says that if the people don’t understand her, there is no reason for “that to make me look like a fool. If you do not understand the words that I said, I will not let you interpret it as a mistake.” In another classic line that’s being reported, she said (in translation), “I’m nice, but don’t fuck with my mouth” (i.e., don’t tell me what to think or say). Lara says that she will not take it from these critics, and when confronted they run away from her, are afraid to face her.
In commenting on this whole issue, fans made some good points. They noted that Lara gets herself into trouble because she doesn’t use discretion in answering questions. It should be apparent that most interviewers are not used to discussing reincarnation, or astrology, or children choosing their parents. Unfortunately for her, the whole subject of Mademoiselle Zhivago revolved around such ideas (a woman reincarnating and remembering her different lives), and that led naturally into such topics. Combine that with Lara’s lingering anger at her past critics concerning her singing, along with her new-found awareness that in other countries it is fully appreciated, and one had an explosive situation. Yet the explosion may have been just what Lara needed to re-insert her into the public’s mind. One can fully believe that she will ‘belt out’ her songs on ‘Le Secret’, at least partly to thumb her nose in the face of such French critics. Of course for those fans who enjoy such singing, it is all to the good!
Meanwhile, for probably the first time ever, Lara’s release of an album (MZ) is proceeding in Belgium in an entirely different way from what happened in France. Instead of the severe France restrictions to only ‘Carrefour’ stores and some internet sales, it is now clear that it will be made available in Belgium to the big record outlets, epitomized by Lara’s appearance at an FNAC store on Sept. 20th. FNAC even ran a contest to choose the fans who would meet Lara. In response, and with Lara’s promo (and controversy), sales have taken off: the single ‘Je t'aime encore’, officially released 3 weeks ago, is in the 15th position of the European top 50, and the Mademoiselle Zhivago CD that debuted this week in Belgium, is now in 5th position in the Belgian TOP 200. One wonders if Lara now doubts the wisdom of the France approach, making its lack of placement on the charts there a self-fulfilling prophecy [Michel Serra on LFIAG claims that it’s actually not eligible for the charts, since it wasn’t sold in all the stores. It is now available on amazon.fr, but listed as an ‘import’ –probably from Belgium! They also mistakenly think it’s a ‘Universal’ production.] Lara has indicated that MZ is doing much better than she imagined; she should have listened to her own words, saying in these interviews that there is a large discrepancy between what the critics want from her (less ‘screaming’), and what the fans desire. She will apparently get another chance to test that with the release of ‘Le Secret’.
In other news, there is an advertisement for a physical double of Lara, needed for a TV show filming at the end of September. It can be found at: www.paris-casting.com/casting-a-paris-t.asp?rubnum=casting-casting-9776. This doesn’t appear to be a joke, and raises a number of questions. Perhaps it was placed by Alan Badoev (that is a joke!).
Lara’s comment about wanting to be a judge/trainer in the Belgium version of ‘The Voice’ got some publicity. However, Lara apparently indicated that it was next year she had in mind; in any event, Natasha St. Pier has been added to this year’s edition.
The Lara Fabian Romanian fan club has posted a unique picture of Lara; it can be found at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=461466927209643&set=a.150846921604980.22470.127093573980315&type=1&theater
Upcoming events include Le Barbara show on Belgian TV, to be broadcast a little later today; presumably there will be a video of it. The description of this show, states that Barbara Gandolfi and her chroniclers receive people to speak about societal subjects - which leaves plenty of room for Lara to get in more trouble!
There is also her FNAC appearance in Brussels on the 20th; and the Zak show in an episode named "Parking Size" to be broadcast in late September-early October (for those of you who may have missed it, the ‘making of’ for this show is available at):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1Wi1QMpFE&feature=share&list=UUN8WaVV1fM-z0Cm7d2PJSFw.
Then it is on to Russia, leaving her ‘comments’ controversy behind, and perhaps running into the MZ movie one. It’s not easy being Lara!
David
**For ‘Le Secret’, Lara made a round-trip to Quebec in order to help conceive the album. 2013 will be devoted to promoting it in the media, and touring for it. And she sings very strongly on this album – no more of this pussyfooting around to appease critics.
**She is planning to eventually do another album with Igor Krutoi. Given the time frame listed above, she said it will not be until 2014-2015. (No mention of Sumi Jo or Dmitri Hvorostovsky, whose album with Lara was rumored for this fall…).
**With that in mind, in at least some of her promo appearances, she has given up the pretext that her Russian adventure is over. In fact, Ciné Télé Revue has a contest called “Take off with Lara to Russia”, for people to visit her on her upcoming trip.
**Lara is still angry about the response of some critics to her Bel RTL interview. At issue is Lara’s tendency to discuss philosophy (including some non-ordinary ideas about reality), and to give her opinions honestly. Because of the comparison that is being made between her and Jean-Claude van Damme, she says, in ‘Le Magazine – Moustique’ she is now being referred to as “van dammerie". Defiantly, she says that if the people don’t understand her, there is no reason for “that to make me look like a fool. If you do not understand the words that I said, I will not let you interpret it as a mistake.” In another classic line that’s being reported, she said (in translation), “I’m nice, but don’t fuck with my mouth” (i.e., don’t tell me what to think or say). Lara says that she will not take it from these critics, and when confronted they run away from her, are afraid to face her.
In commenting on this whole issue, fans made some good points. They noted that Lara gets herself into trouble because she doesn’t use discretion in answering questions. It should be apparent that most interviewers are not used to discussing reincarnation, or astrology, or children choosing their parents. Unfortunately for her, the whole subject of Mademoiselle Zhivago revolved around such ideas (a woman reincarnating and remembering her different lives), and that led naturally into such topics. Combine that with Lara’s lingering anger at her past critics concerning her singing, along with her new-found awareness that in other countries it is fully appreciated, and one had an explosive situation. Yet the explosion may have been just what Lara needed to re-insert her into the public’s mind. One can fully believe that she will ‘belt out’ her songs on ‘Le Secret’, at least partly to thumb her nose in the face of such French critics. Of course for those fans who enjoy such singing, it is all to the good!
Meanwhile, for probably the first time ever, Lara’s release of an album (MZ) is proceeding in Belgium in an entirely different way from what happened in France. Instead of the severe France restrictions to only ‘Carrefour’ stores and some internet sales, it is now clear that it will be made available in Belgium to the big record outlets, epitomized by Lara’s appearance at an FNAC store on Sept. 20th. FNAC even ran a contest to choose the fans who would meet Lara. In response, and with Lara’s promo (and controversy), sales have taken off: the single ‘Je t'aime encore’, officially released 3 weeks ago, is in the 15th position of the European top 50, and the Mademoiselle Zhivago CD that debuted this week in Belgium, is now in 5th position in the Belgian TOP 200. One wonders if Lara now doubts the wisdom of the France approach, making its lack of placement on the charts there a self-fulfilling prophecy [Michel Serra on LFIAG claims that it’s actually not eligible for the charts, since it wasn’t sold in all the stores. It is now available on amazon.fr, but listed as an ‘import’ –probably from Belgium! They also mistakenly think it’s a ‘Universal’ production.] Lara has indicated that MZ is doing much better than she imagined; she should have listened to her own words, saying in these interviews that there is a large discrepancy between what the critics want from her (less ‘screaming’), and what the fans desire. She will apparently get another chance to test that with the release of ‘Le Secret’.
In other news, there is an advertisement for a physical double of Lara, needed for a TV show filming at the end of September. It can be found at: www.paris-casting.com/casting-a-paris-t.asp?rubnum=casting-casting-9776. This doesn’t appear to be a joke, and raises a number of questions. Perhaps it was placed by Alan Badoev (that is a joke!).
Lara’s comment about wanting to be a judge/trainer in the Belgium version of ‘The Voice’ got some publicity. However, Lara apparently indicated that it was next year she had in mind; in any event, Natasha St. Pier has been added to this year’s edition.
The Lara Fabian Romanian fan club has posted a unique picture of Lara; it can be found at:
www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=461466927209643&set=a.150846921604980.22470.127093573980315&type=1&theater
Upcoming events include Le Barbara show on Belgian TV, to be broadcast a little later today; presumably there will be a video of it. The description of this show, states that Barbara Gandolfi and her chroniclers receive people to speak about societal subjects - which leaves plenty of room for Lara to get in more trouble!
There is also her FNAC appearance in Brussels on the 20th; and the Zak show in an episode named "Parking Size" to be broadcast in late September-early October (for those of you who may have missed it, the ‘making of’ for this show is available at):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=2K1Wi1QMpFE&feature=share&list=UUN8WaVV1fM-z0Cm7d2PJSFw.
Then it is on to Russia, leaving her ‘comments’ controversy behind, and perhaps running into the MZ movie one. It’s not easy being Lara!
David