Post by davidhr on Jan 2, 2018 9:25:36 GMT -5
A light week, as one might suspect, as we have now turned the page on 2017. Lara was on one more TV show, a special edition of “En direct de l’univers” on New Year’s Eve. For the end-of-year event, the host France Beaudoin invited four celebrities who have distinguished themselves in 2017 or will be heard in 2018. These people were ‘kidnapped’ and then saw their “musical universe revisited”. One of them was Marianna Mazza, who recently won the the Olivier award for humorist of the year, thanks to her show “Femme ta gueule”. She asked for Lara’s “Saisir le jour”, which she had sung with her brother while in the car when she was a child. Lara's presentation of the song itself is available at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrBOJy4W5-o
while the complete show can be seen at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfKS--_70Y&feature=share
where Lara’s portion starts at the 51 minute mark. She does a great job with this number, which is from the ‘Carpe Diem’ album (there’s a good chance she had to review the words
).
Prior to that, Lara posted a picture on her Instagram site, at
with the caption, “A little bit of heat for this last Saturday of 2017”. Lara was motivated to post that because, as she is rediscovering and the rest of her family learning, another characteristic of Montreal besides the warmth of its people is the frigidness of its winter weather. Temperatures were below zero this past week; on Saturday the high was 1°F, and the low -11°F. Yesterday the high was -9, and the low -13. Welcome back!!!
And for the new year itself, the coaches of ‘La Voix’ were pictured providing a ‘Happy New Year’ at
www.facebook.com/lavoixtva/photos/a.327556664006515.73909.272493026179546/1518129648282538/?type=3&theater
with the caption, “May the new year bring you happiness, health and inspiration!”
The New Year starts off as the last one ended, with Lara scheduled to appear on another TV show in Quebec. This one is called “"La vraie nature" and, according to the article describing it (http://showbizz.net/2017/12/28/voici-les-invites-de-la-vraie-nature-apres-les-fetes/), it consists of intelligent interviews, with necessary and human comments and the participation of artists stripped of their devices. Lara is one of the guests who will “visit Jean-Philippe Dion's chalet”. The program (on TVA, of course) is expected to air sometime in January (although whether Lara’s segment will air then is still not clear). [The larabianweb site noted that it is similar to the wonderful French program “La Parenthèse inattendue”, which Lara was on in March of 2014, visible at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y-lK8y6ZKQ].
Over the weekend, another review surfaced of Camouflage (http://bullesdeculture.com/2017/12/critique-musique-camouflage-lara-fabian.html) (thanks to the larafabianweb site for the link). While this would seem like old news, the album is still ‘current’, and comments made in the review feed into the 2017 Year in Review, which follows this Update. Here is the translation:
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[Review] "Camouflage" (2017): Lara Fabian returns to English
Luigi Lattuca 2017-12-30
Camouflage is Lara Fabian's third English record. Visually bold with its very "faded" cover, it fits smoothly into the world of Lara Fabian by offering 12 successful tracks. Bubbles de Culture listened to the record and gives you his opinion.
Lara Fabian and languages, it goes back a long way...
At almost 48 years old (in a big week), Lara Fabian already has three albums in English. For those who would have forgotten, at the time when the first release was celebrated during a special prime time on a Friday night on TF1, the eponymous Lara Fabian was responsible for launching on the Anglo-Saxon market with sometimes very dance titles, like I Will Love Again. English, one of many languages because Lara has already spoken in Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish ... and about ten other languages. Twelve million albums later, she returns with Camouflage.
Camouflage, the 13th album
Camouflage (released October 6, 2017) is Lara Fabian's first English album for 13 years. It is already the thirteenth disc of the discography of the beautiful Belgo-Italian (since 1991) that we have been able to listen to. An opus on which the voice of Lara - soprano - shines with its clarity. A singer’s voice. Co-written and co-composed by Sharon Vaughn, Moh Denebi and the artist herself, this one sees Lara Fabian reconnect with the known pop universe of her English repertoire and more current sounds, written by Moh Denebi. The title Growing Wings is the first single extracted.
Camouflage is a very sweet record, with multiple emotions, especially on Keep The Animals Away. We do not know if Lara Fabian wanted to go back to the very essence of the music but this record is not (yet) the opportunity for her to reconnect with the great lyrical flights a la Celine Dion - to whom she had been very often compared in the 90s and the 2000s. In these days of almost national mourning, the French still remember her more resonant voice resonating in a crowded Stade de France (see below).
Lara Fabian on tour in March 2018
The brand new Lara Fabian international tour will begin in Miami in February 2018. On the program? First the USA through New York, Los Angeles and Washington. Lara Fabian will then continue her tour in Europe, including Paris (Le Zenith Paris), Berlin, Moscow, Prague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Vienna and of course her native Belgium with Brussels!
We are told that the Camouflage World Tour will be an opportunity for Lara Fabian to present her English repertoire and this is an opportunity for you to listen to old titles such as the superb Adagio or the songs Love By Grace and Broken Vow, which become cult hits for many fans. An astonishing visual production is also announced.
She sang with Johnny
Finally, as a reminder, Lara Fabian had sung a duet with Johnny Hallyday on the stage of the Stade de France in 1998. Faced with the emotion that has invaded France following the disappearance of the singer, BFMTV revealed the results of a poll commissioned at the Elabe Institute to try to find out what was Johnny Hallyday's song that the French preferred. Realized on November 20 and 21, 2017 on the Internet - before the death of the artist therefore - this questionnaire has interviewed 1,001 people ... and the “Requiem pour un fou” duo with Lara Fabian is - still - in 6th place! Nice proof that he has marked the spirits.
In addition to the fact that we see Johnny Hallyday in top form, this video is an opportunity to note that Lara Fabian, probably very affected by criticism of her "shouting", has since abandoned this way of singing her songs.
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This review raises several of the points to be covered in the Year in Review below: the importance of languages; the new album (called “a sweet record”); and Lara’s restrained singing (although we know she did return to more of her powerful vocals on albums prior to Camouflage). Note the ‘lure’ provided by the article for people to come see Lara involves her most powerful, older English songs.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: from Lara Fabian Mexico
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianfromMexico/photos/a.747329741987755.1073741888.556364357750962/1538826669504721/?type=3&theater
and then some ‘Happy New Year’ photos: first from Lara,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.338665829508254.73574.201065806601591/1864829250225230/?type=3&theater
From the Lara Fabian Connecting People FB site,
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianCP/photos/a.1582657102057722.1073741829.1474601329529967/1967809373542491/?type=3&theater
from Lara Fabian Italy,
pbs.twimg.com/media/DSaUAtlX4AAbufi.jpg:large
from Lara Fabian est ton autre site,
www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/a.317133268340344.73981.166959643357708/1536797653040560/?type=3&theater
And by Monika Michlerová,
pbs.twimg.com/media/DSd6Nz8WkAEZLzx.jpg
Finally, the Lara Fabian est ton autre site provided a link to AICOM’s end of year video, putting “Growing Wings” to pictures of Lara’s Masterclass. It can be found at:
www.facebook.com/AICOM.Paris/videos/1678322038895159/
With the new year upon us, and Lara’s new tour starting in about a month, one expects she will have to devote time to its planning and execution. Combined with obligations for “La Voix”, and occasional TV appearances in Quebec, one wonders how much time will be available for the promotion of the tour in the U.S., scheduled to start this month – another theme explored in the Year in Review. We have heard that the next single – Chameleon – and an associated ‘remix’ should be released shortly. Also, we might expect Lara’s Team to be announcing remaining dates on the worldwide tour, and which dates will have special “Meet and Greet” opportunities with Lara. As 2018 gets into full swing, we will see whether Camouflage and its associated tour can pick up momentum, after a very slow start.
Next…
The Year in Review, 2017
At the end of 2016, which was a very successful year for Lara associated with her latest French album, we anticipated that 2017 would be the year she turns back to the rest of the world, with her new English album. And, of course, the new English album did appear, although not until October. Despite that, the course of events went in a different direction; as the saying goes, attributed to the old baseball player Yogi Berra, “prediction is difficult, especially of the future”. Here is the 2017 year in review for Lara, a year of revised expectations.
Because the year was heavily “back-loaded”, there’s no point in going through a chronological exposition of Lara’s activities in 2017: the most meaningful ones happened in the last three months, and are undoubtedly fresh in your mind. Instead we will focus on some main topics.
**French vs. English language activity: As suggested in this week's News Update above, this topic actually plays a large role in a lot of what happened this past year. On October 4th, Lara released “Camouflage”, her first general English language release in more than a decade. The album was actually finished in June, but wary of releasing an album during the summer, Lara’s people held it back; they did, however, provide various ‘teases’ along the way, releasing the album title and a tentative tour schedule in May, organizing some ‘pre-listening’ sessions, releasing the name of the first single “Growing Wings” in June, finalizing the artwork and releasing the album cover in July, releasing the actual single of Growing Wings, a video for it, and a remix in August, and then a second single (“Choose What You Love Most”) in September. Its video was released along with the album in October. So the year did have the English album uppermost in the minds of Lara’s fans for a good part of the time.
In conjunction with that, Lara often used English on her Facebook site to discuss the album, which brought forth some negative comments from her French speaking fans. Both Lara and hear Team went to some length to emphasize that Lara is an “international singer”, and has the right to use whatever language she wants. For example, Lara’s team wrote in response to these comments:
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“Hello, this is not the French "page" of Lara, but her official page, quite simply. This page is moderated by an international team and multi-lingual, in several languages, including the French and English. In addition, Lara is a Belgian-Canadian artist, citizen of multi-lingual countries. She has the right to express herself as much in English as in French, or in her native language, Italian. Or in another language of her choice. This page is addressed to all the fans of Lara, in the world. You can select the option in the settings of your facebook account to choose the Automatic Translation of all the texts into French. Team Lara”.
And Lara herself wrote, “I'm Belgian and Canadian, from bilingual countries, and of Italian and Flemish origin. I speak and sing in French, English and also in other languages. French is my main language, but I communicate here with my fans all over the world, who speak all different languages.”
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This aspect carried over to many of the interviews she had in Europe, where, in effect, she had to justify her English language release. A Swiss French publication started their interview with her with these (ironic) words:
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“With ‘Camouflage’, her new album, Lara Fabian plays the Anglophone card again, a card which gives again to this Belgian-Canadian artist the international dimension which is hers. The choice of city where she gives us our meeting to speak of this disc (Zurich rather than Geneva) is also a means of underlining that she is not a francophone artist. And the tour that will occupy her during the first six months of 2018 is already announced for Berlin, Minsk, Miami or Sofia. One would almost try to start the conversation in English.”
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Responding to multiple questions concerning the rationale for an English album, and noting that languages are often associated with conflicts, Lara responded that she felt, with her new management team in place, the time had come to return to an English album. Furthermore, she added,
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“Between the different linguistic communities, Belgian and Canadian, there is a floating area that speaks to me because it reminds me not of a problem but an identity. These are places where we define ourselves by language. I dissociate myself a little because I come from an Italian mother, a Dutch-speaking grandmother, an American grandfather and a family where one spoke Spanish. So all these languages make the unique identity that I really attach to is the music that I want to do at a given moment. Depending on this desire, I choose a language that seems to me to be fair and that will enter in resonance with the music.
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To compound this seeming turn away from a francophone existence, Lara moved from Belgium to Spain. Here is an exchange typical of her explanation:
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Interviewer: You lived here in Waterloo. You left Belgium at the end of last year to go to Marbella, Spain. For what reasons?
LF: I wanted to finish writing the album and for that, I needed light. So we left with my family. I sold my villa in Waterloo.
Or again,
LF: “Ah, light, it changes a life! When one exchanges 360 days of rain against 360 days of sun, nothing is the same. You know, I really wonder why I was so late before making that choice of life! The only explanation is the family, the friends, all of whom are in Belgium. But at one point, we said to ourselves: go, we go down to the ground floor, we put everything in the car and we leave. An excellent decision!”
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What Lara didn’t say, and what one can infer from her subsequent comments, is that the problems in Belgium may have made her somewhat anxious about the safety of her family. At the time Lara moved (December 2016) Belgium had still not come out of Level 3 threat, and there was no indication when that would happen (and that is still the case today). Police operations are ongoing and there have been a number of police raids and arrests, relating to past and potential terrorist attacks. When Lara landed in Quebec, she said she and her family could not help noticing how ‘’gentle’ everything was, far from the strife being experienced in Europe. She did have to leave her mother behind, but in the hands of trusted relatives, and she visits when she can.
In addition, Lara’s URL site (www.larafabian.com) was refurbished, put back up, and – it is only in English, including Lara’s biography. It was said at the time that a French version would be added, but so far (9 months later), that has not taken place.
So…all of this would seem to set the stage for Lara to embrace the English portion of her career and potential audience in English speaking countries. Except…it never happened. Somehow it seems that Lara’s heart was not in it, and really never has been, going back to her first English album release in 2000. As she noted in one of the quotes above, French is her main language, and it seems as if that’s how she identifies herself. She can write and sing in English (and other languages) but it is not really “her”, not enough to allow her to immerse herself in the culture and media. A supposition, obviously, but the way things then developed in 2017 is consistent with that.
Lara gave a concert in London in March, which was mostly in French (a replay of the ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ tour), including only the three English language songs that normally have appeared (among them, ‘I Will Love Again’). As for not presenting an English language repertoire, Lara’s people subsequently explained that union rules demanded any songs not previously sung on tour required rehearsal time that was not available. That is understandable, but it was reported that Lara did not even mention the upcoming English album on stage. Her interviews with London media were with French language publications that appealed to the French speakers in England. Her only public comment that indirectly related to the new album was when she released a photo with the caption, “Thank you London, for this passionate "first kiss".... See you very soon!” If one thinks this means she will now return to London and give an English concert for the new album, think again. There is no such concert planned. Lara’s Team explained that she was ‘just there’, so there was no need to go again.
At the time the new album came out, when interest is highest, the promotion was almost exclusively in France, Belgium and Switzerland, to her normal French speaking audience. The one exception was Germany/Austria, where they obviously felt she had the greatest chance of making an impact. The plans at the time were apparently for the U.S. promotion to begin in October (in New York and Los Angeles, primarily), but that never happened, outside of a few articles published months ago. What intervened, we all know, is that Lara was invited to appear as a coach/judge on ‘La Voix’, the Quebec version of “The Voice”. The announcement was made in early October, and by the middle of the month Lara and her family had moved to Quebec. She thought of this as a “wonderful gift”, being able to return, at least for a time, to the place she says she has loved most of all, and indeed her welcome there has been glorious. Unfortunately, it had the effect of short-circuiting any planned English language promotion, as she was now firmly back in a francophone culture. The opportunity to pursue an English language audience at the time of the album release passed…and only time will tell whether it can be revived in conjunction with the tour (Lara’s people now say that the U.S. promotion will start in January). In the U.S., so far the primary publicity has been in French publications read by French speakers in that country, similar to the situation in England. Maybe they believe those are the only people who will turn out – they may be right, but without any English promotion it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and so far there aren’t enough of them to populate most of the seats at Lara’s upcoming U.S. concerts.
With her return to Quebec and a French speaking culture, Lara, backed by a powerful media company, jumped into the full-scale media blitz we recognize from her. That does bring up another difference: Lara’s album was co-produced by her “9 Productions” and “Odacity” (which also serves as her management team). Again, one doesn’t know what ultimately would have been possible, but were Lara to have had the backing of a big record company, it’s possible a large-scale English promotion could have gone ahead despite these impediments. Who knows, however, whether any such company would have been interested in supporting her producing a new English album…and at least, this way, one has appeared that is to her liking (Lara said, in perhaps a burst of enthusiasm, that it is her all-time favorite album).
Indications from Lara’s people are that they were not looking for an album of hits for England or the U.S., but that it was really made for her international/world audience to support her tour. One could question whether that was the proper commercial strategy, but in any event, it has not had much commercial success in the general international arena either, in terms of sales; perhaps it will help Lara when she gives concerts for it on the world stage. As noted below, in many of these places her concerts have been sold out anyway with her French language songs.
**The album (Camouflage) itself: In describing the new album, Lara had this to say,
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“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.
Interviewer: The camouflage which is the question in the title of your album concerns the feelings that one tries to mask.
LF: Yes, it speaks of this capacity that we have to be able to show only a part of the story. Without wanting to summarize the album with this simple word, I wanted to enter into resonance with that which is happening in the world. We are all in great pain and, in the course of almost 50 years that I have spent on this earth, I even feel that the things are constantly getting worse. In this camouflage, there is for me the modesty but there is also a means of inviting the other to look further, to dig into this unveiled feeling and to go look for this zone which for me is vital, that of empathy. The camouflage of feelings can become an invitation to establish a link.[In another interview, she also notes that while establishing links is positive, if you camouflage your feelings too long, if you keep from showing your real self, that ends up having negative consequences].
Interviewer: You do not sing as loudly as before, does that translate to a global desire of saying things without having to spell them out?
LF: On certain songs, there are one or two contrary examples because, as a singer, that remains my prerogative. But when we decided to make electro-pop, the voice became an element among others and it should not arrive to you up front. I believe that this choice to sing less strong corresponds to the content of the album as well as to the time. In the years of the 90s, it was a good tone to deploy the voice at the maximum of its capacities, but I believe that the doing of singing consists of being in phase with its time and, today, we are more in nuance than the years of the 90s. Perhaps also my voice has transformed with the years and that certain notes which were very vibrant twenty years ago are a little less today.
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So Lara released an album that combined a more “electro-pop” sound with symphonic backing, and, except for one or two songs, a much more restrained vocal approach. The album itself got generally very good reviews – professionally done, with fine singing, instrumentation, interesting themes and catchy refrains – and it gets better the more one listens to it. Regardless of its commercial fate, it is certainly a success in terms of quality (and so deserves much greater recognition).
A significant number of her fans, and some reviewers, did regret her decision to go for ‘modernity’ as opposed to maximizing her (vocal) strengths, thinking also that to entice an English audience after all these years her album had to be spectacular (e.g., Adagio, Broken Vow), she had to lead putting her best foot forward. As Lara indicated, she and her Team felt a more modern sound would make for a more interesting and sell-able product. Unfortunately, that product has (as of yet) not appealed commercially to a world audience nor the French speaking public in any great numbers, and so far, it has been the worst selling full-scale album release of her career (total sales are likely under 10,000 discs). And without any English language promotion, and perhaps because it was more restrained vocally, it has never been visible to an English speaking audience (e.g., very few of the reviews have been in English). It is also possible that Lara is so defined in the minds of those who (even) think of her as a “singer of chansons” (as one German reviewer put it), that there was no way she could release one English album in more than a decade and expect an English audience or media to pay attention. Again, there is always the hope that this could change a bit in 2018, with her five city tour in the U.S. and (maybe) some promotion, but the odds would not appear to be in her favor. One expects she will still have obligations for La Voix that will keep her from really focusing elsewhere, such as on media opportunities in the U.S., and as Woody Allen said, “Showing up is 80% of life (and success)”.
Lara has referred to this album as a ‘linguistic passport’, allowing her to go to places she hasn’t been previously, performing what she indicates will be English language concerts that reproduce the album. And it’s true, that a few of her upcoming venues in Western Europe (e.g., in Italy) are new. But most of the planned concerts are in places she normally goes anyway, with her French language albums. [We’ll see if there are any concerts scheduled for Asia, or Brazil, or even English speaking Canada, where this album could make a difference – so far, apparently, no promoters have been willing to take that risk].
At this point, it looks like this English language album is destined to be a wonderful addition to her discography, and a gift to her fans, but a side step from her normal path, without leading to the greatly expanded international audience that once seemed like its real target. Hopefully events next year will alter this assessment.
**The return to Quebec: While this may have worked against a focus on the U.S. for Lara, it provided a wonderful increase in the quality of life for her and her family. Here’s what Lara had to say about it:
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Interviewer: You find yourself happy in Quebec?
LF: The light! The gentleness and kindness of the people. The sweetness of life. It changes your life. I feel that one is a little less touched here than in Europe, that doesn’t mean that one is less conscious of what happens elsewhere, but I feel a certain quietude.
Interviewer: How has your family welcomed this project?
LF: With a lot of love and enthusiasm, and with the spirit that is ours, that we do not separate, whatever happens.
Interviewer: Lou will pursue her schooling in Quebec?
LF: Yes, she’s already begun. She seems very happy, and, as her mom, that delights me.
Interviewer: Your lover has accepted this adventure happily?
LF: It is certain that it is destabilizing leaving a place that one knows well. When one is in Europe, and one has never lived in North America, it could appear to be the end of the world. I have the good luck of having an extremely caring husband. He is my great support. Right away, he told me it was perfectly normal for us to make this big trip together. After two or three days in Quebec, he declared: “I understand what you mean, when you speak of the light and kindness…” It goes well. I am lucky that my loves are doing well: that permits me to leave in the morning to do La Voix with serenity.
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And ‘doing well’ she certainly is. By being associated with La Voix, Lara is a ‘person of interest’ for the TVA Group, the leading media company that produces it. Her album is being presented to the (French) Canadian audience through the auspices of ‘Musicor’, part of the Quebecor Group Sports and Entertainment Company. The Musicor and Musicor Spectacles houses produce records, videos and shows, and Lara is now affiliated (once again) with that label in Quebec. The TVA Group is one of the company’s subsidiaries. So Lara has full-scale backing to appear on numerous TV shows and get as much publicity as she desires – and that all helps generate an audience for ‘La Voix’. The contrast with Lara’s situation for her album promotion elsewhere couldn’t be much starker. Nevertheless, it is the height of irony that when she finally returns to Quebec, it coincides with the time when she finally produces another English album – the worst possible combination for her. Therefore, she has made only a little headway with sales for Camouflage in the province (although her older songs have gotten renewed interest), and she currently has no concert dates planned there.
**Individual highlights: there were some special performances or activities during the year that deserve to be highlighted; they are listed chronologically below:
1) Duet of “Je t’aime” with Tony Carriera. He’s a noted Portuguese singer, and Lara’s duet with him (called “Um Amor Assim”) was a highlight in January. He released two albums which included it (‘Le Coeur des femmes’ in France, and ‘Sempre mais’ in Portugal), and there was also a music video. This follows Lara’s general approach of singing with well-known singers from different cultures (Greece, Turkey, etc.).
2) The “20 favorite duos of the French”. The show, which appeared on French TV in March, actually included two of Lara’s: her duet with Johnny Hallyday of “Requiem pour un fou” is one, and her duet with Maurane of “Tue es mon autre”, the other.
3) “22 mars Ensemble”. Lara joined more than 200 other singers at the Cirque Royal in Brussels on Wednesday March 22 for an evening of tributes to the victims of the March 22, 2016 attack. She presented the song, Relève-toi’, which was perfect, as it emphasizes one should stand up in the face of negativity.
4) The title song for the movie “Cello”. In May, Lara sang a wonderful song, “Remember Me" written by Randy Kerber and Glen Ballard; it was the song that ran under the credits for the short movie. The movie itself received various honors, including at the New York Film festival, where it won for Best Inspirational, and Best Drama, while ‘Remember Me’ won for best song.
5) Collaboration with “Les Friction”. In June, Lara sang with this indie rock band from Los Angeles on a song called ‘You Always Knew’. It was quite good, and got some press, for both them and her.
6) Master class at AICOM. At the end of June, Lara held a master class for this organization which trains musical comedy performers, and it received glowing notices. An article describing her activities read,
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“Throughout the day, several students went on stage to perform a song of their choice in front of the singer and their director to receive their benevolent counsel and advice and to take stock of their artistic evolution within AICOM . Each of the performances was a parenthesis full of emotion and authenticity, hailed by their comrades and professionals. They were the occasion to note a true collective solidarity spirit "between artist colleagues", as Lara pointed out. This masterclass also allowed the AICOMs to discover the singer in a particularly convivial and intimate context. Beyond the prodigious vocal mastery that we all know, her spontaneous, funny and above all attentive nature to each brought a lot of freshness and lightness to a moment of constructive work. Between personal anecdotes and lessons learned at every stage of her career, Lara provided valuable technical advice to the students. She stressed the importance of "letting go": release one’s jaw to better position one’s voice, breathe in as much as it takes to place one’s breaths accurately or to appropriate the space for a confident physical posture. While explaining these notions, she participated in the unavoidable exercise of the vocal warm-up with the pupils.”
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7) Les 50 chansons préférées des Français. Broadcast in October, Lara’s song “Je t’aime” came in #50, and Lara’s great performance of it was straight out of 20 years ago. It marks a final “Ha” for all those critics who have ridiculed the song (and shows Lara has not lost much vocal capacity).
8) “En direct de l’Univers”. Out of the many shows Lara has been on in Quebec, this show stand out, as it was dedicated to her. Broadcast in November on ICI Radio-Canada Télé, it disproved the old axiom that you can’t go home again. It was a televised ‘welcome home’ to Quebec for Lara, featuring her old friends from the province, from her earlier life there, from the beginning of her musical career. She talked about her history in Quebec, and the invited guests sang songs she preferred by Quebecois artists, both old and new, and a touch of her own music too. Included was Kim Richardson, one of her old backup singers, and her best friend Nathalie, with whom Lara did a brief duet of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. George Perris even performed “Je suis malade”.
9) And on the many recent TV shows there, particularly noteworthy from December were: Lara’s appearance on “Belle et Bum” where she sang a medley of her old hits (including “Tu t’en vas”); on ‘Ensemble, pour Noel’ where she led an ensemble version of “Glory Halleluiah”; on “Deux filles le matin”, the ‘Noel Gospel’ show, she performed an amazing version of “Amazing Grace”; and on the show “Y'a du monde à messe”, broadcast on Christmas eve, a highlight was her singing “All I Want for Christmas Is You”.
10) As another type of ‘mark of distinction’, Lara received the “Commander of Walloon Merit” award. It is an honorary distinction of the Walloon Region [the French region of Belgium] and devotes the recognition of the Walloon authorities to "any natural or legal person whose talent or merit has done or does honor to Wallonia to an exceptional extent and thus contributes significantly to its influence.” Lara certainly fits that description!
**The use of Social Media: Throughout the year, Lara and her Team were once again quite generous in devoting their time and effort to keeping fans informed, primarily on her FB site, but via Instagram, and Twitter as well. They even organized a question and answer session with some of the Fan site administrators. Their actions have, once again, made Lara’s FB site the place to go for the latest information concerning her, and to assess whether something is true or not. We thank them for keeping us informed.
**Charity work: As usual, Lara had several contributions to charities that interest her. In May-June, she contributed about 80 (!) performance dresses, and also a dinner appearance with her (for 200) to auctions for the ‘Papillon Foundation’ that provides living spaces for orphan children and adolescents ages 6-18 (there are about 40,000 young orphans in Belgium). In December, she also helped support “Viva for Life” on the airwaves of Vivacité, to help raise money for poor children in Belgium (one in four lives in poverty).
** The deaths of Lara’s compatriots. One can’t let the year pass without noting the passing of two singers whom Lara had the fortune to share the stage with: Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Johnny Hallyday, who died within two weeks of each other in late November and early December. In both cases Lara produced some very wise and compassionate words of remembrance, copied below:
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First for Dimitri: “My dear friend, my dear Dima! I woke up this morning and unfortunately you were gone. I'm so sad we will no longer be able to hold you, and look at your beautiful face anymore. But I am sure of one thing: we will be hearing your voice here, in our hearts, forever. I love you. Be safe, wherever you went. Thank you for everything you gave to this universe through your music and your soul.”
Then for Johnny: “There are some people who pass in our lives and transform our destinies. Johnny, we'll miss you so much. This is what you are a creator of destinies, joys, happiness, infinite love. I cannot imagine that today you are already high among the stars and at the same time, that's where you come from, for me, and this is where you belong. Thank you, thank you for doing what you did in this life. All I want is that we can find you in the next one. See you soon somewhere.”
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Sad, but beautifully said.
**School for music: In various interviews this year, Lara has indicated her interest in establishing a school where she can teach singing – but not only the fundamentals of voice, but how to ‘survive’ in the profession, in other words, all that a new singer really needs to know. Here’s what Lara had to say:
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“All my life I’ve tried to be a ferryman [i.e., passer-on]. Old, I always see myself teaching, at the head of my own school of singing. I believe that it is an adventure made for me. I learned so much by doing this job. To sing, it is far from being sufficient, there is always a road to find between one’s art and oneself and those young people who tumble down into the profession, they are so unprepared. I believe it is also an adventure which arrives at a good moment. I am going to continue to write, to compose, to be on stage, but I am going to stop being a spinning top, always to the right and to the left. I have a desire to sit myself down and Quebec, which I love so much, seems to me to be the ideal place for that.”
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It sure sounds like she may well make Quebec her home base, even while occasionally (but less frequently) touring around the world.
IN SUMMARY: To return to the characterization of 2017 as a year of revised expectations - it was anticipated that the new English album, along with its associated tour, would revive Lara’s English language career. That has not happened, even though the album was, eventually, released, and is quite good. It may be argued that those were unrealistic expectations, and in retrospect, it looks like that, but some of Lara’s fans definitely had them; and it is extremely unlikely that Lara would have expected this to be the worst selling full-scale album release of her career. By the end of the year it almost seemed like an afterthought, with Lara’s return to Quebec, and appearance on La Voix, garnering most of the attention. She is definitely very happy being back in Quebec, but the lack of commercial success of Camouflage does raise questions about whether any further work in English lies in her future. Perhaps 2018, and the arrival of the tour, will reinvigorate sales and interest, for both Lara and her fans. Let’s hope so. Otherwise, Lara was in very good voice during the year, and her hearing problems no longer seemed to be an issue, so that was all quite good.
In the coming year, the tour as now configured will extend from February through September; we’ll see how many dates it actually encompasses. Lara will have to juggle the concerts with required TV recordings and appearances for “La Voix” during the first half of the year. At various points, Lara and her Team indicated they expected a new French album to be released next November, but that was when the tour was expected to end in June; that date may thus well slip. It therefore looks like 2018 could well continue this tension between Lara’s francophone and international careers/languages. There is also the question of where she and her family will live; now that they have set sail from Belgium, as Lara has said, she is free to travel, but continued residence in Quebec, and the possible opening of a singing school there, might be a good bet. Given how poorly our expectations turned out for this year, we shouldn’t be surprised if the reality ends up much different.
But whatever occurs, may 2018 by a happy, healthy and successful one for Lara and all her fans.
David
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrBOJy4W5-o
while the complete show can be seen at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MKfKS--_70Y&feature=share
where Lara’s portion starts at the 51 minute mark. She does a great job with this number, which is from the ‘Carpe Diem’ album (there’s a good chance she had to review the words
). Prior to that, Lara posted a picture on her Instagram site, at
http://instagram.com/p/BdVBjgcHeRn
with the caption, “A little bit of heat for this last Saturday of 2017”. Lara was motivated to post that because, as she is rediscovering and the rest of her family learning, another characteristic of Montreal besides the warmth of its people is the frigidness of its winter weather. Temperatures were below zero this past week; on Saturday the high was 1°F, and the low -11°F. Yesterday the high was -9, and the low -13. Welcome back!!!
And for the new year itself, the coaches of ‘La Voix’ were pictured providing a ‘Happy New Year’ at
www.facebook.com/lavoixtva/photos/a.327556664006515.73909.272493026179546/1518129648282538/?type=3&theater
with the caption, “May the new year bring you happiness, health and inspiration!”
The New Year starts off as the last one ended, with Lara scheduled to appear on another TV show in Quebec. This one is called “"La vraie nature" and, according to the article describing it (http://showbizz.net/2017/12/28/voici-les-invites-de-la-vraie-nature-apres-les-fetes/), it consists of intelligent interviews, with necessary and human comments and the participation of artists stripped of their devices. Lara is one of the guests who will “visit Jean-Philippe Dion's chalet”. The program (on TVA, of course) is expected to air sometime in January (although whether Lara’s segment will air then is still not clear). [The larabianweb site noted that it is similar to the wonderful French program “La Parenthèse inattendue”, which Lara was on in March of 2014, visible at www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Y-lK8y6ZKQ].
Over the weekend, another review surfaced of Camouflage (http://bullesdeculture.com/2017/12/critique-musique-camouflage-lara-fabian.html) (thanks to the larafabianweb site for the link). While this would seem like old news, the album is still ‘current’, and comments made in the review feed into the 2017 Year in Review, which follows this Update. Here is the translation:
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[Review] "Camouflage" (2017): Lara Fabian returns to English
Luigi Lattuca 2017-12-30
Camouflage is Lara Fabian's third English record. Visually bold with its very "faded" cover, it fits smoothly into the world of Lara Fabian by offering 12 successful tracks. Bubbles de Culture listened to the record and gives you his opinion.
Lara Fabian and languages, it goes back a long way...
At almost 48 years old (in a big week), Lara Fabian already has three albums in English. For those who would have forgotten, at the time when the first release was celebrated during a special prime time on a Friday night on TF1, the eponymous Lara Fabian was responsible for launching on the Anglo-Saxon market with sometimes very dance titles, like I Will Love Again. English, one of many languages because Lara has already spoken in Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish ... and about ten other languages. Twelve million albums later, she returns with Camouflage.
Camouflage, the 13th album
Camouflage (released October 6, 2017) is Lara Fabian's first English album for 13 years. It is already the thirteenth disc of the discography of the beautiful Belgo-Italian (since 1991) that we have been able to listen to. An opus on which the voice of Lara - soprano - shines with its clarity. A singer’s voice. Co-written and co-composed by Sharon Vaughn, Moh Denebi and the artist herself, this one sees Lara Fabian reconnect with the known pop universe of her English repertoire and more current sounds, written by Moh Denebi. The title Growing Wings is the first single extracted.
Camouflage is a very sweet record, with multiple emotions, especially on Keep The Animals Away. We do not know if Lara Fabian wanted to go back to the very essence of the music but this record is not (yet) the opportunity for her to reconnect with the great lyrical flights a la Celine Dion - to whom she had been very often compared in the 90s and the 2000s. In these days of almost national mourning, the French still remember her more resonant voice resonating in a crowded Stade de France (see below).
Lara Fabian on tour in March 2018
The brand new Lara Fabian international tour will begin in Miami in February 2018. On the program? First the USA through New York, Los Angeles and Washington. Lara Fabian will then continue her tour in Europe, including Paris (Le Zenith Paris), Berlin, Moscow, Prague, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Vienna and of course her native Belgium with Brussels!
We are told that the Camouflage World Tour will be an opportunity for Lara Fabian to present her English repertoire and this is an opportunity for you to listen to old titles such as the superb Adagio or the songs Love By Grace and Broken Vow, which become cult hits for many fans. An astonishing visual production is also announced.
She sang with Johnny
Finally, as a reminder, Lara Fabian had sung a duet with Johnny Hallyday on the stage of the Stade de France in 1998. Faced with the emotion that has invaded France following the disappearance of the singer, BFMTV revealed the results of a poll commissioned at the Elabe Institute to try to find out what was Johnny Hallyday's song that the French preferred. Realized on November 20 and 21, 2017 on the Internet - before the death of the artist therefore - this questionnaire has interviewed 1,001 people ... and the “Requiem pour un fou” duo with Lara Fabian is - still - in 6th place! Nice proof that he has marked the spirits.
In addition to the fact that we see Johnny Hallyday in top form, this video is an opportunity to note that Lara Fabian, probably very affected by criticism of her "shouting", has since abandoned this way of singing her songs.
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This review raises several of the points to be covered in the Year in Review below: the importance of languages; the new album (called “a sweet record”); and Lara’s restrained singing (although we know she did return to more of her powerful vocals on albums prior to Camouflage). Note the ‘lure’ provided by the article for people to come see Lara involves her most powerful, older English songs.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: from Lara Fabian Mexico
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianfromMexico/photos/a.747329741987755.1073741888.556364357750962/1538826669504721/?type=3&theater
and then some ‘Happy New Year’ photos: first from Lara,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.338665829508254.73574.201065806601591/1864829250225230/?type=3&theater
From the Lara Fabian Connecting People FB site,
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianCP/photos/a.1582657102057722.1073741829.1474601329529967/1967809373542491/?type=3&theater
from Lara Fabian Italy,
pbs.twimg.com/media/DSaUAtlX4AAbufi.jpg:large
from Lara Fabian est ton autre site,
www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/a.317133268340344.73981.166959643357708/1536797653040560/?type=3&theater
And by Monika Michlerová,
pbs.twimg.com/media/DSd6Nz8WkAEZLzx.jpg
Finally, the Lara Fabian est ton autre site provided a link to AICOM’s end of year video, putting “Growing Wings” to pictures of Lara’s Masterclass. It can be found at:
www.facebook.com/AICOM.Paris/videos/1678322038895159/
With the new year upon us, and Lara’s new tour starting in about a month, one expects she will have to devote time to its planning and execution. Combined with obligations for “La Voix”, and occasional TV appearances in Quebec, one wonders how much time will be available for the promotion of the tour in the U.S., scheduled to start this month – another theme explored in the Year in Review. We have heard that the next single – Chameleon – and an associated ‘remix’ should be released shortly. Also, we might expect Lara’s Team to be announcing remaining dates on the worldwide tour, and which dates will have special “Meet and Greet” opportunities with Lara. As 2018 gets into full swing, we will see whether Camouflage and its associated tour can pick up momentum, after a very slow start.
Next…
The Year in Review, 2017
At the end of 2016, which was a very successful year for Lara associated with her latest French album, we anticipated that 2017 would be the year she turns back to the rest of the world, with her new English album. And, of course, the new English album did appear, although not until October. Despite that, the course of events went in a different direction; as the saying goes, attributed to the old baseball player Yogi Berra, “prediction is difficult, especially of the future”
. Here is the 2017 year in review for Lara, a year of revised expectations. Because the year was heavily “back-loaded”, there’s no point in going through a chronological exposition of Lara’s activities in 2017: the most meaningful ones happened in the last three months, and are undoubtedly fresh in your mind. Instead we will focus on some main topics.
**French vs. English language activity: As suggested in this week's News Update above, this topic actually plays a large role in a lot of what happened this past year. On October 4th, Lara released “Camouflage”, her first general English language release in more than a decade. The album was actually finished in June, but wary of releasing an album during the summer, Lara’s people held it back; they did, however, provide various ‘teases’ along the way, releasing the album title and a tentative tour schedule in May, organizing some ‘pre-listening’ sessions, releasing the name of the first single “Growing Wings” in June, finalizing the artwork and releasing the album cover in July, releasing the actual single of Growing Wings, a video for it, and a remix in August, and then a second single (“Choose What You Love Most”) in September. Its video was released along with the album in October. So the year did have the English album uppermost in the minds of Lara’s fans for a good part of the time.
In conjunction with that, Lara often used English on her Facebook site to discuss the album, which brought forth some negative comments from her French speaking fans. Both Lara and hear Team went to some length to emphasize that Lara is an “international singer”, and has the right to use whatever language she wants. For example, Lara’s team wrote in response to these comments:
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“Hello, this is not the French "page" of Lara, but her official page, quite simply. This page is moderated by an international team and multi-lingual, in several languages, including the French and English. In addition, Lara is a Belgian-Canadian artist, citizen of multi-lingual countries. She has the right to express herself as much in English as in French, or in her native language, Italian. Or in another language of her choice. This page is addressed to all the fans of Lara, in the world. You can select the option in the settings of your facebook account to choose the Automatic Translation of all the texts into French. Team Lara”.
And Lara herself wrote, “I'm Belgian and Canadian, from bilingual countries, and of Italian and Flemish origin. I speak and sing in French, English and also in other languages. French is my main language, but I communicate here with my fans all over the world, who speak all different languages.”
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This aspect carried over to many of the interviews she had in Europe, where, in effect, she had to justify her English language release. A Swiss French publication started their interview with her with these (ironic) words:
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“With ‘Camouflage’, her new album, Lara Fabian plays the Anglophone card again, a card which gives again to this Belgian-Canadian artist the international dimension which is hers. The choice of city where she gives us our meeting to speak of this disc (Zurich rather than Geneva) is also a means of underlining that she is not a francophone artist. And the tour that will occupy her during the first six months of 2018 is already announced for Berlin, Minsk, Miami or Sofia. One would almost try to start the conversation in English.”
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Responding to multiple questions concerning the rationale for an English album, and noting that languages are often associated with conflicts, Lara responded that she felt, with her new management team in place, the time had come to return to an English album. Furthermore, she added,
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“Between the different linguistic communities, Belgian and Canadian, there is a floating area that speaks to me because it reminds me not of a problem but an identity. These are places where we define ourselves by language. I dissociate myself a little because I come from an Italian mother, a Dutch-speaking grandmother, an American grandfather and a family where one spoke Spanish. So all these languages make the unique identity that I really attach to is the music that I want to do at a given moment. Depending on this desire, I choose a language that seems to me to be fair and that will enter in resonance with the music.
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To compound this seeming turn away from a francophone existence, Lara moved from Belgium to Spain. Here is an exchange typical of her explanation:
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Interviewer: You lived here in Waterloo. You left Belgium at the end of last year to go to Marbella, Spain. For what reasons?
LF: I wanted to finish writing the album and for that, I needed light. So we left with my family. I sold my villa in Waterloo.
Or again,
LF: “Ah, light, it changes a life! When one exchanges 360 days of rain against 360 days of sun, nothing is the same. You know, I really wonder why I was so late before making that choice of life! The only explanation is the family, the friends, all of whom are in Belgium. But at one point, we said to ourselves: go, we go down to the ground floor, we put everything in the car and we leave. An excellent decision!”
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What Lara didn’t say, and what one can infer from her subsequent comments, is that the problems in Belgium may have made her somewhat anxious about the safety of her family. At the time Lara moved (December 2016) Belgium had still not come out of Level 3 threat, and there was no indication when that would happen (and that is still the case today). Police operations are ongoing and there have been a number of police raids and arrests, relating to past and potential terrorist attacks. When Lara landed in Quebec, she said she and her family could not help noticing how ‘’gentle’ everything was, far from the strife being experienced in Europe. She did have to leave her mother behind, but in the hands of trusted relatives, and she visits when she can.
In addition, Lara’s URL site (www.larafabian.com) was refurbished, put back up, and – it is only in English, including Lara’s biography. It was said at the time that a French version would be added, but so far (9 months later), that has not taken place.
So…all of this would seem to set the stage for Lara to embrace the English portion of her career and potential audience in English speaking countries. Except…it never happened. Somehow it seems that Lara’s heart was not in it, and really never has been, going back to her first English album release in 2000. As she noted in one of the quotes above, French is her main language, and it seems as if that’s how she identifies herself. She can write and sing in English (and other languages) but it is not really “her”, not enough to allow her to immerse herself in the culture and media. A supposition, obviously, but the way things then developed in 2017 is consistent with that.
Lara gave a concert in London in March, which was mostly in French (a replay of the ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ tour), including only the three English language songs that normally have appeared (among them, ‘I Will Love Again’). As for not presenting an English language repertoire, Lara’s people subsequently explained that union rules demanded any songs not previously sung on tour required rehearsal time that was not available. That is understandable, but it was reported that Lara did not even mention the upcoming English album on stage. Her interviews with London media were with French language publications that appealed to the French speakers in England. Her only public comment that indirectly related to the new album was when she released a photo with the caption, “Thank you London, for this passionate "first kiss".... See you very soon!” If one thinks this means she will now return to London and give an English concert for the new album, think again. There is no such concert planned. Lara’s Team explained that she was ‘just there’, so there was no need to go again.
At the time the new album came out, when interest is highest, the promotion was almost exclusively in France, Belgium and Switzerland, to her normal French speaking audience. The one exception was Germany/Austria, where they obviously felt she had the greatest chance of making an impact. The plans at the time were apparently for the U.S. promotion to begin in October (in New York and Los Angeles, primarily), but that never happened, outside of a few articles published months ago. What intervened, we all know, is that Lara was invited to appear as a coach/judge on ‘La Voix’, the Quebec version of “The Voice”. The announcement was made in early October, and by the middle of the month Lara and her family had moved to Quebec. She thought of this as a “wonderful gift”, being able to return, at least for a time, to the place she says she has loved most of all, and indeed her welcome there has been glorious. Unfortunately, it had the effect of short-circuiting any planned English language promotion, as she was now firmly back in a francophone culture. The opportunity to pursue an English language audience at the time of the album release passed…and only time will tell whether it can be revived in conjunction with the tour (Lara’s people now say that the U.S. promotion will start in January). In the U.S., so far the primary publicity has been in French publications read by French speakers in that country, similar to the situation in England. Maybe they believe those are the only people who will turn out – they may be right, but without any English promotion it is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and so far there aren’t enough of them to populate most of the seats at Lara’s upcoming U.S. concerts.
With her return to Quebec and a French speaking culture, Lara, backed by a powerful media company, jumped into the full-scale media blitz we recognize from her. That does bring up another difference: Lara’s album was co-produced by her “9 Productions” and “Odacity” (which also serves as her management team). Again, one doesn’t know what ultimately would have been possible, but were Lara to have had the backing of a big record company, it’s possible a large-scale English promotion could have gone ahead despite these impediments. Who knows, however, whether any such company would have been interested in supporting her producing a new English album…and at least, this way, one has appeared that is to her liking (Lara said, in perhaps a burst of enthusiasm, that it is her all-time favorite album).
Indications from Lara’s people are that they were not looking for an album of hits for England or the U.S., but that it was really made for her international/world audience to support her tour. One could question whether that was the proper commercial strategy, but in any event, it has not had much commercial success in the general international arena either, in terms of sales; perhaps it will help Lara when she gives concerts for it on the world stage. As noted below, in many of these places her concerts have been sold out anyway with her French language songs.
**The album (Camouflage) itself: In describing the new album, Lara had this to say,
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“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.
Interviewer: The camouflage which is the question in the title of your album concerns the feelings that one tries to mask.
LF: Yes, it speaks of this capacity that we have to be able to show only a part of the story. Without wanting to summarize the album with this simple word, I wanted to enter into resonance with that which is happening in the world. We are all in great pain and, in the course of almost 50 years that I have spent on this earth, I even feel that the things are constantly getting worse. In this camouflage, there is for me the modesty but there is also a means of inviting the other to look further, to dig into this unveiled feeling and to go look for this zone which for me is vital, that of empathy. The camouflage of feelings can become an invitation to establish a link.[In another interview, she also notes that while establishing links is positive, if you camouflage your feelings too long, if you keep from showing your real self, that ends up having negative consequences].
Interviewer: You do not sing as loudly as before, does that translate to a global desire of saying things without having to spell them out?
LF: On certain songs, there are one or two contrary examples because, as a singer, that remains my prerogative. But when we decided to make electro-pop, the voice became an element among others and it should not arrive to you up front. I believe that this choice to sing less strong corresponds to the content of the album as well as to the time. In the years of the 90s, it was a good tone to deploy the voice at the maximum of its capacities, but I believe that the doing of singing consists of being in phase with its time and, today, we are more in nuance than the years of the 90s. Perhaps also my voice has transformed with the years and that certain notes which were very vibrant twenty years ago are a little less today.
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So Lara released an album that combined a more “electro-pop” sound with symphonic backing, and, except for one or two songs, a much more restrained vocal approach. The album itself got generally very good reviews – professionally done, with fine singing, instrumentation, interesting themes and catchy refrains – and it gets better the more one listens to it. Regardless of its commercial fate, it is certainly a success in terms of quality (and so deserves much greater recognition).
A significant number of her fans, and some reviewers, did regret her decision to go for ‘modernity’ as opposed to maximizing her (vocal) strengths, thinking also that to entice an English audience after all these years her album had to be spectacular (e.g., Adagio, Broken Vow), she had to lead putting her best foot forward. As Lara indicated, she and her Team felt a more modern sound would make for a more interesting and sell-able product. Unfortunately, that product has (as of yet) not appealed commercially to a world audience nor the French speaking public in any great numbers, and so far, it has been the worst selling full-scale album release of her career (total sales are likely under 10,000 discs). And without any English language promotion, and perhaps because it was more restrained vocally, it has never been visible to an English speaking audience (e.g., very few of the reviews have been in English). It is also possible that Lara is so defined in the minds of those who (even) think of her as a “singer of chansons” (as one German reviewer put it), that there was no way she could release one English album in more than a decade and expect an English audience or media to pay attention. Again, there is always the hope that this could change a bit in 2018, with her five city tour in the U.S. and (maybe) some promotion, but the odds would not appear to be in her favor. One expects she will still have obligations for La Voix that will keep her from really focusing elsewhere, such as on media opportunities in the U.S., and as Woody Allen said, “Showing up is 80% of life (and success)”.
Lara has referred to this album as a ‘linguistic passport’, allowing her to go to places she hasn’t been previously, performing what she indicates will be English language concerts that reproduce the album. And it’s true, that a few of her upcoming venues in Western Europe (e.g., in Italy) are new. But most of the planned concerts are in places she normally goes anyway, with her French language albums. [We’ll see if there are any concerts scheduled for Asia, or Brazil, or even English speaking Canada, where this album could make a difference – so far, apparently, no promoters have been willing to take that risk].
At this point, it looks like this English language album is destined to be a wonderful addition to her discography, and a gift to her fans, but a side step from her normal path, without leading to the greatly expanded international audience that once seemed like its real target. Hopefully events next year will alter this assessment.
**The return to Quebec: While this may have worked against a focus on the U.S. for Lara, it provided a wonderful increase in the quality of life for her and her family. Here’s what Lara had to say about it:
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Interviewer: You find yourself happy in Quebec?
LF: The light! The gentleness and kindness of the people. The sweetness of life. It changes your life. I feel that one is a little less touched here than in Europe, that doesn’t mean that one is less conscious of what happens elsewhere, but I feel a certain quietude.
Interviewer: How has your family welcomed this project?
LF: With a lot of love and enthusiasm, and with the spirit that is ours, that we do not separate, whatever happens.
Interviewer: Lou will pursue her schooling in Quebec?
LF: Yes, she’s already begun. She seems very happy, and, as her mom, that delights me.
Interviewer: Your lover has accepted this adventure happily?
LF: It is certain that it is destabilizing leaving a place that one knows well. When one is in Europe, and one has never lived in North America, it could appear to be the end of the world. I have the good luck of having an extremely caring husband. He is my great support. Right away, he told me it was perfectly normal for us to make this big trip together. After two or three days in Quebec, he declared: “I understand what you mean, when you speak of the light and kindness…” It goes well. I am lucky that my loves are doing well: that permits me to leave in the morning to do La Voix with serenity.
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And ‘doing well’ she certainly is. By being associated with La Voix, Lara is a ‘person of interest’ for the TVA Group, the leading media company that produces it. Her album is being presented to the (French) Canadian audience through the auspices of ‘Musicor’, part of the Quebecor Group Sports and Entertainment Company. The Musicor and Musicor Spectacles houses produce records, videos and shows, and Lara is now affiliated (once again) with that label in Quebec. The TVA Group is one of the company’s subsidiaries. So Lara has full-scale backing to appear on numerous TV shows and get as much publicity as she desires – and that all helps generate an audience for ‘La Voix’. The contrast with Lara’s situation for her album promotion elsewhere couldn’t be much starker. Nevertheless, it is the height of irony that when she finally returns to Quebec, it coincides with the time when she finally produces another English album – the worst possible combination for her. Therefore, she has made only a little headway with sales for Camouflage in the province (although her older songs have gotten renewed interest), and she currently has no concert dates planned there.
**Individual highlights: there were some special performances or activities during the year that deserve to be highlighted; they are listed chronologically below:
1) Duet of “Je t’aime” with Tony Carriera. He’s a noted Portuguese singer, and Lara’s duet with him (called “Um Amor Assim”) was a highlight in January. He released two albums which included it (‘Le Coeur des femmes’ in France, and ‘Sempre mais’ in Portugal), and there was also a music video. This follows Lara’s general approach of singing with well-known singers from different cultures (Greece, Turkey, etc.).
2) The “20 favorite duos of the French”. The show, which appeared on French TV in March, actually included two of Lara’s: her duet with Johnny Hallyday of “Requiem pour un fou” is one, and her duet with Maurane of “Tue es mon autre”, the other.
3) “22 mars Ensemble”. Lara joined more than 200 other singers at the Cirque Royal in Brussels on Wednesday March 22 for an evening of tributes to the victims of the March 22, 2016 attack. She presented the song, Relève-toi’, which was perfect, as it emphasizes one should stand up in the face of negativity.
4) The title song for the movie “Cello”. In May, Lara sang a wonderful song, “Remember Me" written by Randy Kerber and Glen Ballard; it was the song that ran under the credits for the short movie. The movie itself received various honors, including at the New York Film festival, where it won for Best Inspirational, and Best Drama, while ‘Remember Me’ won for best song.
5) Collaboration with “Les Friction”. In June, Lara sang with this indie rock band from Los Angeles on a song called ‘You Always Knew’. It was quite good, and got some press, for both them and her.
6) Master class at AICOM. At the end of June, Lara held a master class for this organization which trains musical comedy performers, and it received glowing notices. An article describing her activities read,
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“Throughout the day, several students went on stage to perform a song of their choice in front of the singer and their director to receive their benevolent counsel and advice and to take stock of their artistic evolution within AICOM . Each of the performances was a parenthesis full of emotion and authenticity, hailed by their comrades and professionals. They were the occasion to note a true collective solidarity spirit "between artist colleagues", as Lara pointed out. This masterclass also allowed the AICOMs to discover the singer in a particularly convivial and intimate context. Beyond the prodigious vocal mastery that we all know, her spontaneous, funny and above all attentive nature to each brought a lot of freshness and lightness to a moment of constructive work. Between personal anecdotes and lessons learned at every stage of her career, Lara provided valuable technical advice to the students. She stressed the importance of "letting go": release one’s jaw to better position one’s voice, breathe in as much as it takes to place one’s breaths accurately or to appropriate the space for a confident physical posture. While explaining these notions, she participated in the unavoidable exercise of the vocal warm-up with the pupils.”
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7) Les 50 chansons préférées des Français. Broadcast in October, Lara’s song “Je t’aime” came in #50, and Lara’s great performance of it was straight out of 20 years ago. It marks a final “Ha” for all those critics who have ridiculed the song (and shows Lara has not lost much vocal capacity).
8) “En direct de l’Univers”. Out of the many shows Lara has been on in Quebec, this show stand out, as it was dedicated to her. Broadcast in November on ICI Radio-Canada Télé, it disproved the old axiom that you can’t go home again. It was a televised ‘welcome home’ to Quebec for Lara, featuring her old friends from the province, from her earlier life there, from the beginning of her musical career. She talked about her history in Quebec, and the invited guests sang songs she preferred by Quebecois artists, both old and new, and a touch of her own music too. Included was Kim Richardson, one of her old backup singers, and her best friend Nathalie, with whom Lara did a brief duet of ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. George Perris even performed “Je suis malade”.
9) And on the many recent TV shows there, particularly noteworthy from December were: Lara’s appearance on “Belle et Bum” where she sang a medley of her old hits (including “Tu t’en vas”); on ‘Ensemble, pour Noel’ where she led an ensemble version of “Glory Halleluiah”; on “Deux filles le matin”, the ‘Noel Gospel’ show, she performed an amazing version of “Amazing Grace”; and on the show “Y'a du monde à messe”, broadcast on Christmas eve, a highlight was her singing “All I Want for Christmas Is You”.
10) As another type of ‘mark of distinction’, Lara received the “Commander of Walloon Merit” award. It is an honorary distinction of the Walloon Region [the French region of Belgium] and devotes the recognition of the Walloon authorities to "any natural or legal person whose talent or merit has done or does honor to Wallonia to an exceptional extent and thus contributes significantly to its influence.” Lara certainly fits that description!
**The use of Social Media: Throughout the year, Lara and her Team were once again quite generous in devoting their time and effort to keeping fans informed, primarily on her FB site, but via Instagram, and Twitter as well. They even organized a question and answer session with some of the Fan site administrators. Their actions have, once again, made Lara’s FB site the place to go for the latest information concerning her, and to assess whether something is true or not. We thank them for keeping us informed.
**Charity work: As usual, Lara had several contributions to charities that interest her. In May-June, she contributed about 80 (!) performance dresses, and also a dinner appearance with her (for 200) to auctions for the ‘Papillon Foundation’ that provides living spaces for orphan children and adolescents ages 6-18 (there are about 40,000 young orphans in Belgium). In December, she also helped support “Viva for Life” on the airwaves of Vivacité, to help raise money for poor children in Belgium (one in four lives in poverty).
** The deaths of Lara’s compatriots. One can’t let the year pass without noting the passing of two singers whom Lara had the fortune to share the stage with: Dmitri Hvorostovsky and Johnny Hallyday, who died within two weeks of each other in late November and early December. In both cases Lara produced some very wise and compassionate words of remembrance, copied below:
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First for Dimitri: “My dear friend, my dear Dima! I woke up this morning and unfortunately you were gone. I'm so sad we will no longer be able to hold you, and look at your beautiful face anymore. But I am sure of one thing: we will be hearing your voice here, in our hearts, forever. I love you. Be safe, wherever you went. Thank you for everything you gave to this universe through your music and your soul.”
Then for Johnny: “There are some people who pass in our lives and transform our destinies. Johnny, we'll miss you so much. This is what you are a creator of destinies, joys, happiness, infinite love. I cannot imagine that today you are already high among the stars and at the same time, that's where you come from, for me, and this is where you belong. Thank you, thank you for doing what you did in this life. All I want is that we can find you in the next one. See you soon somewhere.”
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Sad, but beautifully said.
**School for music: In various interviews this year, Lara has indicated her interest in establishing a school where she can teach singing – but not only the fundamentals of voice, but how to ‘survive’ in the profession, in other words, all that a new singer really needs to know. Here’s what Lara had to say:
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“All my life I’ve tried to be a ferryman [i.e., passer-on]. Old, I always see myself teaching, at the head of my own school of singing. I believe that it is an adventure made for me. I learned so much by doing this job. To sing, it is far from being sufficient, there is always a road to find between one’s art and oneself and those young people who tumble down into the profession, they are so unprepared. I believe it is also an adventure which arrives at a good moment. I am going to continue to write, to compose, to be on stage, but I am going to stop being a spinning top, always to the right and to the left. I have a desire to sit myself down and Quebec, which I love so much, seems to me to be the ideal place for that.”
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It sure sounds like she may well make Quebec her home base, even while occasionally (but less frequently) touring around the world.
IN SUMMARY: To return to the characterization of 2017 as a year of revised expectations - it was anticipated that the new English album, along with its associated tour, would revive Lara’s English language career. That has not happened, even though the album was, eventually, released, and is quite good. It may be argued that those were unrealistic expectations, and in retrospect, it looks like that, but some of Lara’s fans definitely had them; and it is extremely unlikely that Lara would have expected this to be the worst selling full-scale album release of her career. By the end of the year it almost seemed like an afterthought, with Lara’s return to Quebec, and appearance on La Voix, garnering most of the attention. She is definitely very happy being back in Quebec, but the lack of commercial success of Camouflage does raise questions about whether any further work in English lies in her future. Perhaps 2018, and the arrival of the tour, will reinvigorate sales and interest, for both Lara and her fans. Let’s hope so. Otherwise, Lara was in very good voice during the year, and her hearing problems no longer seemed to be an issue, so that was all quite good.
In the coming year, the tour as now configured will extend from February through September; we’ll see how many dates it actually encompasses. Lara will have to juggle the concerts with required TV recordings and appearances for “La Voix” during the first half of the year. At various points, Lara and her Team indicated they expected a new French album to be released next November, but that was when the tour was expected to end in June; that date may thus well slip. It therefore looks like 2018 could well continue this tension between Lara’s francophone and international careers/languages. There is also the question of where she and her family will live; now that they have set sail from Belgium, as Lara has said, she is free to travel, but continued residence in Quebec, and the possible opening of a singing school there, might be a good bet. Given how poorly our expectations turned out for this year, we shouldn’t be surprised if the reality ends up much different.
But whatever occurs, may 2018 by a happy, healthy and successful one for Lara and all her fans.
David
