Post by davidhr on Jan 22, 2013 11:04:20 GMT -5
The radio show featuring Lara’s songs on RB1 took place this past week. The songs were voted on by fans, and some 40 songs were played during the three hour show. Surprisingly, included were some 8 songs (i.e., 20% of the total) from ‘A Wonderful Life’. These were not the most obvious choices as that was not the most obvious of Lara’s CDs in Belgium and France. Though AWL was released in those countries, it had very little promotion, and of course is in English; none of her English language releases have done particularly well there. According to ‘Charts in France’, AWL remained in the top 150 for 17 weeks, best position being #8 (total sales ~100,000, same approximately as EWIM). (That can be compared with TLFM, nominally thought of as a ‘flop’, which lasted for 46 weeks, top position #3, total sales ~225,000). It would have been interesting to see how AWL would have sold had it been released in any English speaking country and promoted worldwide. According to Lara, Sony apparently spent over a million dollars to make it, but became discouraged when ‘The Last Goodbye’ was not an immediate hit in the U.S. (among a host of other problems). Lara said years later that she was approached about having it ‘re-released’ but refused, saying its time had passed. Lara has often said she doesn’t look back…
(This is certainly not true of many of her fan sites – given the lack of new material this week, they’ve taken to posting videos of Lara from the past).
It was announced this week that Lara will give a ‘Best of’ concert in Volgagrad, Russia, March 13th. Tickets are already available. What makes this particularly interesting is that Lara is no longer confining her Russian appearances to ‘tours’, TV shows, or special events, but feels free to give concerts at any time - a clear sign of her increasing confidence and sense of belonging in that country. This ‘scandalous’ behavior has caused new concerns among her French speaking fans, although they can find some solace. Larafabianweb.com has been updating their list of concerts scheduled for the ‘Le Secret’ tour (something that Lara has still not done on her FB site), and so far there are four concerts set for Belgium in Sept-Oct 2013.
For that coming tour as a whole, one sees different numbers of dates given – 100 concerts is the most quoted value, but 150 has also been mentioned. It raises again the question of exactly what will Lara be promoting (other than herself). It’s hard to believe that all of this is for ‘Le Secret’, given that we heard the venues will include western Europe, New York, etc., not likely hotspots for a French language album. When the Mlle. Zhivago CD (the Russian version) was first released, Igor Krutoi said in interviews that it would be promoted around the world, including exactly those locations that are now being mentioned for this upcoming tour. That disc would be far more appropriate for those venues…perhaps we’ll see one of the MZ versions, or even a new amalgam re-released (perhaps even including Mama, which is in English). As Lara is now in charge of her own record release ‘destiny’, anything is possible.
The Voice 2 starts on French TV Feb. 2; we’re still waiting to hear the official date(s) of Lara’s participation. However, Rozenn on a Twitter site mentioned that an assistant of Florent Pagny gave the dates of March 2 and 9th.
If Lara really was in Quebec this past week, there was no publicity associated with her visit. And nothing is on her public schedule for the upcoming week.
David
(This is certainly not true of many of her fan sites – given the lack of new material this week, they’ve taken to posting videos of Lara from the past).
It was announced this week that Lara will give a ‘Best of’ concert in Volgagrad, Russia, March 13th. Tickets are already available. What makes this particularly interesting is that Lara is no longer confining her Russian appearances to ‘tours’, TV shows, or special events, but feels free to give concerts at any time - a clear sign of her increasing confidence and sense of belonging in that country. This ‘scandalous’ behavior has caused new concerns among her French speaking fans, although they can find some solace. Larafabianweb.com has been updating their list of concerts scheduled for the ‘Le Secret’ tour (something that Lara has still not done on her FB site), and so far there are four concerts set for Belgium in Sept-Oct 2013.
For that coming tour as a whole, one sees different numbers of dates given – 100 concerts is the most quoted value, but 150 has also been mentioned. It raises again the question of exactly what will Lara be promoting (other than herself). It’s hard to believe that all of this is for ‘Le Secret’, given that we heard the venues will include western Europe, New York, etc., not likely hotspots for a French language album. When the Mlle. Zhivago CD (the Russian version) was first released, Igor Krutoi said in interviews that it would be promoted around the world, including exactly those locations that are now being mentioned for this upcoming tour. That disc would be far more appropriate for those venues…perhaps we’ll see one of the MZ versions, or even a new amalgam re-released (perhaps even including Mama, which is in English). As Lara is now in charge of her own record release ‘destiny’, anything is possible.
The Voice 2 starts on French TV Feb. 2; we’re still waiting to hear the official date(s) of Lara’s participation. However, Rozenn on a Twitter site mentioned that an assistant of Florent Pagny gave the dates of March 2 and 9th.
If Lara really was in Quebec this past week, there was no publicity associated with her visit. And nothing is on her public schedule for the upcoming week.
David
