Post by davidhr on Dec 14, 2008 15:55:26 GMT -5
Despite the lack of public appearances, Lara has managed to stay in the news the last few weeks, with somewhat mixed results from a publicity standpoint. This past week she appeared briefly (for about 20 seconds) on TV France M6 in a show (“zone interdite”) reporting on the extravagant wedding of a Russian millionaire. Towards the end of the program, which was filmed in September, Lara showed up to provide him and his wife a private concert. There were brief clips of her singing “Adagio” and “Angel”, and of her greeting them, while receiving flowers from him (she is apparently his wife’s favorite singer). For this performance she was reportedly paid 150,000 euros.
While the event was obviously her own business, it did provoke some ridicule, on various websites and in the press. Here, for example, is the translation of an article that appeared at:
www.purepeople.com/20827-Pour-150-000-euros-Lara-Fabian-chante-dans-votre-salon-.html
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FOR 150,000 EUROS, LARA FABIAN SINGS IN…YOUR LIVING ROOM!
Since the birth of her daugher Lou, Lara Fabian has become scarce, very scarce. While her next album, “Toutes les femmes”, will be on the shelves next March 9th, we have discovered a small anecdote on the subject of the singer, which calls out to us a little bit.
Yesterday evening in “Zone Interdite”, the magazine, whose presentation is now in the hands of the pretty Claire Barsacq since Melissa Theuriau has stopped working to give birth to her baby boy, investigated people who do not know about any financial crisis. Among them, a couple of Russians whose marriage had been celebrated in Cannes last August. The Russian millionaire, 34 years old, offered to his sweetheart, and especially to her for she is a fan of the singer, a private concert by Lara Fabian.
What a surprise on hearing the voice of Lara in such a context! Finally, when an official voice announces that it is for the modest sum of 150,000 euros that Lara has given her mini-concert, one understands better why she does it! And more, she leaves with flowers!
Woaa, this is what one calls an efficiently conducted operation!
To discover Lara Fabian as you will never see her – unless you have 150,000 euros to put in commerce – click here and advance to 1h36minutes. [This is a reference to the TV6 replay site, which is only available to people within France.] Respect Madame Fabian!
Marine Trévillot
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The response of the fans was about evenly weighted. A number of people defended Lara from a practical standpoint, as wise not to pass up such an opportunity. But there were an equal number who felt she was putting herself in a bad position, both from a publicity standpoint and also ‘morally’. They pointed out that she had cancelled her appearances at two charity programs because the promotion for the new album had been pushed back – and yet she was willing to make private appearances for her own personal gain. [In her defense, the private concert was in August, before she knew the album had to be redone…]. Others suggested that independent of the question of doing it in the first place, it was unwise to let herself be filmed, for it makes her seem unprofessional.
One way to look at this is that it is simply another tempest in a teapot, driven by Lara’s lack of public appearances and in lieu of anything else for the press/fans to talk about. However, the job of a public relations firm would be to weed out anything that could hurt the public image of their client before it takes place, rather than be surprised by it after the fact – and Lara clearly does not have such help. The official site eventually decided the whole discussion was not being respectful to Lara (despite how the article ended) and removed the whole topic from the forum.
Lara has had several other publicity events in the last few weeks, of a more benign nature. She appeared via tape last November 30th on the program "Panique dans l'oreillette" on France 2, dedicated to Serge Lama. She discussed the fact that he sends her ‘sms’ and text messages, and finished by saying that she adored him, and thanked him for giving her a chance to sing “Je suis malade” in his concert in 1995 (which opened the doors for her return to Europe). A video of this is available on Youtube, e.g.,
fr.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPuZeJFtyE
In addition, this past week Lara was discussed on the program of J. L. Delarue. Apparently, a girl with Down’s syndrome was very upset that she had not gotten Lara’s autograph, and when the comedienne Virginia Hocq (who we know is a friend of Lara’s) found out about it, she arranged for them to meet. It was reported to be a very touching moment, and Lara was ‘showered with compliments’.
The website ‘larafabianweb.com’ sends money to AMTM from subscriber's fees to its multimedia site for Lara. In response to their last submission, they were told that Lara had recently informed them that she would be doing some projects (yet to be crystallized) for the charity in 2009. This is the first news of Lara’s continued interaction with them in several years; a few fans said they would wait to convince themselves that whatever she agrees to do would not subsequently be cancelled, having had that experience in the past!
Finally, Lara’s duet on the new Mario Frangoulis album of “All Alone Am I” is not yet available on iTunes (for those who don’t want to buy the full album). It will be great to hear the professionally recorded version.
David
While the event was obviously her own business, it did provoke some ridicule, on various websites and in the press. Here, for example, is the translation of an article that appeared at:
www.purepeople.com/20827-Pour-150-000-euros-Lara-Fabian-chante-dans-votre-salon-.html
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
FOR 150,000 EUROS, LARA FABIAN SINGS IN…YOUR LIVING ROOM!
Since the birth of her daugher Lou, Lara Fabian has become scarce, very scarce. While her next album, “Toutes les femmes”, will be on the shelves next March 9th, we have discovered a small anecdote on the subject of the singer, which calls out to us a little bit.
Yesterday evening in “Zone Interdite”, the magazine, whose presentation is now in the hands of the pretty Claire Barsacq since Melissa Theuriau has stopped working to give birth to her baby boy, investigated people who do not know about any financial crisis. Among them, a couple of Russians whose marriage had been celebrated in Cannes last August. The Russian millionaire, 34 years old, offered to his sweetheart, and especially to her for she is a fan of the singer, a private concert by Lara Fabian.
What a surprise on hearing the voice of Lara in such a context! Finally, when an official voice announces that it is for the modest sum of 150,000 euros that Lara has given her mini-concert, one understands better why she does it! And more, she leaves with flowers!
Woaa, this is what one calls an efficiently conducted operation!
To discover Lara Fabian as you will never see her – unless you have 150,000 euros to put in commerce – click here and advance to 1h36minutes. [This is a reference to the TV6 replay site, which is only available to people within France.] Respect Madame Fabian!
Marine Trévillot
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The response of the fans was about evenly weighted. A number of people defended Lara from a practical standpoint, as wise not to pass up such an opportunity. But there were an equal number who felt she was putting herself in a bad position, both from a publicity standpoint and also ‘morally’. They pointed out that she had cancelled her appearances at two charity programs because the promotion for the new album had been pushed back – and yet she was willing to make private appearances for her own personal gain. [In her defense, the private concert was in August, before she knew the album had to be redone…]. Others suggested that independent of the question of doing it in the first place, it was unwise to let herself be filmed, for it makes her seem unprofessional.
One way to look at this is that it is simply another tempest in a teapot, driven by Lara’s lack of public appearances and in lieu of anything else for the press/fans to talk about. However, the job of a public relations firm would be to weed out anything that could hurt the public image of their client before it takes place, rather than be surprised by it after the fact – and Lara clearly does not have such help. The official site eventually decided the whole discussion was not being respectful to Lara (despite how the article ended) and removed the whole topic from the forum.
Lara has had several other publicity events in the last few weeks, of a more benign nature. She appeared via tape last November 30th on the program "Panique dans l'oreillette" on France 2, dedicated to Serge Lama. She discussed the fact that he sends her ‘sms’ and text messages, and finished by saying that she adored him, and thanked him for giving her a chance to sing “Je suis malade” in his concert in 1995 (which opened the doors for her return to Europe). A video of this is available on Youtube, e.g.,
fr.youtube.com/watch?v=YcPuZeJFtyE
In addition, this past week Lara was discussed on the program of J. L. Delarue. Apparently, a girl with Down’s syndrome was very upset that she had not gotten Lara’s autograph, and when the comedienne Virginia Hocq (who we know is a friend of Lara’s) found out about it, she arranged for them to meet. It was reported to be a very touching moment, and Lara was ‘showered with compliments’.
The website ‘larafabianweb.com’ sends money to AMTM from subscriber's fees to its multimedia site for Lara. In response to their last submission, they were told that Lara had recently informed them that she would be doing some projects (yet to be crystallized) for the charity in 2009. This is the first news of Lara’s continued interaction with them in several years; a few fans said they would wait to convince themselves that whatever she agrees to do would not subsequently be cancelled, having had that experience in the past!
Finally, Lara’s duet on the new Mario Frangoulis album of “All Alone Am I” is not yet available on iTunes (for those who don’t want to buy the full album). It will be great to hear the professionally recorded version.
David
