News Update: 3/21

[davidhr]

Lara gave two concerts this past week. The biggest event (and the only public one) was obviously Lara’s concert in London. It turned out to be a typical ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ concert, with no real exceptions for it taking place in London; Lara spoke in English and French, as she has done elsewhere. [So the concert in Brussels in December turned out not to be the last MVDLT concert, after all]. Hence the setlist: Ma vie dans la tienne; Immortelle; Elle danse; Ton desir; Envie d’en rire; Tue s mon ature; La difference; S’il ne reste qu’un ami; I Will Love Again; Abba medley; Le Coeur qui tremble’; Releve toi; Non coupable; J’y crois encore; L’oubli; Je t’aime; Adagio; Quand je ne chante pas.

There are some videos available; links to the best complete ones are indicated with an asterisk at the end, but we’re thankful for all of them:

Abba medley : www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yyPtS6mAgs*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kqv3xdmz2hc
(inc) www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGPoYo7KfYA
(fragment) www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HmwG6G2bwc
(fragment) www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chx8yfKkzG0
Adagio : www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY0hQQCXOI4*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtZCe64izvY*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLwvDPoJSUA*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6IiKYpFjU4
www.youtube.com/watch?v=eC5a6MPHK0o
(inc): www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvdFz_xr0Ck
Envie d’en rire (inc): www.youtube.com/watch?v=k66hxyPaCUg
I Will Love Again: www.youtube.com/watch?v=ai1QBCTo8V4*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6bKWeze-3M
www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmFPljEO2m4
Immortelle: www.facebook.com/Boulette.Roz.Rozenn/videos/10212069808522118/*
Je t’aime: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KqtjDKJ6CM*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPhUms4ULCA*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2kKh-xrX5w
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chx8yfKkzG0
www.youtube.com/watch?v=luO1zuYvD2A
(inc): www.youtube.com/watch?v=ct7XaFJDaxM
J’y crois encore: www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGi6tTtD6kY*
La difference: www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_gA83L-dOo*
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrMSkw8NhaI*
Ma vie dans la tienne: www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmsCgSGQOk4*
(inc): www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jh1kwsjmNM
(inc): www.facebook.com/piuint/videos/427058390961897/
Non coupable: www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7itPHhYaWc*
Quand je ne chante pas (inc): www.facebook.com/piuint/videos/427084810959255/
S’il ne reste qu’un ami: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo0y8zThBi4*
Tu es mon autre: www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UPYGlDbJhA*
Ton desir (inc): www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiroVvTktwY

Pictures are available from Piu Entertainment UK, at

www.facebook.com/piuint/photos/a.427341404266929.1073741830.369290376738699/427341554266914/?type=3&theater

The ‘Lara Fabian est ton autre’ site shared a short video of Lara with Pierre Yves Duchesne, her vocal coach (from l’AICOM) before the show

www.facebook.com/AICOM.Paris/videos/1400132336714132/

and they also posted a picture of Lara with her makeup artist for the London show, Olga Stepp

www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/a.168982793155393.43222.166959643357708/1272268926160102/?type=3&theater

There were also various Instagram posts (thanks to the ‘Lara Fabian Is Here’ site for the links)

http://instagram.com/p/BRrVvfJB9pZ

http://instagram.com/p/BRrTiaMlEgO

http://instagram.com/p/BRrYQDfhtIc

http://instagram.com/p/BRrS8SPBWih

http://instagram.com/p/BRsRqx4hzYz

http://instagram.com/p/BRsgZbmB8gH

http://instagram.com/p/BRraSrzgrjN

http://instagram.com/p/BRrXDdplxli

http://instagram.com/p/BRsRqx4hzYz

http://instagram.com/p/BRtvqjbg5F4

http://instagram.com/p/BRtvKykAJi1

http://instagram.com/p/BRrId2wlON0

http://instagram.com/p/BRrHtp1FJXz

and from Twitter

/photo/1

As a follow-up, Lara posted her own four pictures from London and the concert on her FB site, at

www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1478033572238135/1478033398904819/?type=3

with the caption, “Thank you London, for this passionate "first kiss".... See you very soon!”. With this, she made clear what her strategy had been. This first ‘visit’ would be all for the French living in England (whom she assumed would be the majority of the audience in any event), and so the concert would be for her last French album -hence the interviews with the French publications in England. Then subsequently she would return, when the English album was ready, and give an English concert for the English speaking people of London and, presumably, talk with the English language media.

It was/is an interesting strategy, one that would not have appeared obvious, and she will have to see whether it works or not. There’s a saying that you only get one chance to make a first impression, and by ignoring the English media/audience in her first appearance, she risks their ignoring her on her second try. Even though the vast majority of comments on Lara’s site applauded her appearance, there were some regrets from English speakers that a primarily French concert in London was not what they expected. It would have been better if Lara had informed the public ahead of time that this would be a MVDLT concert; instead she and her Team provided links to some of her English language songs, giving the impression that they would be part of this concert. [And we thought so, too]. Misleading, at best.
The English language songs she did provide, particularly ‘I Will Love Again’, got the greatest reaction from the audience; one can also see that apart from “Je t’aime”, many of the videos people put on youtube were of the three English songs. Even the Abba medley had more videos than any of the other French songs.

This whole approach is reminiscent of the first concert Lara gave in Toronto, several years ago as part of the ‘Le Secret’ tour. For an audience that was heavily English speaking, Lara said that she was proud to bring the French language to Ontario, and proceeded to perform a concert with all French songs. As in this case, a number of (Canadian) English speakers were disappointed in that choice.

Even more debatable was the decision that not only would this event have nothing to do with the coming English language album, it was reported that she did not even mention it on stage. If true, that was odd in the extreme: she had an audience there who could be primed to purchase the album when it appears later this year. The approach would have been more understandable if the English album were years away, but apparently it is standing on the doorstep. It’s hard to think of any other performer who is about to release an album (in the host country’s language) giving a concert and never even mentioning it (again, if true). And even though it was a MVDLT concert, there were no CDs for sale, or any memorabilia.

As to the concert itself, there were a number of people who appeared to greatly enjoy it, as anything Lara does will always have an inherently high quality to it, and the concerts of last year’s tour were highly entertaining. From the videos available, Lara’s voice was o.k., although (IMHO) it did not seem up to the level she achieved when she was doing MVDLT concerts routinely. She did say, in effect, that she (once again) intends for this to be the last concert of this type, as she indicated it was the very last time she would be singing the Abba medley. We’ll see…if the English album is delayed any further, and new tour dates are set ahead of time, perhaps Lara will end up doing more such concerts.

To close this subject: when (if) Lara does return to London, or New York, or Toronto, etc. it would seem important that she does interact with the English language press, if she is to sell her English language album to anything other than her long-term fans. There has been a notable lack of such interaction in English speaking countries; perhaps she thinks they’re not interested in her, but the attempt has to be made (if in fact it wasn’t). When Lara goes to other countries, for example in Eastern Europe, she does interact with the mainstream media (and she is often treated as royalty). In contrast, in her last tour of the U.S. her apparent ignoring of the English language media was then reciprocated by them – it was as if she had never even been there. The fact that this has now happened again is not reassuring, and something has to change with this ‘international’ artist for things to be different.

Then it was on to Budapest, Hungary for a private concert Lara was giving for 200 guests, at the club LOCK. The setlist of 7 songs was: J'y crois encore; La difference;
I will love again; Caruso; I guess I loved you; Je suis malade; Je t'aime [note this set was actually a bit more cosmopolitan than the London one…]. We have almost the complete show of 29+ minutes, thanks to ‘Lara Fabian-Artist’, available at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpKjlSRUIfY
or equivalently,
www.facebook.com/larafabian.artist/videos/vb.629353903875242/1065890723554889/?type=2&theater

And some more videos and pictures, courtesy of the 'Lara Fabian Is Here' site:

The Introduction: www.facebook.com/nyarikarolyhivatalos/videos/vb.93854171107/10155193815136108/?type=2&theater

A portion of I Will Love Again
www.facebook.com/LARA-FABIAN-IS-HERE-382393522416/

Finally, some pictures

http://instagram.com/p/BRwdC-hgmUY

http://instagram.com/p/BRwT-ECjrNm

http://instagram.com/p/BRwcIDwgLm7

http://instagram.com/p/BRxuNC8lRnW

http://instagram.com/p/BRwWcRMBE7A

Lara appeared to be in good voice for this concert, although the noise of the audience was noticeable throughout; that’s the issue performing at private functions, people often don’t pay complete attention.

In what turned out to be a very busy week, Lara was also seen on the show “The 20 Preferred Duets of the French” on W9. As noted previously Lara had two duets chosen. The discussion of “The Secrets of the duets”: ‘Tu es mon autre’ with Maurane, is available at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMfyQvfS6D4

They made a big deal of the criticism Maurane got for doing it, and how it has now become a classic. It was also nice to see Rick Allison.

And also with Johnny Hallyday (who says he is successfully fighting cancer) on ‘Requiem pour un fou”; Lara repeated her comment that in allowing her to do this song with him in front of such a huge audience, he gave her a big gift. It’s available at:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuVDw6kN8ws

So 10% of the preferred duets in France are associated with Lara – not a bad showing!

In other news, as discussed in a previous Update, tomorrow Lara will participate in the Belgian “Evening of solidarity and hope” on the anniversary of the terrorist bombings last year in Brussels. She will be one of 200 artists. A selection of the videos will be broadcast live on TV and made available on www.rtbf.be/auvio/ [whether it will be accessible from outside the country remains to be seen]. An image that is being used to promote this event can be seen at

ds1.static.rtbf.be/article/image/624x351/8/1/3/ab233b682ec355648e7891e66c54191b-1489673525.png

Lara’s URL (http://www.larafabian.com/) now reads that it is currently under construction. Presumably (hopefully) this means that the new English album will be featured; or possibly that it will be upgraded so as to present all of Lara’s material, including past CDs and DVDs. We’ll see…

Interesting photo(s) of the week: from the ‘Lara Fabian Is Here’ site, outside for Lara’s London concert

www.facebook.com/piuint/photos/a.369512833383120.1073741828.369290376738699/427009797633423/?type=3&theater

and, inside:

www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.215378125170359.50343.201065806601591/1476535852387907/?type=3&theater

Also, a water color of Lara ,

www.facebook.com/artakrum/photos/a.274240809609890.1073741828.274227549611216/390833044617332/?type=3&theater

As noted on the Mademoiselle Zhivago website, this painting provided by AL Jerdi Taleb is “Lara Fabian by Ahmad Akrüm. Ahmad is a future architect Syrian who, despite the war, is trying to show the world that the will of life is above all and that the man must fight in order to exist. Courage Ahmad and don't let go. You're exceptionally creative.”

Next week should be less hectic for Lara, with perhaps a return to working on the last songs from the new album. Since she indicated that the coming tour is “taking shape”, we’ll see if any new events are added to her official FB site calendar. And perhaps we’ll have a video of Lara’s participation in the Belgian “Evening of solidarity and hope”. If it in any way fits the theme of her new album, that would also be a good name for her coming tour.

David

[bward]

Thanks for the great update David!!

Personally, I would love to see Rick Allison and Lara together again on an album!! Hopefully, this will happen sometime in the future!!

I was at the Toronto concert where Lara performed Le Secret and the majority of the audience was made up of Russian fans!! Many of the English fans that attended were disappointed in the lack of English songs being sung that night. Don't get me wrong, I love Lara singing in any language, but when in an English speaking city as large as Toronto, I think more English songs would of been more appreciated!!

Just my 2 cents!!