Post by davidhr on Oct 10, 2017 8:02:54 GMT -5
This thread contains the text for various interviews Lara gave, or that appeared, this past week in Belgium and France.
Prior to the release of the album, Lara had, in effect, some explaining to do to her Francophile audience. She gave several press interviews. Here’s a translation of the one in Belgium for "DH (Dernière Heure)" (http://www.dhnet.be/medias/musique/lara-fabian-chanter-en-anglais-est-un-passeport-linguistique-59d68881cd70461d2673cb50#.WdkSQ__dPPQ.facebook)
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To Sing in English is a Linguistic Passport
The Belgian-Italian-Canadian singer releases her 13th album, Camouflage , in English. Before a world tour!
LF: "Camouflage is simply the title of a song that tells the story of someone wearing a mask, " Lara Fabian confides on the subject of her new album - one year after ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ - composed by Swedish Lara Moh Denebi and the American Sharon Vaughn (Willie Nelson, Boyzone). "At the time to protect ourselves and to allow us to mix so as to guarantee ourselves a place. And one perceives, one day or another, even if the wearing of this mask is a protection, that it permits us to be part of the group. But in the end, it nevertheless prevents us from being completely what we are, It is a song that tells of the risk we take once we dissociate ourselves. "
The singer of voice confesses herself to have already worn this mask. "It happens to all of us, I do not know anyone who does not wear a mask at one time or another, " emphasizes the one that has just finished the music of a documentary film about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that carried away her aunt. "Circumstantially, it can help to wear a mask, but is it the choice to do all the time?" "I do not think so, it can be tiring after a while."
Camouflage and her vision of the world set the tone of the album. Is this choice of English a desire to export more?
LF: "I have always had songs in English (this is her 4th album entirely in English, Editor's note.) This language has always marked my life from the very beginning of my career. It is rather a continuity. Even if this is necessarily the occasion to go to markets where one does not necessarily speak French, as for my next dates in Germany, Russia, Barcelona, Milan or New York. To sing in English is a linguistic passport that opens many things, it is certain. But I wanted myself to go back to a language that I speak, that I write and that I always sang. I do not know if it's easier to write in English, but in any case, the musicality of the language or the synergy between music and the phonetics of the language, is actually a little more obvious. Now, basically, to tell things, I am not convinced that it is easier in English than in French. "
Being sometimes invited to government events, are you not afraid of political reprisals?
LF: "As I often sing in the Eastern countries, as in Moscow, it's the risk. Then we do not sing for the rulers, but for the people. Finally, I'm not going to remove songs from my repertoire because that in some countries, there is a problem with what I sing to them. I have nevertheless taken a lot of risk sometimes, but it does not matter, I think political recovery is not possible. Except if one takes a position. But it's not my role or my prerogative. And, above all, it's not my field of expertise. "
Rather, it is the commitment, as on the title Communify?
LF: "This is a word that I invented to convey a message, it is the combination of communicate and unify. A song based on the principle of nonviolent communication. On the integrity of the human being, of his identity. The LGBT cause is very close to my heart, like all communication. For a true dialogue springs from the best of what we are. And sometimes we do not take the time to simply listen to the other. To live well and to age well, the key is to talk and listen. We must unite our thoughts within this dialogue. "
What you managed to do with your magician husband, Gabriel?
"Yes, indeed. In addition to my blossoming, he has already come to sing with me on the last tour and he also did magic tricks on the tour of the album Le Secret. My family, it is my priority. My child Lou and my marriage remain my center and my greatest success in life. It is why I embark them all with me for The Voice Canada. I could not have been able to coach the show if it that had not been able to be the case (smile)! "
Camouflage , 12 songs in English including Growing Wings (Sony and Warner Music). And Lara Fabian will be in concert on June 9, 2018 at Forest National.
"One day, I will surely do cosmetic surgery"
Who said new album, said new look and a cover more pop and sexy for Lara Fabian. "At one point, we grow up ," says the future coach of La Voix ( The Voice ) in Canada , "We evolve, we age. We simply try to live well in our time and our contemporary world."
Nothing scares Lara Fabian, not even age. "I have too much of a kid's soul," she smiled. " It does not scare me because I'll get old like everyone else." "I'm 50 but I'm sure everything is in the head anyway. Some people at 20 years old are already old, and there are others who at age 60 are still kids. I always thought that I will not grow old - either. In short, we will see (smiling)! "
However, the vocal singer does not exclude cosmetic surgery. "I've never done it before and I'll surely do it someday. But honestly, I have not done it yet, because it makes me freak out, these needles, and especially the paralysis of the muscles. When you get angry, it does not show at all you are so frozen (smile)! "
Lara Fabian assures, the fact of aging is nourished by the spirit. "No doubt also because I have a little girl, Lou, and that one does not need to be perfect to be loved by the other, as I explain in the ballad Perfect." A woman blossoming with her husband. "It gives a great confidence in the life to be very loved. Even what one does not like about oneself is softened for the other one. One thus recovers the part of confidence that one had lost thanks to the other. It fixes a lot of problems! "
Paque Pierre-Yves
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Lara has made these comments about plastic surgery before…to some a professional requirement.
Also in Belgium, an interview for RTBF:
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Lara Fabian No Longer Camouflaged
For her 13th album (“Camouflage” in English) she shows herself to be ‘au natural’ without any makeup
At the age of 47, the Belgian singer with 20 million discs sold, no longer has anything to prove. She releases a 13th album, the 3rd totally in English. And she surprises by her choice, unusual in its own right, although formatted to sound contemporary. But only for that. Interview with Lara Fabian in natural mode, finally!
Initially, it is not known if Lara Fabian, on Tuesday, had understood that the 8-9m was not just a presentation on the radio. But she would also appear on the TV! It is without makeup, with even a red spot on the cheekbone, that she presented ... Apparently it was not an oversight! As if she was ready now to assume everything, and especially to show that she was going to do it!
Lara, I don’t know if one has already told you this, but on certain of your new songs, I’ve had a bit of trouble recognizing your voice!
LF: You are not alone. Someone very close didn’t recognize me on ‘Growing Wings’.
It was your desire to sound different?
LF: It came first from the writing of the songs. And then, the tonality this time is mezzo-soprano rather than soprano, it comes also from that.
One feels in the disc a desire to sound less “variety”, more in the air of the times, was that the aim?
LF: One can’t escape one’s time and at the same time, one can’t wear bellbottoms! To sound contemporary, yes, but it is especially not to sound like yesterday that one tries!
It is your 13th disc. There are only 12 songs because you are superstitious?
LF: No, I am not at all. Moreover, the number 13 for Italians, and for us also, it is rather a good luck charm.
It is also your 3rd disc entirely in English. There is a commercial side in the plan?
LF: It is sure that English is the linguistic passport to go over all of Europe and the United States. For the Slavic countries, it doesn’t change much. French is the foreign language of predilection down there.
Then when will you release your new CD in French?
LF: In November 2018! I still have a hyper-charged agenda and even rock’n’roll for the coming months. Then I will make a tour of 47 dates…
A tour that will pass by the United States and also by Las Vegas. You thought strongly about it this Monday, no?
LF: Of course, what a horror, this shooting. I cannot believe it. Whether it be an Islamic attack, I have a hard time believing it in this case… We are going through a terrible time, which I mention a bit in "We are the storm". I am convinced that the vapor of this terrible period can be reversed.
It is the principle theme of your disc?
LF: Let us say that I try to observe my time and in all humility, propose an alternative, light, engaged or resilient. It is an album less introspective, less autobiographical, it is the opposite of “Ma vie dans la tienne” that was more intimate, more in confidences.
Let’s change the subject if you will. One moment, we spoke of you for a seat in The Voice on TF1. Finally, you do the broadcast…but not in France!
LF: It is true. I had been approached for the first season in France, but for reasons of incompatibility of agenda, that wasn’t done…Needless to say, I am delighted to do that in Quebec, one called “La Voix”.
Because you see it as a return to your sources?
LF: How can I do otherwise vis-a-vis the place where I was artistically born? I consider the proposition like a very beautiful gift of life.
You begin when, and who are your partners?
LF: I’m going there from here in a week. The other jurors are Garou, Eric Lapointe and Alex Nevski…
This is not lacking in perspective as a program!
LF: It is Alex who I know the least. The others, I will be in a country of knowledge. Garou, it is a great pleasure to see him again…I am truly happy that it was possible for me this time. I believe that I will be a generous judge, empathetic and just, but that I will not chew my words, I will not be a “yes-yes”.
A propos of chewing words, you will therefore retake your famous Quebecois accent which is going to start the buzz yet again?
LF: Oh, that, it is automatic with me! It is my mimetic faculty, I believe! If I am on the telephone with a Quebecois friend, even those close to me are astonished: I transform immediately my accent, my tone, and my vocabulary also. I do this automatically without thinking about it.
Sometimes the expressions are not the same, you must therefore pay attention, no?
LF: It’s true that, for example, if one says “It is disgusting” in Quebec, that means that it is awesome, the top! Here, there is a negative connotation. I don’t force, it is another ‘plug in’, that’s all!
You’re going to spend how many months in Quebec for this program?
LF: A few months, in total six but not in a row, I move with the whole family.
At the hotel?
LF: Ah no! I look for a house to rent. The hotel, I could not do, I loved my cooking too much to pass the time in the hotel.
What are you going to do first for your return, you who lived there 15 years?
LF: I don’t know, without a doubt, make visits to some friends, to my singing teacher. And then go sit down on the mountain to regard the city.
It will be nostalgic?
LF: No, it is just that it is very beautiful the Saint-Laurent and the city!
We must ask you some news of your health and that of your mother…
LF: My ear problems are behind me, that is finished. Mother, that remains quite complicated. She does the best that she can. She has become a little different being with whom I have had to relearn to converse. One part of me doesn’t accept the change. The other cohabitates with the idea. It is thus.
Sam Christophe
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So now the tour is supposed to be 47 dates. There’s been no change on her ‘Events’ page, so we’ll see what eventually shows up.
And then a (translated) interview with ‘Charts in France” (http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Lara-Fabian/interview-105237.html):
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Lara Fabian in interview: "I would like to work with Sia"
With the desire to talk about the world around us, Lara Fabian is back with a new album in English, "Camouflage". For Pure Charts, the singer confides to us on her ambitions and musical tastes, reveals the song of her repertoire that she prefers, and leaves the door open for a return to Enfoirés.
Interview by Julien Gonçalves .
Why did you want to record a new album in English, "Camouflage", rather than a French one?
LF: Because it was time. I've always done that in my career. The first songs I started to play when I was a kid, it was that. I made a first album in English in 1999, then in 2003 and in 2009. My career has always been marked by songs in English, music of films as well. It was quite natural, I did not really ask myself the question. It was now, I told myself it was fair and it had to be done.
Does something change in the creative process to make an album in English?
LF: No, in fact, what changes is the people you work with. It is not the language that determines how to work. A French album can be very different depending on the team you work with. There I did it with Moh Denebi and Sharon Vaughn, respectively Swedish and American. I did it between Brussels, Stockholm and Los Angeles. At the level of writing, the process is the same. We start from a blank page, we draw inspiration according to the themes we want to approach. And then we write the music afterwards.
Is Lara Fabian singing in English the same as singing in French?
LF: Yes, of course, it is the same one that sings in English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish ... (laughs)
But there are particular personalities that are put forward according to the countries ... In France, it is perhaps a more romantic facet that we know of you ...
LF: You are right to qualify that from one culture to another, one adapts a little to the colors. When you make an international career and you sing in several languages, you have a bit of duty to "chameleon". It is completely in my nature. I come from many concrete origins, I speak several languages since I was little, I always listened to all the music that my various cultures of my family proposed to me. It is natural for me to be one and the same while singing in several languages.
You are very popular in France, did you feel any special pressure at the idea of coming back with a disc in English?
LF: I do not work out of fear or for fear. I function by stimulation and enthusiasm. I do not say to myself, "Oh my God, maybe people will not love me because I'm singing in English." I do not think it's language that can cause a lack of interest for an artist. It's the music he does. I will always have a lot of joy to come back in French to my francophone fans, it's my language. But those who love me know that I am a kind of polymorphic animal who has always written and sung in several languages, and that does not pose a problem in general.
As we said, the album is called "Camouflage". Are we hiding a bit more in English than in French when we write?
LF: My previous album was very autobiographical, it's true. I could have chosen to do the same in English but that was not the choice I made. On this one, I am more an observer, a narrator of what humanity is going through today. To what extent one is shaken, jostled by a multitude of terrible things. I put myself more like an observer where I propose my vision of things.
You feel more peaceful in the texts, even vocally ... It is heard on your first singles "Growing Wings" and "Choose What You Love Most (Let It Kill You)". Do you agree with that?
LF: Yes, totally, you are right. It's a bit the normal process of a lifetime. There is a stage of the journey where we relax, where something in us settles.
In "Communify", you sing "Build a bridge, we have to try". Is this an echo of the wall of Donald Trump?
LF: (Laughs) It's funny, I had not thought about it ... No, it's in echo to that which expresses nonviolent communication which permits us to connect beings. The metaphor of the bridge is what allows us to unify things, to create a communication that allows us to finally be heard and to hear. To connect with each other. It is more in that sense ...
One feels that you wanted to make an elegant record, modern but without falling into the trap of the current sounds ... The balance was easy to find?
LF: It is an obvious balance. Moh Denebi comes from this mix. He is a musical genius in the classical sense, he has a classical background, he plays the guitar, the piano ... His great love is electronic music, contemporary. For me it is the same. The music I listen to today is music of my time. We both had the desire to create a harmonious and hybrid mixture. The will was not to disguise, to stick to my time without distorting my roots.
What do you listen to every day?
LF: I listen to a lot of things. I listen to a lot of Pink, Florence and the Machine, much of Ed Sheeran, but not necessarily the hits. Adele too! Obviously, like everyone else, I did not get away, I made "Despacito" on a loop all summer! (Laughs ) Zara Larsson as well I listed to with my little girl, I found her very nice. And I also listen to a lot of classical music.
In what way is "Camouflage" different from your previous albums in English?
LF: I do not know, like the previous ones, it sticks well to its time. It is well of its time. It mixes the organic, acoustic and electro side, while respecting the old code to write a song that one can still sing just with a guitar or a piano.
In the studio, you say, "I need hits"?
LF: It is not beneficial to reflect in these terms because it bridles creativity terribly. If you start thinking about writing something that will work, you will necessarily write something that will not work at all. (Laughs) That's the rule! It's stupid, but it's like that. We wanted to make songs we would like to hear again. That was the first criterion.
To impose yourself on the American market, is this still a goal for you?
LF: My objective is something less concrete. My goal is to stay, to last. Whether it's in Germany, Italy, Spain, the countries of the East, France, perhaps the United States or South America, like Brazil where I have a wonderful career ... My focus is to endure, to have joy on stage, whatever the stage, and to hope to unify as many people as possible through my music. Without connotation, without specific nationality.
I sometimes thought of the aerial side of Sia while listening to your album. Would you like to work with her?
LF: Thank you very much for the compliment. I love this woman very much, I think she writes beautifully well. It would be great to do writing sessions with her. Who knows?
You sing "Nobody's perfect" on "Perfect". What is your big fault?
LF: Impulsivity. But it's genetic, it's not going to sort itself out! (Laughs)
You said recently in an interview: "I will always sing, I will always write but I will stop making the spinning top around the world, I will settle somewhere and I will transmit". You are already thinking about the day you will put an end to your career?
LF: No, but what I wanted to say is that at some point, it has to calm down. At some point, you want to cultivate your family, your child. Being always in suitcases, sometimes it's a bit disconcerting. I will not stop traveling overnight, it will happen gradually. But at one point, I will decide to leave only about 40 or 50 days a year, or so.
26 years after the release of your first album, what do you say about the road traveled?
LF: I tell myself what a beautiful journey, and what are we doing now? (Laughter)
If you could change something, what would it be?
LF: Nothing! Because each element makes me what I am today. If I changed a single element, even one thing that I had realized afterwards that I should not have done it, it would change everything else ... There is a beautiful song by Streisand that says " I would not change one thing on my way to me" and I think so too.
Your favorite song from your repertoire?
LF: In French, it would be "Pas sans toi" ... "Immortelle" too. And in English, "Broken Vow".
And there is one that you do not like too much to sing or that you have tired of?
LF: No ... In principle, I really sing all with pleasure. I sometimes regret that one does not sing the songs that made an album, one sings especially the hits. A show is maximum 2 hours, so sometimes we have to make choices that exclude beautiful songs from albums but that are not released in singles. It is perhaps the only thing. One day I will perhaps do a concert with the songs that I like so much but that are not hits.
You have a project to set up a singing school, with the transmission as motivation. You will start doing it already in "La Voix" in Quebec . And in France then?
LF: The first time I was asked was for the first edition, and I had a tour of 80 dates, I could not do anything. This time, I was asked and it worked with my dates. It has always been a matter of planning. But if it had been France, I would have said yes too!
You could have participated in this kind of TV talent show when you debuted?
LF: Of course ! With pleasure, if it had existed. It is an extraordinary showcase. After it is necessary to take all this with a grain of salt and remember why you do things.
What kind of coach are you going to be?
LF: As I am. Honest, generous and very empathetic because that's my nature. I will do everything to be as kind as possible while being fair.
Your last participation in Les Enfoirés was in 2005. Do you want to come back?
LF: I would love to do that again. I would well like it. Everything is possible!
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Clearly, the French have to come to terms with Lara crossing linguistic boundaries…
And an interview with Tetu
tetu.com/2017/10/06/lara-fabian-a-tetu-retour-pop-electo-inspire-ed-sheeran-sia-interview-exclusive/, translated below:
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Lara Fabian talks about her pop-electro comeback inspired by Ed Sheeran and Sia (interview)
Of Canadian-American-Belgian-Sicilian ancestry Lara Fabian never stops spreading her wings. It falls well, it is just the title of the single "Growings wings" ... She received a journalist-fan of TÊTU who tried to ask her some questions a little different, from the titles of Camouflage , on this new pop-electro album!
This is her 13th studio album, whose success will add to the 20 million albums sold worldwide ... This is the third English album of her career, which must be added the multilingual project Mademoiselle Zhivago and the album of reprises in English Every Woman in me . She has done duets with Italian singers, a Turk, with a Dutch, a Belgian (Maurane), sung in more than 12 languages ...
You are now working with Swedes ... How did the meeting with Moh Denebi (Sweden) and Sharon Vaughn (USA) happen?
LF: And well very simply, my manager Matt Ersin and I were looking for someone who could help us to have a modern sound, electro-pop, and we listened to several things ... I explained to him that I wanted to do something that really belongs to the time, while having the respect of my origins of course. I came from a period in the 90s when the songs of great display were very much loved, I'm part of this family of singer ... but I wanted to do something that corresponds more to the music I listen to today. It was a desire to tell something very specific. I was inspired by some of the more confidential songs on some of the well known albums of singers like ‘I See Fire’ of Ed Sheeran (from the film The Hobbit), James Arthur, Adele, Sia for example ... But while remaining with a quasi artisanal will to make great music. And that's really what I found in Moh, who has a very particular way of making music.
There are some very amazing sounds in this album, there is even a remix of "Growing Wings" by Offer Nissim, a superstar of electro music in the world ...
LF: This song really suited a remix and it is my desire to do something really in line with what is being listened to ... Being in clubs, I find it pretty cool!
That risk of surprise still that you sing in English, of cutting yourself off from some francophone people ...
LF: I thought of it in English but it is intended for a wide audience. It is true that it is a little impermeable if one doesn’t understand the language. It's true that it’s still a little surprising, but when you know it's a language I speak, I had an American grandfather from Chicago, I lived in Canada for 15 years…I have done it naturally and when people know me a little, that does not surprise them too much.
When will be this album in Italian that all your fans claimer for?
LF: If I do it one day, I would like to do it by collaborating with a particular artist, who writes and sings, someone very special that I have in mind...
"Have you ever faced an ocean / While you had no notion / How to swim, but you jumped anyway"? (Lyrics of "Growings Wings " )
LF: When one commits it in an act of faith, saying to himself it doesn’t matter, I want to take the risk. Miracles happen. And it is at the moment when one starts that one can really understand the true extent ...
For a few years now, one has the impression that you are no longer looking to demonstrate your vocal perfection, but more an artistic originality, even to astonish those who are interested in your universe. Was that the idea with this new album?
LF: I just wanted to be in a comfort zone, where I take possession of my voice as a more mezzo instrument, less mezzo-soprano, in a space where it's fluid, or I'm just me.
After having a little ‘disenchantment’ during a period - where you hide somewhat the Lara Fabian that people love and that you seem to be - how have you found confidence in yourself to stretch your wings again?
LF: A healthy and serene entourage. My husband has contributed enormously to this reconstruction. My family and my two or three very close friends helped me a lot.
Why Camouflage ? And why is this your favorite song from the album?
LF: For this dichotomy, this fragility. At the same time the narrative of the mask that we all wear, and at the end when we dare to remove it, what marvels one discovers ... A very aerial and very organic mixture between violins and more electro sounds.
You have sometimes talked about your health problems, but for some people, your songs and your voice are like remedies, crutches ... How does one live this responsibility, this relationship often merged with the public, people's very strong messages?
LF: Music in general is that, it is its main virtue. I saw it with an immense gratitude, I‘ve been very lucky. I really measure the power of this love and how it has carried me through the years, beautiful and less beautiful, how vital it has been for me, to have this strength, this power through the feeling they give to me. I live it 100% as a gift!
You have often referred to societal issues in your songs: you mentioned homosexuality in "La Difference" and " Deux ils, deux elles", AIDS, too, "that blood sickness that runs and kills, so freely", that touches especially the gays, pushed for married for all, sang hymns to the freedom to be oneself ( "Humana" , "Imagine", “La vie est la" ...) ...
LF: Beyond sexual orientation, to the respect of the identity, to the respect of the integrity of everyone, especially ...
You have also written feminist songs (“Le roi est un femme" , "Toutes les femmes en moi" ) ... spoken about battered women ( "Llora" ), anorexia, ecology as well ...
LF: And to say that one thinks that I speak only of love! But yes, in fact, of love in the absolute sense. It is the DNA of all the subjects we treat, even if it has become obsolete ...
Do you write as well when you are angry, as when you are happy or sad?
LF: For me, anger is the refusal of reality. It's not very constructive, it's a bit poisonous ... I can write sad, it's a fabulous outlet, I've already written in full flight too, while being very happy.
What is it that horrifies you today, on what subject you could write?
LF: Bad faith, bullshit, injustice, which foment the internal wars ...
You have written almost all the songs of your career, composed almost all the music, produced your albums, your shows, always chosen your projects ... Did you seek this freedom, or was some part of it imposed on you by the music market?
LF: Initially, at 22-23 years old, nobody wanted to sign me. So by the force of circumstances, as nobody believed in it, I made my choices. And from there it was so tasty that I never wanted to concede this freedom, quite simply. It is very precious to be an artisan and an artist, a creator and a producer.
You have been under the fire of criticism and mockery, are sometimes still a little victim of sarcasm ... often from people who do not know you. In hindsight, is it to be popular, a woman, a passionate one which unleashes these reactions?
LF: The three my general! One is always subject, when one is in the light, to its opposite. It's like that. But the most important thing in all this: we do not do this job for these people, but for the fans we just talked about. It is true that sometimes the squall is violent, but it is as empty as violent ...
Long before Jean-Luc Mélenchon, you used the technique of holograms in a show (TLFM Tour) ... What will the show that we will see look like in the world in 2018? An orchestra, an American electro atmosphere, dancers like in the previous tour, magic finally (her husband is a magician, ed)?
LF: A perfect match between the sound and what you see ... That's all I can tell you!
You made some incursions in the cinema and especially surprised with Miss Zhivago, several theater projects did not succeed. Do you still have that desire / plans “to play chameleons"?
LF: I will be on one of the four red chairs in The Voice Canada, a new adventure begins. I will be closer to what I care about: transmission, beyond talent, share a pedagogy, a strength of resilience, approach to our profession so that an artist can unfold ... And a school, perhaps one day, to convey what I have been able to learn in 30 years of work ...
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The interviewer really knew Lara’s past work, digging out songs that haven’t been mentioned in an interview in many years, if ever.
And from an interview in “The Closer” (thanks to the Lara Fabian – PHQ site for the scans):
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“The fiscal exit of Pagny to Portugal? If that permits him to invest in the music, I understand…”
Twenty years already that her ‘Je t’aime” sings in our hearts. Now that she releases her 4th album in English, ‘Camouflage’, and is preparing to become coach in the Quebecoise version of ‘The Voice’, the star makes the point with ‘Closer’, on her status as an artiste…and on the 20 years to come!
Michel Serra
Two years after your previous album, you return with an album…in English!
LF: But I’ve always sung in English…Camouflage is already the fourth album in this language. It was a little in the logic of things.
Your first album in English is in effect released in 1999. How does the international public remember it of you?
LF: Like the singer of ‘Adagio’ or ‘I Will Love Again’. I have toured a lot, while favoring a repertoire in many languages.
You are going to travel to many countries with your new spectacle? What can the fans expect?
LF: My show will reflect the electro-pop side of my album. I will sing in it some songs of my other English albums, some reprises and in certain countries, I will include some titles in French.
You evoke the electro-pop side, unexpected, of Camouflage. The new generation has inspired you?
LF: That comes from what I listen to, but I wanted also to go towards this genre of things. My music has evolved. We are on longer in 1990, it is necessary to live with our time!
How does an artist like you, who began at the time when one sold many discs, live the transition to streaming?
LF: I continue for the same reason as in my beginnings: the love of what I do. What animates me is the music, its creation, what it wants to convey and what it can contribute.
But to release discs is less profitable today?
LF: I am a very poor mathematician. But I can tell you that if I had wanted to do this profession for the money, I would certainly have done something else since!
There are fewer and fewer broadcasts of variety shows on the TV. It is a problem?
LF: Social networks today have a preponderant place. Yes, there are less broadcasts of variety shows, but there are other platforms on which the music can exist.
The singers more and more pass by in the emissions of Laurent Ruquier or Thierry Ardisson. You never. Why?
LF: I know that, unhappily, they are the last broadcasts that remain. But I have a hard time telling myself that music has to exist in these places. Going to sit on a chair like this one is not in harmony with what I do. After, Laurent invited me in Les Grosses Tetes and it went very well.
You are going to be coach of La Voix, the Quebecoise version of The Voice. Happy with this adventure?
LF: It is a magnificent opportunity, I am very happy to return to Quebec. I will be on the side of Garou, Eric Lapointe and Alex Nevsky. I am on the point of beginning the filming of the blind auditions.
The second anniversary of the attack at the Bataclan approaches. Many artists have expressed their refusal to play again in this room. Have you thought about it?
LF: I understand that one can have apprehension, a great sadness and that one doesn’t have the desire of walking upon this stage. But at the same time, I am a resilient and a survivor. I would do it just to be part of a principle of reconstruction. Perhaps with many artists. That has already been done, but it could be done again…
This year marks also 20 years of the release in France of your album Pure. How do you regard these two decades?
LF: What a grand voyage. I am not at all a girl who turns around. I am neither backward-looking nor nostalgic. That which comes to me in spirit is: “Go, we leave on our the second half!”
When Florent Pagny explains that he chose to move to Portugal for financial reasons, do you understand?
LF: The music (business) goes more and more bad and, if there is a way of saving a few cents to reinvest in this area through a tax haven, so that's a choice I can understand.
You yourself left Belgium for Spain. Why this change?
LF: To create new songs, to think of the next show, to live with a little more light. I’ve already gone there often for 15 years, it is a place that I love a lot.
Your daughter Lou is therefore bilingual?
LF: Even more, since she also speaks Italian and English!
With a Sicilian husband and mother, one would imagine you would rather leave for Italy…
LF: (Laughs) Who knows? One day perhaps…
Moreover, how is your mother, she suffers from a dementia of Lewy bodies (near Alzheimers)?
LF: She goes, she does as well as she can. I see her as often as possible, even if she still lives in Belgium.
You have evoked the very jealous side of your husband Gabriel. Your low cut dress on the cover of the disc didn’t bother him?
LF: (clap of laughter) No, all goes well on that side!
You will be on tour until next summer. And after?
LF: To devote myself to La Voix, because that will nevertheless take eight months of my life. We made sure that everything sticks with the schedule of my tour And after, I’ve planned a new French album for November 2018!
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Prior to the release of the album, Lara had, in effect, some explaining to do to her Francophile audience. She gave several press interviews. Here’s a translation of the one in Belgium for "DH (Dernière Heure)" (http://www.dhnet.be/medias/musique/lara-fabian-chanter-en-anglais-est-un-passeport-linguistique-59d68881cd70461d2673cb50#.WdkSQ__dPPQ.facebook)
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To Sing in English is a Linguistic Passport
The Belgian-Italian-Canadian singer releases her 13th album, Camouflage , in English. Before a world tour!
LF: "Camouflage is simply the title of a song that tells the story of someone wearing a mask, " Lara Fabian confides on the subject of her new album - one year after ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ - composed by Swedish Lara Moh Denebi and the American Sharon Vaughn (Willie Nelson, Boyzone). "At the time to protect ourselves and to allow us to mix so as to guarantee ourselves a place. And one perceives, one day or another, even if the wearing of this mask is a protection, that it permits us to be part of the group. But in the end, it nevertheless prevents us from being completely what we are, It is a song that tells of the risk we take once we dissociate ourselves. "
The singer of voice confesses herself to have already worn this mask. "It happens to all of us, I do not know anyone who does not wear a mask at one time or another, " emphasizes the one that has just finished the music of a documentary film about amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, the disease that carried away her aunt. "Circumstantially, it can help to wear a mask, but is it the choice to do all the time?" "I do not think so, it can be tiring after a while."
Camouflage and her vision of the world set the tone of the album. Is this choice of English a desire to export more?
LF: "I have always had songs in English (this is her 4th album entirely in English, Editor's note.) This language has always marked my life from the very beginning of my career. It is rather a continuity. Even if this is necessarily the occasion to go to markets where one does not necessarily speak French, as for my next dates in Germany, Russia, Barcelona, Milan or New York. To sing in English is a linguistic passport that opens many things, it is certain. But I wanted myself to go back to a language that I speak, that I write and that I always sang. I do not know if it's easier to write in English, but in any case, the musicality of the language or the synergy between music and the phonetics of the language, is actually a little more obvious. Now, basically, to tell things, I am not convinced that it is easier in English than in French. "
Being sometimes invited to government events, are you not afraid of political reprisals?
LF: "As I often sing in the Eastern countries, as in Moscow, it's the risk. Then we do not sing for the rulers, but for the people. Finally, I'm not going to remove songs from my repertoire because that in some countries, there is a problem with what I sing to them. I have nevertheless taken a lot of risk sometimes, but it does not matter, I think political recovery is not possible. Except if one takes a position. But it's not my role or my prerogative. And, above all, it's not my field of expertise. "
Rather, it is the commitment, as on the title Communify?
LF: "This is a word that I invented to convey a message, it is the combination of communicate and unify. A song based on the principle of nonviolent communication. On the integrity of the human being, of his identity. The LGBT cause is very close to my heart, like all communication. For a true dialogue springs from the best of what we are. And sometimes we do not take the time to simply listen to the other. To live well and to age well, the key is to talk and listen. We must unite our thoughts within this dialogue. "
What you managed to do with your magician husband, Gabriel?
"Yes, indeed. In addition to my blossoming, he has already come to sing with me on the last tour and he also did magic tricks on the tour of the album Le Secret. My family, it is my priority. My child Lou and my marriage remain my center and my greatest success in life. It is why I embark them all with me for The Voice Canada. I could not have been able to coach the show if it that had not been able to be the case (smile)! "
Camouflage , 12 songs in English including Growing Wings (Sony and Warner Music). And Lara Fabian will be in concert on June 9, 2018 at Forest National.
"One day, I will surely do cosmetic surgery"
Who said new album, said new look and a cover more pop and sexy for Lara Fabian. "At one point, we grow up ," says the future coach of La Voix ( The Voice ) in Canada , "We evolve, we age. We simply try to live well in our time and our contemporary world."
Nothing scares Lara Fabian, not even age. "I have too much of a kid's soul," she smiled. " It does not scare me because I'll get old like everyone else." "I'm 50 but I'm sure everything is in the head anyway. Some people at 20 years old are already old, and there are others who at age 60 are still kids. I always thought that I will not grow old - either. In short, we will see (smiling)! "
However, the vocal singer does not exclude cosmetic surgery. "I've never done it before and I'll surely do it someday. But honestly, I have not done it yet, because it makes me freak out, these needles, and especially the paralysis of the muscles. When you get angry, it does not show at all you are so frozen (smile)! "
Lara Fabian assures, the fact of aging is nourished by the spirit. "No doubt also because I have a little girl, Lou, and that one does not need to be perfect to be loved by the other, as I explain in the ballad Perfect." A woman blossoming with her husband. "It gives a great confidence in the life to be very loved. Even what one does not like about oneself is softened for the other one. One thus recovers the part of confidence that one had lost thanks to the other. It fixes a lot of problems! "
Paque Pierre-Yves
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Lara has made these comments about plastic surgery before…to some a professional requirement.
Also in Belgium, an interview for RTBF:
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Lara Fabian No Longer Camouflaged
For her 13th album (“Camouflage” in English) she shows herself to be ‘au natural’ without any makeup
At the age of 47, the Belgian singer with 20 million discs sold, no longer has anything to prove. She releases a 13th album, the 3rd totally in English. And she surprises by her choice, unusual in its own right, although formatted to sound contemporary. But only for that. Interview with Lara Fabian in natural mode, finally!
Initially, it is not known if Lara Fabian, on Tuesday, had understood that the 8-9m was not just a presentation on the radio. But she would also appear on the TV! It is without makeup, with even a red spot on the cheekbone, that she presented ... Apparently it was not an oversight! As if she was ready now to assume everything, and especially to show that she was going to do it!
Lara, I don’t know if one has already told you this, but on certain of your new songs, I’ve had a bit of trouble recognizing your voice!
LF: You are not alone. Someone very close didn’t recognize me on ‘Growing Wings’.
It was your desire to sound different?
LF: It came first from the writing of the songs. And then, the tonality this time is mezzo-soprano rather than soprano, it comes also from that.
One feels in the disc a desire to sound less “variety”, more in the air of the times, was that the aim?
LF: One can’t escape one’s time and at the same time, one can’t wear bellbottoms! To sound contemporary, yes, but it is especially not to sound like yesterday that one tries!
It is your 13th disc. There are only 12 songs because you are superstitious?
LF: No, I am not at all. Moreover, the number 13 for Italians, and for us also, it is rather a good luck charm.
It is also your 3rd disc entirely in English. There is a commercial side in the plan?
LF: It is sure that English is the linguistic passport to go over all of Europe and the United States. For the Slavic countries, it doesn’t change much. French is the foreign language of predilection down there.
Then when will you release your new CD in French?
LF: In November 2018! I still have a hyper-charged agenda and even rock’n’roll for the coming months. Then I will make a tour of 47 dates…
A tour that will pass by the United States and also by Las Vegas. You thought strongly about it this Monday, no?
LF: Of course, what a horror, this shooting. I cannot believe it. Whether it be an Islamic attack, I have a hard time believing it in this case… We are going through a terrible time, which I mention a bit in "We are the storm". I am convinced that the vapor of this terrible period can be reversed.
It is the principle theme of your disc?
LF: Let us say that I try to observe my time and in all humility, propose an alternative, light, engaged or resilient. It is an album less introspective, less autobiographical, it is the opposite of “Ma vie dans la tienne” that was more intimate, more in confidences.
Let’s change the subject if you will. One moment, we spoke of you for a seat in The Voice on TF1. Finally, you do the broadcast…but not in France!
LF: It is true. I had been approached for the first season in France, but for reasons of incompatibility of agenda, that wasn’t done…Needless to say, I am delighted to do that in Quebec, one called “La Voix”.
Because you see it as a return to your sources?
LF: How can I do otherwise vis-a-vis the place where I was artistically born? I consider the proposition like a very beautiful gift of life.
You begin when, and who are your partners?
LF: I’m going there from here in a week. The other jurors are Garou, Eric Lapointe and Alex Nevski…
This is not lacking in perspective as a program!
LF: It is Alex who I know the least. The others, I will be in a country of knowledge. Garou, it is a great pleasure to see him again…I am truly happy that it was possible for me this time. I believe that I will be a generous judge, empathetic and just, but that I will not chew my words, I will not be a “yes-yes”.
A propos of chewing words, you will therefore retake your famous Quebecois accent which is going to start the buzz yet again?
LF: Oh, that, it is automatic with me! It is my mimetic faculty, I believe! If I am on the telephone with a Quebecois friend, even those close to me are astonished: I transform immediately my accent, my tone, and my vocabulary also. I do this automatically without thinking about it.
Sometimes the expressions are not the same, you must therefore pay attention, no?
LF: It’s true that, for example, if one says “It is disgusting” in Quebec, that means that it is awesome, the top! Here, there is a negative connotation. I don’t force, it is another ‘plug in’, that’s all!
You’re going to spend how many months in Quebec for this program?
LF: A few months, in total six but not in a row, I move with the whole family.
At the hotel?
LF: Ah no! I look for a house to rent. The hotel, I could not do, I loved my cooking too much to pass the time in the hotel.
What are you going to do first for your return, you who lived there 15 years?
LF: I don’t know, without a doubt, make visits to some friends, to my singing teacher. And then go sit down on the mountain to regard the city.
It will be nostalgic?
LF: No, it is just that it is very beautiful the Saint-Laurent and the city!
We must ask you some news of your health and that of your mother…
LF: My ear problems are behind me, that is finished. Mother, that remains quite complicated. She does the best that she can. She has become a little different being with whom I have had to relearn to converse. One part of me doesn’t accept the change. The other cohabitates with the idea. It is thus.
Sam Christophe
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So now the tour is supposed to be 47 dates. There’s been no change on her ‘Events’ page, so we’ll see what eventually shows up.
And then a (translated) interview with ‘Charts in France” (http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Lara-Fabian/interview-105237.html):
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Lara Fabian in interview: "I would like to work with Sia"
With the desire to talk about the world around us, Lara Fabian is back with a new album in English, "Camouflage". For Pure Charts, the singer confides to us on her ambitions and musical tastes, reveals the song of her repertoire that she prefers, and leaves the door open for a return to Enfoirés.
Interview by Julien Gonçalves .
Why did you want to record a new album in English, "Camouflage", rather than a French one?
LF: Because it was time. I've always done that in my career. The first songs I started to play when I was a kid, it was that. I made a first album in English in 1999, then in 2003 and in 2009. My career has always been marked by songs in English, music of films as well. It was quite natural, I did not really ask myself the question. It was now, I told myself it was fair and it had to be done.
Does something change in the creative process to make an album in English?
LF: No, in fact, what changes is the people you work with. It is not the language that determines how to work. A French album can be very different depending on the team you work with. There I did it with Moh Denebi and Sharon Vaughn, respectively Swedish and American. I did it between Brussels, Stockholm and Los Angeles. At the level of writing, the process is the same. We start from a blank page, we draw inspiration according to the themes we want to approach. And then we write the music afterwards.
Is Lara Fabian singing in English the same as singing in French?
LF: Yes, of course, it is the same one that sings in English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Turkish ... (laughs)
But there are particular personalities that are put forward according to the countries ... In France, it is perhaps a more romantic facet that we know of you ...
LF: You are right to qualify that from one culture to another, one adapts a little to the colors. When you make an international career and you sing in several languages, you have a bit of duty to "chameleon". It is completely in my nature. I come from many concrete origins, I speak several languages since I was little, I always listened to all the music that my various cultures of my family proposed to me. It is natural for me to be one and the same while singing in several languages.
You are very popular in France, did you feel any special pressure at the idea of coming back with a disc in English?
LF: I do not work out of fear or for fear. I function by stimulation and enthusiasm. I do not say to myself, "Oh my God, maybe people will not love me because I'm singing in English." I do not think it's language that can cause a lack of interest for an artist. It's the music he does. I will always have a lot of joy to come back in French to my francophone fans, it's my language. But those who love me know that I am a kind of polymorphic animal who has always written and sung in several languages, and that does not pose a problem in general.
As we said, the album is called "Camouflage". Are we hiding a bit more in English than in French when we write?
LF: My previous album was very autobiographical, it's true. I could have chosen to do the same in English but that was not the choice I made. On this one, I am more an observer, a narrator of what humanity is going through today. To what extent one is shaken, jostled by a multitude of terrible things. I put myself more like an observer where I propose my vision of things.
You feel more peaceful in the texts, even vocally ... It is heard on your first singles "Growing Wings" and "Choose What You Love Most (Let It Kill You)". Do you agree with that?
LF: Yes, totally, you are right. It's a bit the normal process of a lifetime. There is a stage of the journey where we relax, where something in us settles.
In "Communify", you sing "Build a bridge, we have to try". Is this an echo of the wall of Donald Trump?
LF: (Laughs) It's funny, I had not thought about it ... No, it's in echo to that which expresses nonviolent communication which permits us to connect beings. The metaphor of the bridge is what allows us to unify things, to create a communication that allows us to finally be heard and to hear. To connect with each other. It is more in that sense ...
One feels that you wanted to make an elegant record, modern but without falling into the trap of the current sounds ... The balance was easy to find?
LF: It is an obvious balance. Moh Denebi comes from this mix. He is a musical genius in the classical sense, he has a classical background, he plays the guitar, the piano ... His great love is electronic music, contemporary. For me it is the same. The music I listen to today is music of my time. We both had the desire to create a harmonious and hybrid mixture. The will was not to disguise, to stick to my time without distorting my roots.
What do you listen to every day?
LF: I listen to a lot of things. I listen to a lot of Pink, Florence and the Machine, much of Ed Sheeran, but not necessarily the hits. Adele too! Obviously, like everyone else, I did not get away, I made "Despacito" on a loop all summer! (Laughs ) Zara Larsson as well I listed to with my little girl, I found her very nice. And I also listen to a lot of classical music.
In what way is "Camouflage" different from your previous albums in English?
LF: I do not know, like the previous ones, it sticks well to its time. It is well of its time. It mixes the organic, acoustic and electro side, while respecting the old code to write a song that one can still sing just with a guitar or a piano.
In the studio, you say, "I need hits"?
LF: It is not beneficial to reflect in these terms because it bridles creativity terribly. If you start thinking about writing something that will work, you will necessarily write something that will not work at all. (Laughs) That's the rule! It's stupid, but it's like that. We wanted to make songs we would like to hear again. That was the first criterion.
To impose yourself on the American market, is this still a goal for you?
LF: My objective is something less concrete. My goal is to stay, to last. Whether it's in Germany, Italy, Spain, the countries of the East, France, perhaps the United States or South America, like Brazil where I have a wonderful career ... My focus is to endure, to have joy on stage, whatever the stage, and to hope to unify as many people as possible through my music. Without connotation, without specific nationality.
I sometimes thought of the aerial side of Sia while listening to your album. Would you like to work with her?
LF: Thank you very much for the compliment. I love this woman very much, I think she writes beautifully well. It would be great to do writing sessions with her. Who knows?
You sing "Nobody's perfect" on "Perfect". What is your big fault?
LF: Impulsivity. But it's genetic, it's not going to sort itself out! (Laughs)
You said recently in an interview: "I will always sing, I will always write but I will stop making the spinning top around the world, I will settle somewhere and I will transmit". You are already thinking about the day you will put an end to your career?
LF: No, but what I wanted to say is that at some point, it has to calm down. At some point, you want to cultivate your family, your child. Being always in suitcases, sometimes it's a bit disconcerting. I will not stop traveling overnight, it will happen gradually. But at one point, I will decide to leave only about 40 or 50 days a year, or so.
26 years after the release of your first album, what do you say about the road traveled?
LF: I tell myself what a beautiful journey, and what are we doing now? (Laughter)
If you could change something, what would it be?
LF: Nothing! Because each element makes me what I am today. If I changed a single element, even one thing that I had realized afterwards that I should not have done it, it would change everything else ... There is a beautiful song by Streisand that says " I would not change one thing on my way to me" and I think so too.
Your favorite song from your repertoire?
LF: In French, it would be "Pas sans toi" ... "Immortelle" too. And in English, "Broken Vow".
And there is one that you do not like too much to sing or that you have tired of?
LF: No ... In principle, I really sing all with pleasure. I sometimes regret that one does not sing the songs that made an album, one sings especially the hits. A show is maximum 2 hours, so sometimes we have to make choices that exclude beautiful songs from albums but that are not released in singles. It is perhaps the only thing. One day I will perhaps do a concert with the songs that I like so much but that are not hits.
You have a project to set up a singing school, with the transmission as motivation. You will start doing it already in "La Voix" in Quebec . And in France then?
LF: The first time I was asked was for the first edition, and I had a tour of 80 dates, I could not do anything. This time, I was asked and it worked with my dates. It has always been a matter of planning. But if it had been France, I would have said yes too!
You could have participated in this kind of TV talent show when you debuted?
LF: Of course ! With pleasure, if it had existed. It is an extraordinary showcase. After it is necessary to take all this with a grain of salt and remember why you do things.
What kind of coach are you going to be?
LF: As I am. Honest, generous and very empathetic because that's my nature. I will do everything to be as kind as possible while being fair.
Your last participation in Les Enfoirés was in 2005. Do you want to come back?
LF: I would love to do that again. I would well like it. Everything is possible!
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Clearly, the French have to come to terms with Lara crossing linguistic boundaries…
And an interview with Tetu
tetu.com/2017/10/06/lara-fabian-a-tetu-retour-pop-electo-inspire-ed-sheeran-sia-interview-exclusive/, translated below:
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Lara Fabian talks about her pop-electro comeback inspired by Ed Sheeran and Sia (interview)
Of Canadian-American-Belgian-Sicilian ancestry Lara Fabian never stops spreading her wings. It falls well, it is just the title of the single "Growings wings" ... She received a journalist-fan of TÊTU who tried to ask her some questions a little different, from the titles of Camouflage , on this new pop-electro album!
This is her 13th studio album, whose success will add to the 20 million albums sold worldwide ... This is the third English album of her career, which must be added the multilingual project Mademoiselle Zhivago and the album of reprises in English Every Woman in me . She has done duets with Italian singers, a Turk, with a Dutch, a Belgian (Maurane), sung in more than 12 languages ...
You are now working with Swedes ... How did the meeting with Moh Denebi (Sweden) and Sharon Vaughn (USA) happen?
LF: And well very simply, my manager Matt Ersin and I were looking for someone who could help us to have a modern sound, electro-pop, and we listened to several things ... I explained to him that I wanted to do something that really belongs to the time, while having the respect of my origins of course. I came from a period in the 90s when the songs of great display were very much loved, I'm part of this family of singer ... but I wanted to do something that corresponds more to the music I listen to today. It was a desire to tell something very specific. I was inspired by some of the more confidential songs on some of the well known albums of singers like ‘I See Fire’ of Ed Sheeran (from the film The Hobbit), James Arthur, Adele, Sia for example ... But while remaining with a quasi artisanal will to make great music. And that's really what I found in Moh, who has a very particular way of making music.
There are some very amazing sounds in this album, there is even a remix of "Growing Wings" by Offer Nissim, a superstar of electro music in the world ...
LF: This song really suited a remix and it is my desire to do something really in line with what is being listened to ... Being in clubs, I find it pretty cool!
That risk of surprise still that you sing in English, of cutting yourself off from some francophone people ...
LF: I thought of it in English but it is intended for a wide audience. It is true that it is a little impermeable if one doesn’t understand the language. It's true that it’s still a little surprising, but when you know it's a language I speak, I had an American grandfather from Chicago, I lived in Canada for 15 years…I have done it naturally and when people know me a little, that does not surprise them too much.
When will be this album in Italian that all your fans claimer for?
LF: If I do it one day, I would like to do it by collaborating with a particular artist, who writes and sings, someone very special that I have in mind...
"Have you ever faced an ocean / While you had no notion / How to swim, but you jumped anyway"? (Lyrics of "Growings Wings " )
LF: When one commits it in an act of faith, saying to himself it doesn’t matter, I want to take the risk. Miracles happen. And it is at the moment when one starts that one can really understand the true extent ...
For a few years now, one has the impression that you are no longer looking to demonstrate your vocal perfection, but more an artistic originality, even to astonish those who are interested in your universe. Was that the idea with this new album?
LF: I just wanted to be in a comfort zone, where I take possession of my voice as a more mezzo instrument, less mezzo-soprano, in a space where it's fluid, or I'm just me.
After having a little ‘disenchantment’ during a period - where you hide somewhat the Lara Fabian that people love and that you seem to be - how have you found confidence in yourself to stretch your wings again?
LF: A healthy and serene entourage. My husband has contributed enormously to this reconstruction. My family and my two or three very close friends helped me a lot.
Why Camouflage ? And why is this your favorite song from the album?
LF: For this dichotomy, this fragility. At the same time the narrative of the mask that we all wear, and at the end when we dare to remove it, what marvels one discovers ... A very aerial and very organic mixture between violins and more electro sounds.
You have sometimes talked about your health problems, but for some people, your songs and your voice are like remedies, crutches ... How does one live this responsibility, this relationship often merged with the public, people's very strong messages?
LF: Music in general is that, it is its main virtue. I saw it with an immense gratitude, I‘ve been very lucky. I really measure the power of this love and how it has carried me through the years, beautiful and less beautiful, how vital it has been for me, to have this strength, this power through the feeling they give to me. I live it 100% as a gift!
You have often referred to societal issues in your songs: you mentioned homosexuality in "La Difference" and " Deux ils, deux elles", AIDS, too, "that blood sickness that runs and kills, so freely", that touches especially the gays, pushed for married for all, sang hymns to the freedom to be oneself ( "Humana" , "Imagine", “La vie est la" ...) ...
LF: Beyond sexual orientation, to the respect of the identity, to the respect of the integrity of everyone, especially ...
You have also written feminist songs (“Le roi est un femme" , "Toutes les femmes en moi" ) ... spoken about battered women ( "Llora" ), anorexia, ecology as well ...
LF: And to say that one thinks that I speak only of love! But yes, in fact, of love in the absolute sense. It is the DNA of all the subjects we treat, even if it has become obsolete ...
Do you write as well when you are angry, as when you are happy or sad?
LF: For me, anger is the refusal of reality. It's not very constructive, it's a bit poisonous ... I can write sad, it's a fabulous outlet, I've already written in full flight too, while being very happy.
What is it that horrifies you today, on what subject you could write?
LF: Bad faith, bullshit, injustice, which foment the internal wars ...
You have written almost all the songs of your career, composed almost all the music, produced your albums, your shows, always chosen your projects ... Did you seek this freedom, or was some part of it imposed on you by the music market?
LF: Initially, at 22-23 years old, nobody wanted to sign me. So by the force of circumstances, as nobody believed in it, I made my choices. And from there it was so tasty that I never wanted to concede this freedom, quite simply. It is very precious to be an artisan and an artist, a creator and a producer.
You have been under the fire of criticism and mockery, are sometimes still a little victim of sarcasm ... often from people who do not know you. In hindsight, is it to be popular, a woman, a passionate one which unleashes these reactions?
LF: The three my general! One is always subject, when one is in the light, to its opposite. It's like that. But the most important thing in all this: we do not do this job for these people, but for the fans we just talked about. It is true that sometimes the squall is violent, but it is as empty as violent ...
Long before Jean-Luc Mélenchon, you used the technique of holograms in a show (TLFM Tour) ... What will the show that we will see look like in the world in 2018? An orchestra, an American electro atmosphere, dancers like in the previous tour, magic finally (her husband is a magician, ed)?
LF: A perfect match between the sound and what you see ... That's all I can tell you!
You made some incursions in the cinema and especially surprised with Miss Zhivago, several theater projects did not succeed. Do you still have that desire / plans “to play chameleons"?
LF: I will be on one of the four red chairs in The Voice Canada, a new adventure begins. I will be closer to what I care about: transmission, beyond talent, share a pedagogy, a strength of resilience, approach to our profession so that an artist can unfold ... And a school, perhaps one day, to convey what I have been able to learn in 30 years of work ...
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The interviewer really knew Lara’s past work, digging out songs that haven’t been mentioned in an interview in many years, if ever.
And from an interview in “The Closer” (thanks to the Lara Fabian – PHQ site for the scans):
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“The fiscal exit of Pagny to Portugal? If that permits him to invest in the music, I understand…”
Twenty years already that her ‘Je t’aime” sings in our hearts. Now that she releases her 4th album in English, ‘Camouflage’, and is preparing to become coach in the Quebecoise version of ‘The Voice’, the star makes the point with ‘Closer’, on her status as an artiste…and on the 20 years to come!
Michel Serra
Two years after your previous album, you return with an album…in English!
LF: But I’ve always sung in English…Camouflage is already the fourth album in this language. It was a little in the logic of things.
Your first album in English is in effect released in 1999. How does the international public remember it of you?
LF: Like the singer of ‘Adagio’ or ‘I Will Love Again’. I have toured a lot, while favoring a repertoire in many languages.
You are going to travel to many countries with your new spectacle? What can the fans expect?
LF: My show will reflect the electro-pop side of my album. I will sing in it some songs of my other English albums, some reprises and in certain countries, I will include some titles in French.
You evoke the electro-pop side, unexpected, of Camouflage. The new generation has inspired you?
LF: That comes from what I listen to, but I wanted also to go towards this genre of things. My music has evolved. We are on longer in 1990, it is necessary to live with our time!
How does an artist like you, who began at the time when one sold many discs, live the transition to streaming?
LF: I continue for the same reason as in my beginnings: the love of what I do. What animates me is the music, its creation, what it wants to convey and what it can contribute.
But to release discs is less profitable today?
LF: I am a very poor mathematician. But I can tell you that if I had wanted to do this profession for the money, I would certainly have done something else since!
There are fewer and fewer broadcasts of variety shows on the TV. It is a problem?
LF: Social networks today have a preponderant place. Yes, there are less broadcasts of variety shows, but there are other platforms on which the music can exist.
The singers more and more pass by in the emissions of Laurent Ruquier or Thierry Ardisson. You never. Why?
LF: I know that, unhappily, they are the last broadcasts that remain. But I have a hard time telling myself that music has to exist in these places. Going to sit on a chair like this one is not in harmony with what I do. After, Laurent invited me in Les Grosses Tetes and it went very well.
You are going to be coach of La Voix, the Quebecoise version of The Voice. Happy with this adventure?
LF: It is a magnificent opportunity, I am very happy to return to Quebec. I will be on the side of Garou, Eric Lapointe and Alex Nevsky. I am on the point of beginning the filming of the blind auditions.
The second anniversary of the attack at the Bataclan approaches. Many artists have expressed their refusal to play again in this room. Have you thought about it?
LF: I understand that one can have apprehension, a great sadness and that one doesn’t have the desire of walking upon this stage. But at the same time, I am a resilient and a survivor. I would do it just to be part of a principle of reconstruction. Perhaps with many artists. That has already been done, but it could be done again…
This year marks also 20 years of the release in France of your album Pure. How do you regard these two decades?
LF: What a grand voyage. I am not at all a girl who turns around. I am neither backward-looking nor nostalgic. That which comes to me in spirit is: “Go, we leave on our the second half!”
When Florent Pagny explains that he chose to move to Portugal for financial reasons, do you understand?
LF: The music (business) goes more and more bad and, if there is a way of saving a few cents to reinvest in this area through a tax haven, so that's a choice I can understand.
You yourself left Belgium for Spain. Why this change?
LF: To create new songs, to think of the next show, to live with a little more light. I’ve already gone there often for 15 years, it is a place that I love a lot.
Your daughter Lou is therefore bilingual?
LF: Even more, since she also speaks Italian and English!
With a Sicilian husband and mother, one would imagine you would rather leave for Italy…
LF: (Laughs) Who knows? One day perhaps…
Moreover, how is your mother, she suffers from a dementia of Lewy bodies (near Alzheimers)?
LF: She goes, she does as well as she can. I see her as often as possible, even if she still lives in Belgium.
You have evoked the very jealous side of your husband Gabriel. Your low cut dress on the cover of the disc didn’t bother him?
LF: (clap of laughter) No, all goes well on that side!
You will be on tour until next summer. And after?
LF: To devote myself to La Voix, because that will nevertheless take eight months of my life. We made sure that everything sticks with the schedule of my tour And after, I’ve planned a new French album for November 2018!
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