Post by davidhr on Apr 26, 2011 12:27:05 GMT -5
Lara’s Canadian ‘best-of’ received some publicity this past week, chiefly through an article in ‘Le Journal de Montrealâ€, provided by ‘Wendy’ in the official site forum, at
www.canoe.com/divertissement/musique/nouvelles/2011/04/21/18052246-jdm.html
In it, Lara commented on various things; chief points are indicated below:
**The choice of songs was made first, by including the biggest hits, then the three previously ‘unrecorded songs’, and finally additional titles that she particularly loves.
**The song most loved by Quebecois is ‘Si tu m’aimes’, followed by ‘Tu t’em vas’ (as shown to her by their reception at her concerts there).
**The success that she’s having in the ‘countries to the east, particularly Russia’ is somewhat mystifying to her. “Perhaps the emotions are, after all - whatever one thinks about it - perhaps not so different from one country to another. (...) Apart from the fact that I'm getting older and I'm trying to evolve, I've never really changed my recipe. I am the artist I am, I write the songs I write and I sing them the way you know. "
**She’s thinking about an upcoming album, but it needs more time. “I am resting now. I had not really stopped for three years and although I have not proposed an album of original music since 2005, I need more time, I still need a little space, and silences to get there. " "I really, really work hard. I confess that I need a little time, a moment of silence, no more no less, so that music will recur, so I know again where to direct myself, "she says.
**About Quebec: "First, this is the place I chose to start: it was my second birth, my will to live. I did not arrive there by chance, nobody forced me to stay. I came, I felt totally in harmony, I adapted, I have developed relationships, both in my profession and in my life. "
**Eventually, she promises that she will be back on stage in Quebec. "Anytime. (...) I think anyway it would be a logical consequence of an outflow of best-of and a summary of life at mid-term review. I think it will happen, I trust. "
The 5 songs that have marked her career (in her opinion):
1. Je t’aime. “It’s really the one that has rallied a massive crowd of people on both sides of the Francophone world.â€
2. Tout. “This is the first one that I wrote which was the bridge between Quebec and France.â€
3.Je n’arrêterai pas de t’aimer. "It was very important in my career in Quebec. (...) In absolute terms, it is my first steps in writing - I was 17 when I wrote this song, lyrics and music - and this is one of the songs that made me really popular with Quebeckers. "
4. Si tu m’aimes."It has perpetuated a bit what was going on between me and Quebeckers."
5. I Will Love Again. "This is when I go to another stage in my life where I sing in the world. It has been nearly 50 weeks at number one on Billboard with this song. "
We will see if concerts do materialize in Quebec. However, one point Lara is now making in all her interviews, is that she needs rest (see also below). She indicates here that no absolute decision has yet been made concerning an upcoming album, so any predictions (e.g., ‘Le Secret’) and timing should be viewed skeptically at this point. It does seem that she’s leaning toward it being in French – note her comment about not having an original album since 2005 (i.e., ‘Neuf’), hence referring to the last French album (ignoring ‘Mlle. Zhivago’).
Farfallina 20 is now out, and it turns out that after five years, it will be the last one. Lara indicates that there will be other ways found to keep in touch with her fans, more often than every three months. The issue covers topics including her ‘journey to the east’, about Yannick her bodyguard, with additional contributions from fans and of course some nice pictures…Key points in this regard are:
**Lara admits she was a little ambitious thinking she could do two promotions at once, 'Mlle. Zhivago' in Russia, etc. and the ‘Best of’ in France.
**She doesn’t think she will transition to another career, i.e., acting – music is her career.
**She believes she is still loved by fans in France for the very reason that others don’t like her – her dramatic presentations of songs.
**She is excited about interacting with a new audience and going new places, so she will do a 40 concert tour from Sept-November in the ‘countries to the east’ (where Mlle. Zhivago has sold extremely well). She’s in love with Russian culture – and says they don’t inquire about her personal life! [Actually, we saw that they do…].
**Security was very tight in Moscow for her concerts, and rules were followed rigorously. She met and sang for Putin, and also for Medvedev, with whom she danced!
**The Chinese New Year show was recorded on her birthday (January 9th), was filmed by BETW, France 2 local, with some 400 people involved.
**For her performance at the opening of the Asian games, 50,000 people attended, and it was watched by 570,000 on TV. Singing before these many people brought back the same sensations that she had when singing before the big crowd with Johnny Hallyday – not only nerves, but fear! and she had to calm herself down so that she could be carried by the great energy that was present. It was acknowledged to be a great success. The song “Always†will be on the soundtrack for “Mademoiselle Zhivagoâ€. [This answers the question of where it will appear].
**The last year and a half has been one of tremendous amount of work, which has affected her health (both physically and psychologically), but it has shown her that she can push her limits beyond what she had thought possible. The “Mlle. Zhivago†tour she did at the end of the year was the most trying of any she’s ever done. She says she truly needs a little rest!
**She views the ‘best of’ release (in France) to be the most complete vision of the 20 years of her career. With respect to the song ‘Ensemble’, she felt like a little girl singing in response to ‘the masterâ€, Ray Charles.
Lara-Pure.fr has made scans of the issue available on-line (see, e.g., larafabiannews.com).
The idea that Lara will interact with her public more quickly and completely than she has done with Farfallina is on the surface a good one, but will it really happen? At least with the four Farfallina issues each year, one knew that something would be provided…given the distance between Lara’s goals and their coming to fruition, the possibility arises that Farfallina will be replaced by, basically, nothing. If so, it will be very hard to maintain a fan club base.
Now for the next points from the biography of Lara, pp. 101-105.
**Lara started working on the first English album in 1998, but it wasn’t ready for release until the last half of 1999/first half of 2000. Undoubtedly the long time-lag had to do with disagreements over the songs, although the book doesn’t draw this conclusion per se.
**The album was released first in Europe – a seemingly odd choice, except that Lara kept saying it is not an ‘American' album, but an English album for the whole world’. During the fall of 1999 and spring of 2000 the promotion was basically in France and then the rest of western Europe.
**The American release kept getting delayed, so much so that rumors suggested it had been cancelled. But no, according to the book the reason for the delay was that the countries in western Europe kept demanding Lara be present there to promote it, given that it was getting such a good reception. It finally made its debut in America on May 30, 2000.
**Rick Allison actually came up with the idea of Lara’s doing the song ‘Adagio’ – something that came to him as he woke up one morning. The music by Tomaso Albinoni was something Lara knew very well, because she had played it often on the piano, following her mother’s love of it. Even while Lara was still considering the possibility, Rick was arranging for the musicians who would play on it.
**The video for it, with Lara in a leather jacket (her idea) and boots, was directed by Franco Dragon (the director of Cirque du Soleil) – like Lara he is the product of an-Italian mother and Belgian father, and also like Lara, had left Belgium to go live in Quebec. He worked with Bill Pope, the cinematographer who did Matrix, Alien, Thelma and Louise, etc. – Pope said he only did it because he had wanted to work with Dragon. It was shot in an abandoned theatre in Hollywood imitating, perhaps, the Louvre, where the paintings in the background were all related to the song’s “search for eternal loveâ€.
**Lara thought that ‘Adagio’ would be the big hit in Europe, but no, it was “I Will Love Again†that generated all the buzz, there as well as in America. So much so that three separate clips were filmed of it, including the Spanish language version “Otra amor vendraâ€.
**Lara’s ‘assault’ on the American media took place following the album’s release, in June 2000. By July she was back in France with a month-long tour.
Hopefully Lara is catching up on the rest she so clearly desires, as nothing is scheduled for her publicly. The fans have been active however; larafabianweb.com has provided what they consider the ‘definitive’ lyrics from ‘Mlle. Zhivago’, determined from repeated listenings. It is actually still not completely correct, as they have misunderstood some of the English words (if not the others) – we won’t know for sure until the official transcriptions come out (if they ever do). Nevertheless, I have incorporated their ideas with what we had previously (which also were not completely correct), and the updated English version is available in the 'Mlle Zhivago' topic.
David
www.canoe.com/divertissement/musique/nouvelles/2011/04/21/18052246-jdm.html
In it, Lara commented on various things; chief points are indicated below:
**The choice of songs was made first, by including the biggest hits, then the three previously ‘unrecorded songs’, and finally additional titles that she particularly loves.
**The song most loved by Quebecois is ‘Si tu m’aimes’, followed by ‘Tu t’em vas’ (as shown to her by their reception at her concerts there).
**The success that she’s having in the ‘countries to the east, particularly Russia’ is somewhat mystifying to her. “Perhaps the emotions are, after all - whatever one thinks about it - perhaps not so different from one country to another. (...) Apart from the fact that I'm getting older and I'm trying to evolve, I've never really changed my recipe. I am the artist I am, I write the songs I write and I sing them the way you know. "
**She’s thinking about an upcoming album, but it needs more time. “I am resting now. I had not really stopped for three years and although I have not proposed an album of original music since 2005, I need more time, I still need a little space, and silences to get there. " "I really, really work hard. I confess that I need a little time, a moment of silence, no more no less, so that music will recur, so I know again where to direct myself, "she says.
**About Quebec: "First, this is the place I chose to start: it was my second birth, my will to live. I did not arrive there by chance, nobody forced me to stay. I came, I felt totally in harmony, I adapted, I have developed relationships, both in my profession and in my life. "
**Eventually, she promises that she will be back on stage in Quebec. "Anytime. (...) I think anyway it would be a logical consequence of an outflow of best-of and a summary of life at mid-term review. I think it will happen, I trust. "
The 5 songs that have marked her career (in her opinion):
1. Je t’aime. “It’s really the one that has rallied a massive crowd of people on both sides of the Francophone world.â€
2. Tout. “This is the first one that I wrote which was the bridge between Quebec and France.â€
3.Je n’arrêterai pas de t’aimer. "It was very important in my career in Quebec. (...) In absolute terms, it is my first steps in writing - I was 17 when I wrote this song, lyrics and music - and this is one of the songs that made me really popular with Quebeckers. "
4. Si tu m’aimes."It has perpetuated a bit what was going on between me and Quebeckers."
5. I Will Love Again. "This is when I go to another stage in my life where I sing in the world. It has been nearly 50 weeks at number one on Billboard with this song. "
We will see if concerts do materialize in Quebec. However, one point Lara is now making in all her interviews, is that she needs rest (see also below). She indicates here that no absolute decision has yet been made concerning an upcoming album, so any predictions (e.g., ‘Le Secret’) and timing should be viewed skeptically at this point. It does seem that she’s leaning toward it being in French – note her comment about not having an original album since 2005 (i.e., ‘Neuf’), hence referring to the last French album (ignoring ‘Mlle. Zhivago’).
Farfallina 20 is now out, and it turns out that after five years, it will be the last one. Lara indicates that there will be other ways found to keep in touch with her fans, more often than every three months. The issue covers topics including her ‘journey to the east’, about Yannick her bodyguard, with additional contributions from fans and of course some nice pictures…Key points in this regard are:
**Lara admits she was a little ambitious thinking she could do two promotions at once, 'Mlle. Zhivago' in Russia, etc. and the ‘Best of’ in France.
**She doesn’t think she will transition to another career, i.e., acting – music is her career.
**She believes she is still loved by fans in France for the very reason that others don’t like her – her dramatic presentations of songs.
**She is excited about interacting with a new audience and going new places, so she will do a 40 concert tour from Sept-November in the ‘countries to the east’ (where Mlle. Zhivago has sold extremely well). She’s in love with Russian culture – and says they don’t inquire about her personal life! [Actually, we saw that they do…].
**Security was very tight in Moscow for her concerts, and rules were followed rigorously. She met and sang for Putin, and also for Medvedev, with whom she danced!
**The Chinese New Year show was recorded on her birthday (January 9th), was filmed by BETW, France 2 local, with some 400 people involved.
**For her performance at the opening of the Asian games, 50,000 people attended, and it was watched by 570,000 on TV. Singing before these many people brought back the same sensations that she had when singing before the big crowd with Johnny Hallyday – not only nerves, but fear! and she had to calm herself down so that she could be carried by the great energy that was present. It was acknowledged to be a great success. The song “Always†will be on the soundtrack for “Mademoiselle Zhivagoâ€. [This answers the question of where it will appear].
**The last year and a half has been one of tremendous amount of work, which has affected her health (both physically and psychologically), but it has shown her that she can push her limits beyond what she had thought possible. The “Mlle. Zhivago†tour she did at the end of the year was the most trying of any she’s ever done. She says she truly needs a little rest!
**She views the ‘best of’ release (in France) to be the most complete vision of the 20 years of her career. With respect to the song ‘Ensemble’, she felt like a little girl singing in response to ‘the masterâ€, Ray Charles.
Lara-Pure.fr has made scans of the issue available on-line (see, e.g., larafabiannews.com).
The idea that Lara will interact with her public more quickly and completely than she has done with Farfallina is on the surface a good one, but will it really happen? At least with the four Farfallina issues each year, one knew that something would be provided…given the distance between Lara’s goals and their coming to fruition, the possibility arises that Farfallina will be replaced by, basically, nothing. If so, it will be very hard to maintain a fan club base.
Now for the next points from the biography of Lara, pp. 101-105.
**Lara started working on the first English album in 1998, but it wasn’t ready for release until the last half of 1999/first half of 2000. Undoubtedly the long time-lag had to do with disagreements over the songs, although the book doesn’t draw this conclusion per se.
**The album was released first in Europe – a seemingly odd choice, except that Lara kept saying it is not an ‘American' album, but an English album for the whole world’. During the fall of 1999 and spring of 2000 the promotion was basically in France and then the rest of western Europe.
**The American release kept getting delayed, so much so that rumors suggested it had been cancelled. But no, according to the book the reason for the delay was that the countries in western Europe kept demanding Lara be present there to promote it, given that it was getting such a good reception. It finally made its debut in America on May 30, 2000.
**Rick Allison actually came up with the idea of Lara’s doing the song ‘Adagio’ – something that came to him as he woke up one morning. The music by Tomaso Albinoni was something Lara knew very well, because she had played it often on the piano, following her mother’s love of it. Even while Lara was still considering the possibility, Rick was arranging for the musicians who would play on it.
**The video for it, with Lara in a leather jacket (her idea) and boots, was directed by Franco Dragon (the director of Cirque du Soleil) – like Lara he is the product of an-Italian mother and Belgian father, and also like Lara, had left Belgium to go live in Quebec. He worked with Bill Pope, the cinematographer who did Matrix, Alien, Thelma and Louise, etc. – Pope said he only did it because he had wanted to work with Dragon. It was shot in an abandoned theatre in Hollywood imitating, perhaps, the Louvre, where the paintings in the background were all related to the song’s “search for eternal loveâ€.
**Lara thought that ‘Adagio’ would be the big hit in Europe, but no, it was “I Will Love Again†that generated all the buzz, there as well as in America. So much so that three separate clips were filmed of it, including the Spanish language version “Otra amor vendraâ€.
**Lara’s ‘assault’ on the American media took place following the album’s release, in June 2000. By July she was back in France with a month-long tour.
Hopefully Lara is catching up on the rest she so clearly desires, as nothing is scheduled for her publicly. The fans have been active however; larafabianweb.com has provided what they consider the ‘definitive’ lyrics from ‘Mlle. Zhivago’, determined from repeated listenings. It is actually still not completely correct, as they have misunderstood some of the English words (if not the others) – we won’t know for sure until the official transcriptions come out (if they ever do). Nevertheless, I have incorporated their ideas with what we had previously (which also were not completely correct), and the updated English version is available in the 'Mlle Zhivago' topic.
David