Post by davidhr on Dec 29, 2015 11:34:11 GMT -5
2015: The Year of the Return
[Note - all interviews, reviews, etc. printed here have been translated into English...]
At the end of 2014, Lara had several projects lined up for the coming year, but we mentioned at the time that a lot depended on her health; would she be able to remain active in the face of an ailment that had the potential to flare up at any time, and derail her career? As it turns out, she was, and that led to a highly productive year for her, in many ways the best in over a decade.
The year basically can be viewed as two halves; the first half focused on her international audience, and the second on the Francophile fans. We’ll discuss it in that light, basically in the geographical order in which events occurred, although there are some overlaps and jumps.
I. The International Career
RUSSIA: It may surprise some to see this country lead off the year in review, since it did not get much focus in 2015, but at the beginning of the year in particular Lara did have some relevant activity. As had been the case for the past few years, Lara appeared (pre-recorded) on the Russian TV show ‘Song of the Year’, performing ‘Love of Tired Swans’ (the Russian version of the song with the same music as ‘Je t’aime encore'). Shortly thereafter, the full video of the Krutoi gala concert from December (with Lara’s participation) was shown on Russian TV, and, shortly after that, in what was a great surprise to Lara’s fans (and even to Alan Badoev, its director), the somewhat abridged version of the ‘Mademoiselle Zhivago’ film also got a full viewing on Russia 1 TV. Badoev said at the time that that wouldn’t’ have happened without Lara’s approval, and he had hopes that the full ‘director’s cut' would then be made available, possibly on Ukrainian TV. So far it hasn’t happened…
Although not taking place in Russia, Lara’s appearance in early February at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn was on behalf of the latest Igor Krutoi 60th birthday gala presentation. She had a number of songs to sing, and did a wonderful job before an almost completely Russian audience; she even got a ‘tweet’ from the Barclay Center saying “What a beautiful performance by Lara Fabian!”. At the time Lara indicated how proud she was to be working with Krutoi, someone “whom she loves, musically and humanly, at the boundaries of modern Russian music.”
Additional interactions with Krutoi and Russia came in November with, first, the release of two songs whose music was written by him, ‘C’est ma terre’ and ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’, included on the CD that came with the ‘deluxe’ package of her new album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’. In addition, the movie version of Lara’s recorded ‘best of’ concert in Prague, ‘Un soir autour du monde’ was shown in over 30 cities in Russia, and the Russian “Lara Fabian Connecting People” site even organized a party for it at a theater in Moscow. After this widespread showing, there was many articles about Lara in Russian papers.
However…for the first time in a decade, when healthy, Lara did not offer summer concerts in Russia, and did not attend the ‘New Wave Festival’ that historically had brought together singers from western Europe and Russia in a joint event for the benefit of young entertainers. The festival in fact was moved from its scheduled August date in Latvia to Russia in October, when Latvian authorities could not guarantee visas for some Russian singers, the result of East-West friction over Russia’s actions in the Ukraine. Krutoi explained Lara’s absence by saying she was too busy with her new album – which might have had some truth to it in October, but she hadn’t been scheduled for the earlier date anyway (and she gave October concerts in Turkey). It is rumored that the ‘second’ Mademoiselle Zhivago’ album with Krutoi has been ready for over a year but is being blocked; this is so far unsubstantiated, but we have heard some six pre-recorded songs which Lara wrote together with Krutoi and performed at previous New Wave festivals. None of these recordings has yet shown up officially, and at one point Lara spoke openly about this album.
During the course of the year, Lara was asked in various interviews how she could justify working in Russia when it had done so much to irritate the international community – and in her case in particular, when its official position with respect to homophobia was in such contrast to the two songs she had written supporting LGBT rights. Lara’s response was consistent; she said she was totally apolitical, passing her values along through her music in an apolitical way. This, she felt, would help to raise people up, regardless of the leaders, to touch them directly. She said she had never been prevented from singing her songs there – and if that were to happen, she would leave or wouldn’t go. When asked if she didn’t have a role to play that was more political, since she went around the world, if she didn’t’ think she could do more to have countries take a step forward for human rights, she said she didn’t have the requisite knowledge, that she would have to spend all her time on politics to make proper judgments, and that she would probably be ineffectual anyway. That her very appearance was in fact a political statement for her causes, and there were ways other than political to influence people, e.g., she felt her music could act as a ‘detox’, a ‘smoothie’ to clean out poisons and settle emotions. She said, “In a totally apolitical way, the aim of an artist is to continue to pass her values through music. When I sing “Deux ils, deux elles” or “La Difference” [the songs whose subject is homosexuality, note], people get up in Moscow! In Russia and Ukraine, there is a kind of silence after the song, just seconds before people rose and applauded that simply says 'Thank you'. "
There is no way to know how much the scrutiny of the press has affected Lara’s Russian activities, but the events in November suggest Lara has not given up on her Russian fans. In fact, there was this exchange on her FB site: “Vanessa Karapetyan: “Please come to Russia I will write it in every post because you are my life, Lara And I want to see you.” The response was, “Hello Vanessa! Lara will surely perform again in Russia too! Team Lara”. The ‘proof of the pudding’ in this regard will be whether Lara resumes her Russian concert tours, e.g., for the new album or another album with Krutoi. Until that time, there will be the appearance that she feels constrained in going there.
BELARUS: In a related development, in May Lara performed at yet another gala with Krutoi, this one in Minsk. Lara sang a number of songs, primarily from the Mademoiselle Zhivago album, and got great reviews. Many notables from that country were in the audience and the event was highly publicized. Even though practically no one in the audience understood French, Lara said her goal was to share emotions with the audience. With respect to the above comments on ‘political correctness’ (for which Belarus is also taken to task): no word of this event was provided on Lara’s FB site.
ITALY: While Russia did not get is usual attention, Italy (finally) received theirs. Innumerable times Lara has referred to herself as ‘basically Italian’ from her Sicilian mother’s side, and she has made aborted attempts before to find a foothold in that country (e.g., with Gigi d’Alessio, a few years ago). This time she made a big splash by appearing as a ‘foreign’ competitor in the famous ‘San Remo’ festival in February. A song was especially written for/with her, ‘Voce’, an optimistic anthem. She sang it twice at the festival itself (and one additional time on a TV show subsequently), plus she gave a resounding performance of “Sto Male” (‘Je suis malade’ in Italian – which didn’t count in the festival’s scoring). Lara talked about how she always wanted to sing in Italy and was so grateful for this chance. She said that she dedicated this (65th edition) of San Remo to her mother, because “I know that you will be proud to see me on stage, recalling the moments when we sat together in front of the screen to watch San Remo.“
Unfortunately, as far as the competition goes, Lara was one of the first to be eliminated, before the final round, in favor of what seemed (to these biased ears) much inferior performances. She put a link to an article on her website with the title, “Goodbye foreigners to San Remo”. The article went on to say, “Questionable and highly despicable decision to eliminate Lara Fabian, unique and first international artist to try and get closer to the singing competition. An act that in addition to being capital punishment of the sense of Italian meritocracy, represents an indisputable outrage against the political strategies of approach of the foreigners to any competition locally. Lara Fabian, who the previous evening, while enhancing the cover assigned, had provoked the standing ovation of the crowd of the Ariston, artist of impeccable singing and professionalism, pays the price of the results of the dark balances to protect agreements of media groups in competition with each other. Not only does it become the symbol of the impotence, present in many Italian families, rather than to see the award-winning go to real value and genius, but it represents the supremacy of the stupidity of any policy seeking the approach of internationality to Italy. Despite the regularity which the Festival provides for the possibility of foreign artists to participate in the singing competition, nobody before Lara Fabian had dared to propose. The elimination of Lara justifies the skepticism, even now the conviction internationally that winning in Italy only balances management based on opportunism and underground interests agreed upon beforehand.” [The last international artist to be crowned there was in 1985].
Clearly Lara wanted to highlight this explanation, as a post of this nature on her FB site is highly unusual. It is a way of expressing her opinion, without having to say it herself. As for her own comments, she indicated, “When we take part in such events, we must accept the rules of a competition, and congratulate the winner respectfully remembering that public choice is the only thing that matters.” And, to minimize its impact, she proclaimed, “What happens in Sanremo stays in Sanremo ... and doesn’t apply to anything else.” [This was perhaps in response to an article in ‘Charts in France’ which was of the opinion that the San Remo result would hurt Lara’s reputation.]
However, Lara’s real, stated goal was to re-introduce herself to the Italian audience as a singer of something other than ‘Adagio’, and certainly she did that. Not only was she in on the competition, which was seen by ~10 million viewers each night, she was interviewed on numerous TV shows displaying her ‘impeccable’ Italian, lively intelligence and winning personality.
As a follow-up to this appearance, Lara released a ‘best of’ compilation, called ‘ESSENTIAL LARA FABIAN’, with Warner Italy (and Lara’s 9 Productions). She said, "With the house of Warner discs Italy, directed by Marco Alboni, we decided together to release a compilation, Essential Lara Fabian, which incorporates the titles sung in San Remo, but also other songs in my repertoire that will allow the Italian public to become better acquainted with my songs." Indeed, why not an album entirely in Italian: "I have no doubt that in the future with Warner and Marco Alboni other opportunities will arise, Italy remains present in my thoughts." While the album did include two versions of ‘Voce’ as well as ‘Sto Male’, it didn’t include some of her more famous Italian renditions (e.g., Caruso. Perdere l’Amore); even the version of Adagio provided was in English, not Italian. Lara was not there to promote it, and it disappeared from the ‘top 100’ on Italian charts after one week.
ISRAEL: In early March, Lara returned to Tel Aviv for a standard ‘best of’ concert, giving interviews with a French radio station there. As usual, Lara expressed her appreciation for her fans in the country, and her conviction that music is independent of politics, and is capable of uniting everyone. She used her standard musicians (Rony Iwryn on percussion, Rami Osservaser on guitar, Gilad Ephrat on bass, and Giora Linenberg on piano and musical direction), and décor (the usual four empty picture frames for the musicians, and for Lara to occasionally sit in). What was unusual was that the setlist did not contain the added touch of a Hebrew song.The fan response, what there was of it on the web, was highly positive, seemingly mirroring what we could hear for ourselves in the available videos. The hall was almost full, an accomplishment since it seats 5000-6000 for concerts. There seemed to be no Israeli press coverage of the event (or at least none I could find on the web).
UNITED STATES: In addition to her appearance at the Barclay Center in January, Lara gave three concerts in the U.S. during March as part of a larger North American tour: in Hollywood, Florida; in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and near Hollywood, California. This might be thought of as ‘dipping ones toes into the water', since Lara is not well known in this country; perhaps with the sold-out Carnegie Hall, NY concert from 12/13 in mind, she chose locations where there was apparently a large Russian-speaking population available. In any event, it did give American fans in those areas a chance to see her, perhaps for the very first time, and they were not disappointed. She got very good reviews, and the attendance was quite respectable. Her setlist, a variant of her ‘best of’ tour in general, featured slightly more English language songs than French, with one Spanish and one Italian song thrown in. Unfortunately, there were no obvious interviews with the press, or media coverage at all, either pre-or post-concert.
Lara was asked (in Canada) about the ‘failure’ of her United States venture back in 2000. She gave a more detailed answer than we had seen previously, stating that the lack of coherency between the joint owners of her record company, Columbia and Sony, doomed any effort she could have made. Different songs were pushed at different times, the course was continually changed, she had been signed by one company and then handed over to the other. She noted that on ‘Conan O’Brien’ and on ‘The View’ she sang ‘Love by Grace’, leaving the audience wondering, ‘Is this the same girl who sings ‘I Will Love Again’ (the song one Label had thought would ‘open doors’ for her)? She said, “There were partisans of two different directions and that if since the beginning one had released at least an Adagio or a Love by Grace, a song which truly represented me intrinsically, I believe there would have been more of a concordance and an alignment of the stars. And that’s speaking of an album which sold 3 millions world-wide despite the same song not being released everywhere. A schizophrenic reaction was generated in the public”. She concluded, “This is what happens when small artists sign big American contracts. I believe that is what happened with the American dream…”.
She would not be the first artist to be sabotaged by record company incompetence, but, as she has admitted, she in effect gave up that dream by not wanting to stay in the country and pursue it. Nevertheless, when asked if she would still like to succeed in the States, she said “when one wants to be an international artist of course one wants to succeed in England, in America, and one is just happy as a girl to come to the States. But, on further reflection, I was fortunate to be born into a multi-lingual family and I never had the feeling that I had to choose one language over another. I knew the journey would be difficult. You pose for me the question would I still like to succeed in the US. My response is, ‘why not?’ I would love to in Italy, in France, in Quebec, in all the countries where I have a chance to stroll.”
CANADA: She also gave three concerts during this time period in this country, in Montreal, Toronto, and near Vancouver. Again her concerts got excellent reviews from fans, and now there was press coverage, especially in Montreal, including both radio and press interviews. As usual for Lara’s interactions here, the interviews were quite probing and revealing. Interestingly, to a good extent they seemed to ignore the fact that Lara is officially a Canadian citizen with a Canadian passport, and basically treated her as another visiting ‘French’ singer – which, in fact, she really is, some 15 years after having lived here. Notably, she spoke English at her two concerts in English-speaking Canada (in contrast to the one previous concert she gave in Toronto, for ‘Le Secret’ album, where she spoke and sang in French).
This was not her only interaction with this country, however. In numerous interviews during the year in association with her new album, Lara repeated that Quebec is her favorite place, and Montreal her favorite city, both for the beauty and the people. One of the bonus songs for her new album, ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’, is an ode to her love of Canada. Here’s an example of her statements, from a recent interview in Belgium:
“The city I am most passionate about is Montreal, where I lived for many years. And Quebec in general. The sense of space, and the light of Montreal and Quebec are the reasons for this. The energy I feel everywhere when I am there. Although there are many places I have an emotional link to, my passionate relation to a place is definitely Quebec and Montreal.”
I wonder how many Canadians are aware of her continuing affection for their country, as it certainly seems that her memory of them has outlasted theirs of her. She also did do a little promotion for the new album in the Quebec press, without so far any obvious effect.
SWEDEN: In April, Lara gave her first ever concert in this country, in Stockholm. Again it received great reviews for her singing, an article calling it ‘A Magical Evening”. The same article included the comments, “It is surprising that Lara Fabian does not have the same status in Sweden as the other three great female vocalists / world artists, Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey…. It's a bit embarrassing for Sweden that no more media follow-up of her visit was made.” One obvious difference of course between Lara and those others is her primary language, but it also doesn’t help to give one concert in 25 years!
The rest of this ‘mini-tour’ included stops in Talin, Estonia, and Helsinki and Tampere in Finland (a country where she had been just the previous October), with pretty much the same ‘best-of’ setlist and response.
SLOVAKIA: In June, Lara returned after some three years to Bratislava, Slovakia, and the following review of her concert could very well have been written for any of those she gave during this year.
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“EXCLUSIVE: The Lara Fabian concert was more than a musical experience.
The Aegon Arena in Bratislava was almost sold out for the concert of the world famous French-speaking singer. Lara Fabian, back after three years, again conquered the Slovak audience. Her well known and lesser known songs were literally emotional experiences. In the stands we met her loyal fans, among which is a member of our Parliament.. Whose policy of listening to her songs in the car did we exclusively reveal?
Although no commercial for the performer is played on our radio, Lara Fabian came to Bratislava for the second time. She was presented to the Slovak audience first in March 2012, and the concert yesterday met with great success.
The genre of singing for the artist is her emotional and expressive characteristic voice, which she showed on stage right at the beginning. For her concert therefore one should not expect a lighting effects show or dance creations - Lara Fabian and her voice are at the forefront from the first pitch to the last. With chills, feeling for music, and here and there a tear. The singer is fully present.
Lara Fabian has created an unforgettable atmosphere in Bratislava. Bratislava's audience rewarded her with endless applause and standing ovation.”
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CZECH REPUBLIC: On June 5th, Lara returned to Prague (she had been there last October), for a sold-out concert before 2,000 people that was filmed for the subsequent movie release. “We are extremely proud that Lara chose Prague for the shooting; it’s like winning the gold medal for production. But it’s not only about us, the credit also belongs to the amazing crowd that created such a beautiful atmosphere during both of the October concerts in Prague,” Zdeněk Masopust of promoter BTL Agency said when the concert was announced. It was the last scheduled concert on the ‘best of’ tour which Lara acknowledged, when she wrote, “Back from Prague...End of this magical tour around the world...Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all this love ❤”.
The concert by all reports was as good as all the others. As for the movie/DVD, ‘Un soir autour du monde’, we know that Lara used it for additional publicity the day of her album’s release, showing in more than 100 movie theaters throughout France and Belgium. However, it was somewhat awkward since the movie had nothing whatsoever to do with the new album, outside of Lara’s participation. So instead Lara’s official line was, “It is a time card from my trip around the world, which I have done with all my songs in different languages, and especially in French. The peculiarity of the concert is that the French, French-language music has traveled everywhere. And no matter where I was in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Prague, Berlin, ... no matter where I was, of course, and in Canada. Everywhere, wherever I sang songs, and I sang in my native language, and I was heard. And I wanted to preserve the photograph, card, the memory of the moment when my career was presented in the French language around the world. "Evening around the world" - is a gift to the French-speaking fans who could not be there because I was away. But the concert was not shown in the French-speaking countries of Europe. It's a gift to them, lets say, "Look, thank you for all the French-speaking songs that you love to travel with me and in other countries, to some extent, it is thanks to you."
So…both her new album and this movie celebrate ‘Francophile’ activities. Of course there were more non-French songs than French songs in those concerts and in the movie, so her 'explanation' was somewhat of a stretch, but its release presumably accomplished the purpose of having her name on the marquee of all those theaters. [There is no real indication of how well-attended they were.]
As to the future of this movie/DVD, when asked whether there were any plans for it to be made available to the general public, Lara’s ‘Team’ indicated that there were no such plans as of that time. It strains the bounds of credibility that they would go to the expense of filming and creating a movie to be shown only for one night in just three countries, and then do nothing further with it. One can only consider all her fans in the countries that Lara did visit with her tour who would desire a remembrance, along with all the others who never got to see it. However – these ‘bounds’ have been strained before (remember the Mademoiselle Zhivago movie?), so we’ll have to wait and see what happens…
HOLLAND: In August, in what appeared to be a quickly scheduled performance, Lara appeared on the main stage of the "Uitmarkt" in Amsterdam, for a tribute to Belgium and Belgian Music: “Symphonica Belgica". Two songs were presented – the first live version of ‘Quand je ne chante pas’, and also a rendition "La chanson des vieux amants" from Jaques Brel (the Belgian master of the ‘modern chanson’). Lara was extremely attractive and sang with the same high quality she’s been showing all year. The audience seemed to enjoy both songs immensely, especially the second one which was accompanied by a ballet performance. As of the time of this writing, close to 9,000 fans have ‘liked’ the video on Lara’s FB site.
The emcee noted that it was strange Lara had never sang in Amsterdam before; she replied that she had been on a show with Cor Bakker (who was there in the back), but agreed that she has never given a full-scale concert there. [As far as Europe goes, it seems the closer the country is to Belgium/France, the less likely Lara will have given a full concert there – see also Italy, England, and Spain, with Germany only last year…].
TURKEY’: While Lara’s big push into this country occurred last year, she did have several notable events here. With the backing of the record company ‘Odacity’, she released at the end of April another ‘best of’ album, this one entitled ‘Selection’ (because it was said Lara selected all the songs herself). A 2 CD set, it was highlighted by the inclusion of Tom York’s alternative mixes of ‘Make Me Yours Tonight’ (with Mustafa Ceceli), including ‘Club’ and ‘Lounge’ versions (there was even an EP released of those cuts in France). In fact, of the 22 total songs on the 2 CDs, 12 of them (including live performance versions) were not previously available on any studio album. The album was made available directly in 23 countries, including Turkey, Greece, Cyrus, Israel, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Georgia, Egypt, UAE, Slovenia.. The remixes of "Make Me Yours Tonight" were released worldwide (iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal etc..). The album seems to have done relatively well in Turkey.
This best of (‘Selection’) and the Warner Italy one (‘Essential’) had several commonalities. For one thing, outside of the title, they have the same cover photo, obviously one or the other making use of something that was made readily available. In addition, they did not have all of Lara’s catalog of songs to pick from, producing some odd choices. 'Odacity’ made this clear in the following statement. “Some of our personal favorites here among the Odacity team are not included in the album either; the capacity of a CD is limited. And also, because the rights of many songs, including some major hits, are owned by other record companies, and could not be included in this compilation due to publishing rights and registration in specific territories.” Both releases are now available from the major on-line music suppliers.
In addition, in October, right in the middle of her promotional activities for the upcoming release of her new album in France and Belgium, Lara dropped everything to give three concerts in Ankara. It was actually increased to three nights because it kept selling out (the room holds 2300). Lara provided a slightly modified ‘best of’ setlist (lacking the ‘picture frame’ décor), reuniting with her standard musicians for the effort. She was also interviewed there, including a nice spread in the Turkish publication ’46 magazine’. The effort that she made in this regard, with this timing, underlines the importance she places in her ‘Turkish’ connection.
CYPRUS: Another example of this importance was Lara’s agreeing to give a concert during July in Famagusta, the northern portion of Cyprus that is controlled by the Turkish segment of the country. As is well-known, it is not recognized by any other country than Turkey, and Lara’s going was controversial since it implied indirect recognition of the “Turkish occupation”. Lara went anyway, and it was reported that the concerts were ‘magical’, with highly appreciative audiences. Odacity reported, “Salamis Antique Theatre at its fullest capacity...around 6000 people filled up every space to share a magical night with Lara Fabian. The worldwide renowned Lara Fabian, was worthy of the title, appearing in front of a fascinated audience with great enthusiasm…”
One common denominator in these ‘year in review’ summaries is that each year, Lara, very non-political herself (she says), is always involved in one political controversy or another!
II. The Francophile career.
An article that appeared in ‘musique.ados.fr’ in April of this year was entitled: Lara Fabian: Why Is She So Unpopular in France?” The reasons they gave included: “Lara Fabian gives her heart and soul when she sings, committing 100% vocally, physically and emotionally. An unconventional way of understanding and interpreting the song, and not really tuned for France, where reserve is required.Too ambitious, too first degree, too in need of recognition ... Physically ill at ease, unlike Celine, comfortable in her elongated figure, she remains in her shadow and the public still feels compelled to compare the two great French voices. Since the release of the title ‘Je t’aime’, the myth of the "gueularde" [loud, bigmouth] manufactured by TV reporters, was born. Lara Fabian deeply offended by the mockery, had a depression she did not emerge from unscathed, even believing she lost her voice, and put a necessary distance with France.”
This is what Lara, and Warner France her new record company, faced in trying to re-introduce Lara to the French public after a decline in album sales that has lasted more than a decade. They adopted several strategies:
(1) To explain Lara’s reduced presence in France over that time, they introduced her as an international artist – as opposed to a French artist. They emphasized her joint Belgian-Italian-Canadian background to differentiate her from the standard French-born performer, and to ‘excuse’ her international wanderings. So when she wasn’t in France, she was working elsewhere, not as a failure, but as someone who had sold (it was now said), some 32 million discs. Of course, this is all mostly true, but one could also add that her ‘international wanderings’ have been encouraged by her lack of reception by the French public, outside of her devoted ‘angels’.
(2) They played up, in a non-maudlin fashion, Lara’s status as ‘tragic victim’ of an accident due to a technician’s mistake, her brush with deafness, and her need to cancel her tour and live in silence. The stage for this had been set when Lara had cried on a TV show when her affliction had first become apparent, but it was re-emphasized with the choice of her single ‘Quand je ne chante pas’.
(3) The song also emphasized the third theme – that ‘she was just like you’, an average person, of whom one could sympathize, and relate, not someone who thought themselves above others. She even included in the song the self-deprecating line, “Singing is all I know how to do”. [In fact, in Minsk, Lara said, “I'm just an ordinary woman who does not have a piercing mind like Albert Einstein nor the divine form of Claudia Schiffer"].
(4) In Lara’s personal appearances on TV, she went along with the now good-natured mockery of her, in fact building on it, emphasizing that she was no longer the ‘egotist’ who took herself so seriously. This was clearly evident in two recent programs, ‘Folie Passagère’ and ‘C'est votre vie P. Sébastien’, for which Lara received high praise for her performance and attitude.
All this seems to have worked! Without these barriers, people were free to appreciate Lara’s immense talent and lively personality. There is no better indication of that than in the on-line comments one reads after Lara’s interviews, or on the websites for some of the TV shows she is on. Those used to be full of vindictive statements; now they are much more benign, sympathetic, even offering sincere applause. And these are not from Lara’s devoted fans, as they themselves often note.
But it would not have worked if Lara had been faking it – she says she really has changed. We have heard many times in the past her claim that she was now “more serene”, but this time it appears to be true. One can see it in her demeanor on these shows, and her response to the mockery. And she has provided the convincing reasons: she now has a family, husband and 8 year old daughter, whom she knows love her; and she went through a frightening episode that threatened to end her career, so she can clearly distinguish what is important from what is not. She called it “a gift wrapped in evil”, but a gift nonetheless.
Lara initiated her return with the following statement on her website back in June:
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“Hello my Angels
Here I am again close to you !!!
I know some of you have felt that I was a bit distant ..
I understand that you might have felt neglected .. But the distance was only geographical. I am never too far away ...
Today, together with my friend Arthur I am going back to the studios and the promoting tour to present to you my new album "My Life in yours" and my new song, and I have a great feeling about it! What can be nicer than to go have fun like a child for my FIRST TV show!!! ["Ce soir Tout Est Permis].A long time ago Arthur brought me luck by being the first to invite me on a big TV show, when I was unknown in France !!!! I am so delighted to see you again !!!! Thank you for your presence and your love ...
See you very soon ...
Lov ..
Lara
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The first single, "Quand je ne chante pas" [When I don’t sing] was released on June 15th, quickly followed by a corresponding interesting ‘stop-action’ music video. There were then initial promotional appearances throughout June and into early July (e.g., 'Touche pas à mon poste'). After the summer off, Lara got busy again in September, with the release of the second single ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ and its music video in early October, and almost too many to count promotional appearances, interviews, etc. for the three month period extending to the present.
Her new album was released in early November, enabled by having both a new composer and lyricist working with her. As Lara said, “I feel I have found a new musical family with Elodie Hesme and David Gategno. We have made with this album that which we are in life. Everything seemed the first time. The first time you compose a song, that you record it ... This second chance in life, is quite exceptional. I savor the pleasure to sing it. What luck I have had!" The album was titled ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ (My Life in Yours) because its theme was her gratitude to those around her whom she really learned to appreciate and depend upon – there is a song for her daughter, her family, her best friend Nathalie, her husband…It is also, as she has often claimed, “an album without filters”, where she faces squarely the positive and not-so-positive aspects of life that we all experience. Her singing is as strong as ever, and she doesn’t fail to give her voice its full flight when called for. But there have been no complaints – the reviews have been strongly positive. The general impression is that it is her most accessible/successful album since ‘Nue’.
Even the album cover was done creatively. Prepared by Phil Macquet, the cover of 'Ma vie dans la tienne' was developed with the latest technology of 'Augmented reality'. With the help of a simple [‘Lara Fabian’] smartphone or tablet app, the cover 'takes life' and provides some five different pictures, videos, music, etc.
She also has a new record company, Warner France, and the team they have put in place has seemed to be very efficient. Everything from their arranging all those promotional events, to the release of the movie ‘Un soir autour du monde’ simultaneously in all those theaters, has been handled professionally. They have even resurrected Lara’s URL (larafabian.com) to provide additional support for those not using her Facebook site. [However – the ‘discorgraphy’ section lists only the new album – is this supposed to be Warner’s site, or Lara’s?].
And on the Facebook site, Lara has become a much more active presence. We can now expect posts from her or her ‘Team’ regularly, and that provides continual contact with fans. Everybody involved seems to be sparing no effort to make this renewed push as a ‘Francophile’ artist a success. And so far, even from the sales aspect, things are looking positive; the album opened #4 in France, dropped to the mid-20s, and is now slowly rising again, with some 60,000 copies sold in 7 weeks. In Belgium it has been in the top 10 continually. With over 1 million likes, Lara is climbing to the higher echelon ranks in ‘Social Media’ ‘likes’ among French-language female singers. And Lara even hosted a live Twitter session in October.
One cannot leave this topic without a bow towards the world events that have affected Francophile countries and their citizens, including Lara. In response to the shooting at ‘Charlie Hebdo’ the French satirical weekly newspaper in early January, Lara posted the following comment:
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Dear all,
I come to wish you a good new year
The heart at half-mast
May this year give us the strength to remain united beyond all
Give us the space to turn to the other without delay, in order to look him in the eyes and see a brother that we resemble, and a human with whom we make only one… everywhere on this planet...
I AM CHARLIE
Freedom of thought
Freedom of expression
Freedom
Against obscurantism
Let's make resonate our values.
As a sacred bond
Lara
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And then, in response to the November bombings in Paris. Lara left the following statement on her FB site:
“I'm horrified by these abominable acts. My condolences to the French and to France. I pray for all the families who have lost a close being....” The event had even more relevance to Lara than first met the eye, as the heart of the planning seems to have gone on in Molenbeek, Belgium, a municipality in the northern part of Brussels, which has been implicated in terrorist activities previously. Subsequently, Brussels was on ‘lock down’ as threats to the subway system were treated serioiusly.
Lara was actually in Paris at the moment of the attacks. She said, “A little before the events, I was just next to the Bataclan. There was already a bizarre atmosphere. I granted an interview to France Television, and some armed guards monitor the premises. I could not imagine that the day would end thus…There are no words to describe the horror. It is necessary to gather one’s thoughts and to get back up to continue living. It is necessary to love and to unite more than ever. I wish that the politicians of the whole world unite to find the true solutions to this menace. It’s scary, but it’s not going to prevent me from doing what I have to do.”
In early December, the photos of ‘Imaginary Couples’ of Olivier Ciappa, that emphasized the freedom of sexual expression, were vandalized. Lara had the following comment, ““I've come to learn that the exhibition "imaginary couples", of Olivier Ciappa, celebrating love, for which I have posed with Eva Longoria, was vandalized and destroyed in Toulouse...The fight against homophobia is unfortunately not over...”
And even outside France, events had a way of intruding. Lara’s shows in Ankara in October were affected by bombings elsewhere in Turkey. Lara had this to say in response, "Dear Istanbul. I wish I could say the same for Ankara. Humanity was wounded. We really thought a lot about being here today or not, but then I decided that I need to be with you. Because we have to be together at this time. Maybe music will bring peace and tolerance”.
As somewhat of a counter to all of that, Lara was involved with various charities this past year, which is usual for her. These included the ‘Papillion Foundation’ (homes for troubled youth), ‘Little Dreams Foundation’ (fulfilling the dreams of young talents within Music, Art and Sport), AMTM (medical assistance around the world), APAJH (helping the disabled) and even SPA (shelter for animals). She even recently helped out feeding the poor during the Christmas holidays in Belgium, with Noel Solidarity.
IN CONCLUSION: 2015 was a very good year for Lara. She continued to pursue her International career while she reinvigorated her Francophile one with an outstanding new album. As to what happens subsequently to each of them, it depends upon how much effort she puts into each one, and there are only so many hours of the day (in addition to keeping time for her family). While she has certainly covered a lot of non-Francophone places this year, as she has in the past, that coverage is often very shallow. Outside of Russia, she often doesn’t come back for years – in fact, her return to Turkey (and Finland) so quickly was somewhat surprising in that regard. Will she really try to follow-up in Italy, will she organize a concert schedule for Russia? Will she try to expand her audience in North America? There are rumors (as there always are) of a new English album, and as noted, an unreleased one with Krutoi.
And as to that Francophile career that she has appears to have resurrected: the concert schedule so far from March to June features six concerts in France and three in Belgium; in contrast, there are seven in eastern Europe. Is that all the effort she plans to make for her French-speaking audience? One interesting step: she is reported to be rejoining ‘Les Enfoires’, a move toward re-integrating herself into the French music establishment. She did join other French singers this past year in the album ‘Les stars font leur cinéma’ with a beautiful but not overwhelming version of ‘Unchained Melody’. We’ll see if there are more such efforts upcoming.
In addition, Lara has mentioned several times that she has been working on a musical, and that this is a still unfulfilled dream of hers. Perhaps some progress will be made in that direction as well.
Lara seems now to have fully assumed a bimodal career, international and Francophile, with almost equal weight. Assuming she is healthy, and capable of performing non-acoustic concerts in support of the new album this coming year, her goals will be spelled out clearly by where she does and does not go. Here’s hoping that whatever she has in mind, 2016 will be as successful as this year has been.
David
[Note - all interviews, reviews, etc. printed here have been translated into English...]
At the end of 2014, Lara had several projects lined up for the coming year, but we mentioned at the time that a lot depended on her health; would she be able to remain active in the face of an ailment that had the potential to flare up at any time, and derail her career? As it turns out, she was, and that led to a highly productive year for her, in many ways the best in over a decade.
The year basically can be viewed as two halves; the first half focused on her international audience, and the second on the Francophile fans. We’ll discuss it in that light, basically in the geographical order in which events occurred, although there are some overlaps and jumps.
I. The International Career
RUSSIA: It may surprise some to see this country lead off the year in review, since it did not get much focus in 2015, but at the beginning of the year in particular Lara did have some relevant activity. As had been the case for the past few years, Lara appeared (pre-recorded) on the Russian TV show ‘Song of the Year’, performing ‘Love of Tired Swans’ (the Russian version of the song with the same music as ‘Je t’aime encore'). Shortly thereafter, the full video of the Krutoi gala concert from December (with Lara’s participation) was shown on Russian TV, and, shortly after that, in what was a great surprise to Lara’s fans (and even to Alan Badoev, its director), the somewhat abridged version of the ‘Mademoiselle Zhivago’ film also got a full viewing on Russia 1 TV. Badoev said at the time that that wouldn’t’ have happened without Lara’s approval, and he had hopes that the full ‘director’s cut' would then be made available, possibly on Ukrainian TV. So far it hasn’t happened…
Although not taking place in Russia, Lara’s appearance in early February at the Barclay Center in Brooklyn was on behalf of the latest Igor Krutoi 60th birthday gala presentation. She had a number of songs to sing, and did a wonderful job before an almost completely Russian audience; she even got a ‘tweet’ from the Barclay Center saying “What a beautiful performance by Lara Fabian!”. At the time Lara indicated how proud she was to be working with Krutoi, someone “whom she loves, musically and humanly, at the boundaries of modern Russian music.”
Additional interactions with Krutoi and Russia came in November with, first, the release of two songs whose music was written by him, ‘C’est ma terre’ and ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’, included on the CD that came with the ‘deluxe’ package of her new album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’. In addition, the movie version of Lara’s recorded ‘best of’ concert in Prague, ‘Un soir autour du monde’ was shown in over 30 cities in Russia, and the Russian “Lara Fabian Connecting People” site even organized a party for it at a theater in Moscow. After this widespread showing, there was many articles about Lara in Russian papers.
However…for the first time in a decade, when healthy, Lara did not offer summer concerts in Russia, and did not attend the ‘New Wave Festival’ that historically had brought together singers from western Europe and Russia in a joint event for the benefit of young entertainers. The festival in fact was moved from its scheduled August date in Latvia to Russia in October, when Latvian authorities could not guarantee visas for some Russian singers, the result of East-West friction over Russia’s actions in the Ukraine. Krutoi explained Lara’s absence by saying she was too busy with her new album – which might have had some truth to it in October, but she hadn’t been scheduled for the earlier date anyway (and she gave October concerts in Turkey). It is rumored that the ‘second’ Mademoiselle Zhivago’ album with Krutoi has been ready for over a year but is being blocked; this is so far unsubstantiated, but we have heard some six pre-recorded songs which Lara wrote together with Krutoi and performed at previous New Wave festivals. None of these recordings has yet shown up officially, and at one point Lara spoke openly about this album.
During the course of the year, Lara was asked in various interviews how she could justify working in Russia when it had done so much to irritate the international community – and in her case in particular, when its official position with respect to homophobia was in such contrast to the two songs she had written supporting LGBT rights. Lara’s response was consistent; she said she was totally apolitical, passing her values along through her music in an apolitical way. This, she felt, would help to raise people up, regardless of the leaders, to touch them directly. She said she had never been prevented from singing her songs there – and if that were to happen, she would leave or wouldn’t go. When asked if she didn’t have a role to play that was more political, since she went around the world, if she didn’t’ think she could do more to have countries take a step forward for human rights, she said she didn’t have the requisite knowledge, that she would have to spend all her time on politics to make proper judgments, and that she would probably be ineffectual anyway. That her very appearance was in fact a political statement for her causes, and there were ways other than political to influence people, e.g., she felt her music could act as a ‘detox’, a ‘smoothie’ to clean out poisons and settle emotions. She said, “In a totally apolitical way, the aim of an artist is to continue to pass her values through music. When I sing “Deux ils, deux elles” or “La Difference” [the songs whose subject is homosexuality, note], people get up in Moscow! In Russia and Ukraine, there is a kind of silence after the song, just seconds before people rose and applauded that simply says 'Thank you'. "
There is no way to know how much the scrutiny of the press has affected Lara’s Russian activities, but the events in November suggest Lara has not given up on her Russian fans. In fact, there was this exchange on her FB site: “Vanessa Karapetyan: “Please come to Russia I will write it in every post because you are my life, Lara And I want to see you.” The response was, “Hello Vanessa! Lara will surely perform again in Russia too! Team Lara”. The ‘proof of the pudding’ in this regard will be whether Lara resumes her Russian concert tours, e.g., for the new album or another album with Krutoi. Until that time, there will be the appearance that she feels constrained in going there.
BELARUS: In a related development, in May Lara performed at yet another gala with Krutoi, this one in Minsk. Lara sang a number of songs, primarily from the Mademoiselle Zhivago album, and got great reviews. Many notables from that country were in the audience and the event was highly publicized. Even though practically no one in the audience understood French, Lara said her goal was to share emotions with the audience. With respect to the above comments on ‘political correctness’ (for which Belarus is also taken to task): no word of this event was provided on Lara’s FB site.
ITALY: While Russia did not get is usual attention, Italy (finally) received theirs. Innumerable times Lara has referred to herself as ‘basically Italian’ from her Sicilian mother’s side, and she has made aborted attempts before to find a foothold in that country (e.g., with Gigi d’Alessio, a few years ago). This time she made a big splash by appearing as a ‘foreign’ competitor in the famous ‘San Remo’ festival in February. A song was especially written for/with her, ‘Voce’, an optimistic anthem. She sang it twice at the festival itself (and one additional time on a TV show subsequently), plus she gave a resounding performance of “Sto Male” (‘Je suis malade’ in Italian – which didn’t count in the festival’s scoring). Lara talked about how she always wanted to sing in Italy and was so grateful for this chance. She said that she dedicated this (65th edition) of San Remo to her mother, because “I know that you will be proud to see me on stage, recalling the moments when we sat together in front of the screen to watch San Remo.“
Unfortunately, as far as the competition goes, Lara was one of the first to be eliminated, before the final round, in favor of what seemed (to these biased ears) much inferior performances. She put a link to an article on her website with the title, “Goodbye foreigners to San Remo”. The article went on to say, “Questionable and highly despicable decision to eliminate Lara Fabian, unique and first international artist to try and get closer to the singing competition. An act that in addition to being capital punishment of the sense of Italian meritocracy, represents an indisputable outrage against the political strategies of approach of the foreigners to any competition locally. Lara Fabian, who the previous evening, while enhancing the cover assigned, had provoked the standing ovation of the crowd of the Ariston, artist of impeccable singing and professionalism, pays the price of the results of the dark balances to protect agreements of media groups in competition with each other. Not only does it become the symbol of the impotence, present in many Italian families, rather than to see the award-winning go to real value and genius, but it represents the supremacy of the stupidity of any policy seeking the approach of internationality to Italy. Despite the regularity which the Festival provides for the possibility of foreign artists to participate in the singing competition, nobody before Lara Fabian had dared to propose. The elimination of Lara justifies the skepticism, even now the conviction internationally that winning in Italy only balances management based on opportunism and underground interests agreed upon beforehand.” [The last international artist to be crowned there was in 1985].
Clearly Lara wanted to highlight this explanation, as a post of this nature on her FB site is highly unusual. It is a way of expressing her opinion, without having to say it herself. As for her own comments, she indicated, “When we take part in such events, we must accept the rules of a competition, and congratulate the winner respectfully remembering that public choice is the only thing that matters.” And, to minimize its impact, she proclaimed, “What happens in Sanremo stays in Sanremo ... and doesn’t apply to anything else.” [This was perhaps in response to an article in ‘Charts in France’ which was of the opinion that the San Remo result would hurt Lara’s reputation.]
However, Lara’s real, stated goal was to re-introduce herself to the Italian audience as a singer of something other than ‘Adagio’, and certainly she did that. Not only was she in on the competition, which was seen by ~10 million viewers each night, she was interviewed on numerous TV shows displaying her ‘impeccable’ Italian, lively intelligence and winning personality.
As a follow-up to this appearance, Lara released a ‘best of’ compilation, called ‘ESSENTIAL LARA FABIAN’, with Warner Italy (and Lara’s 9 Productions). She said, "With the house of Warner discs Italy, directed by Marco Alboni, we decided together to release a compilation, Essential Lara Fabian, which incorporates the titles sung in San Remo, but also other songs in my repertoire that will allow the Italian public to become better acquainted with my songs." Indeed, why not an album entirely in Italian: "I have no doubt that in the future with Warner and Marco Alboni other opportunities will arise, Italy remains present in my thoughts." While the album did include two versions of ‘Voce’ as well as ‘Sto Male’, it didn’t include some of her more famous Italian renditions (e.g., Caruso. Perdere l’Amore); even the version of Adagio provided was in English, not Italian. Lara was not there to promote it, and it disappeared from the ‘top 100’ on Italian charts after one week.
ISRAEL: In early March, Lara returned to Tel Aviv for a standard ‘best of’ concert, giving interviews with a French radio station there. As usual, Lara expressed her appreciation for her fans in the country, and her conviction that music is independent of politics, and is capable of uniting everyone. She used her standard musicians (Rony Iwryn on percussion, Rami Osservaser on guitar, Gilad Ephrat on bass, and Giora Linenberg on piano and musical direction), and décor (the usual four empty picture frames for the musicians, and for Lara to occasionally sit in). What was unusual was that the setlist did not contain the added touch of a Hebrew song.The fan response, what there was of it on the web, was highly positive, seemingly mirroring what we could hear for ourselves in the available videos. The hall was almost full, an accomplishment since it seats 5000-6000 for concerts. There seemed to be no Israeli press coverage of the event (or at least none I could find on the web).
UNITED STATES: In addition to her appearance at the Barclay Center in January, Lara gave three concerts in the U.S. during March as part of a larger North American tour: in Hollywood, Florida; in Atlantic City, New Jersey; and near Hollywood, California. This might be thought of as ‘dipping ones toes into the water', since Lara is not well known in this country; perhaps with the sold-out Carnegie Hall, NY concert from 12/13 in mind, she chose locations where there was apparently a large Russian-speaking population available. In any event, it did give American fans in those areas a chance to see her, perhaps for the very first time, and they were not disappointed. She got very good reviews, and the attendance was quite respectable. Her setlist, a variant of her ‘best of’ tour in general, featured slightly more English language songs than French, with one Spanish and one Italian song thrown in. Unfortunately, there were no obvious interviews with the press, or media coverage at all, either pre-or post-concert.
Lara was asked (in Canada) about the ‘failure’ of her United States venture back in 2000. She gave a more detailed answer than we had seen previously, stating that the lack of coherency between the joint owners of her record company, Columbia and Sony, doomed any effort she could have made. Different songs were pushed at different times, the course was continually changed, she had been signed by one company and then handed over to the other. She noted that on ‘Conan O’Brien’ and on ‘The View’ she sang ‘Love by Grace’, leaving the audience wondering, ‘Is this the same girl who sings ‘I Will Love Again’ (the song one Label had thought would ‘open doors’ for her)? She said, “There were partisans of two different directions and that if since the beginning one had released at least an Adagio or a Love by Grace, a song which truly represented me intrinsically, I believe there would have been more of a concordance and an alignment of the stars. And that’s speaking of an album which sold 3 millions world-wide despite the same song not being released everywhere. A schizophrenic reaction was generated in the public”. She concluded, “This is what happens when small artists sign big American contracts. I believe that is what happened with the American dream…”.
She would not be the first artist to be sabotaged by record company incompetence, but, as she has admitted, she in effect gave up that dream by not wanting to stay in the country and pursue it. Nevertheless, when asked if she would still like to succeed in the States, she said “when one wants to be an international artist of course one wants to succeed in England, in America, and one is just happy as a girl to come to the States. But, on further reflection, I was fortunate to be born into a multi-lingual family and I never had the feeling that I had to choose one language over another. I knew the journey would be difficult. You pose for me the question would I still like to succeed in the US. My response is, ‘why not?’ I would love to in Italy, in France, in Quebec, in all the countries where I have a chance to stroll.”
CANADA: She also gave three concerts during this time period in this country, in Montreal, Toronto, and near Vancouver. Again her concerts got excellent reviews from fans, and now there was press coverage, especially in Montreal, including both radio and press interviews. As usual for Lara’s interactions here, the interviews were quite probing and revealing. Interestingly, to a good extent they seemed to ignore the fact that Lara is officially a Canadian citizen with a Canadian passport, and basically treated her as another visiting ‘French’ singer – which, in fact, she really is, some 15 years after having lived here. Notably, she spoke English at her two concerts in English-speaking Canada (in contrast to the one previous concert she gave in Toronto, for ‘Le Secret’ album, where she spoke and sang in French).
This was not her only interaction with this country, however. In numerous interviews during the year in association with her new album, Lara repeated that Quebec is her favorite place, and Montreal her favorite city, both for the beauty and the people. One of the bonus songs for her new album, ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’, is an ode to her love of Canada. Here’s an example of her statements, from a recent interview in Belgium:
“The city I am most passionate about is Montreal, where I lived for many years. And Quebec in general. The sense of space, and the light of Montreal and Quebec are the reasons for this. The energy I feel everywhere when I am there. Although there are many places I have an emotional link to, my passionate relation to a place is definitely Quebec and Montreal.”
I wonder how many Canadians are aware of her continuing affection for their country, as it certainly seems that her memory of them has outlasted theirs of her. She also did do a little promotion for the new album in the Quebec press, without so far any obvious effect.
SWEDEN: In April, Lara gave her first ever concert in this country, in Stockholm. Again it received great reviews for her singing, an article calling it ‘A Magical Evening”. The same article included the comments, “It is surprising that Lara Fabian does not have the same status in Sweden as the other three great female vocalists / world artists, Barbara Streisand, Celine Dion and Mariah Carey…. It's a bit embarrassing for Sweden that no more media follow-up of her visit was made.” One obvious difference of course between Lara and those others is her primary language, but it also doesn’t help to give one concert in 25 years!
The rest of this ‘mini-tour’ included stops in Talin, Estonia, and Helsinki and Tampere in Finland (a country where she had been just the previous October), with pretty much the same ‘best-of’ setlist and response.
SLOVAKIA: In June, Lara returned after some three years to Bratislava, Slovakia, and the following review of her concert could very well have been written for any of those she gave during this year.
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“EXCLUSIVE: The Lara Fabian concert was more than a musical experience.
The Aegon Arena in Bratislava was almost sold out for the concert of the world famous French-speaking singer. Lara Fabian, back after three years, again conquered the Slovak audience. Her well known and lesser known songs were literally emotional experiences. In the stands we met her loyal fans, among which is a member of our Parliament.. Whose policy of listening to her songs in the car did we exclusively reveal?
Although no commercial for the performer is played on our radio, Lara Fabian came to Bratislava for the second time. She was presented to the Slovak audience first in March 2012, and the concert yesterday met with great success.
The genre of singing for the artist is her emotional and expressive characteristic voice, which she showed on stage right at the beginning. For her concert therefore one should not expect a lighting effects show or dance creations - Lara Fabian and her voice are at the forefront from the first pitch to the last. With chills, feeling for music, and here and there a tear. The singer is fully present.
Lara Fabian has created an unforgettable atmosphere in Bratislava. Bratislava's audience rewarded her with endless applause and standing ovation.”
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CZECH REPUBLIC: On June 5th, Lara returned to Prague (she had been there last October), for a sold-out concert before 2,000 people that was filmed for the subsequent movie release. “We are extremely proud that Lara chose Prague for the shooting; it’s like winning the gold medal for production. But it’s not only about us, the credit also belongs to the amazing crowd that created such a beautiful atmosphere during both of the October concerts in Prague,” Zdeněk Masopust of promoter BTL Agency said when the concert was announced. It was the last scheduled concert on the ‘best of’ tour which Lara acknowledged, when she wrote, “Back from Prague...End of this magical tour around the world...Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all this love ❤”.
The concert by all reports was as good as all the others. As for the movie/DVD, ‘Un soir autour du monde’, we know that Lara used it for additional publicity the day of her album’s release, showing in more than 100 movie theaters throughout France and Belgium. However, it was somewhat awkward since the movie had nothing whatsoever to do with the new album, outside of Lara’s participation. So instead Lara’s official line was, “It is a time card from my trip around the world, which I have done with all my songs in different languages, and especially in French. The peculiarity of the concert is that the French, French-language music has traveled everywhere. And no matter where I was in New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Prague, Berlin, ... no matter where I was, of course, and in Canada. Everywhere, wherever I sang songs, and I sang in my native language, and I was heard. And I wanted to preserve the photograph, card, the memory of the moment when my career was presented in the French language around the world. "Evening around the world" - is a gift to the French-speaking fans who could not be there because I was away. But the concert was not shown in the French-speaking countries of Europe. It's a gift to them, lets say, "Look, thank you for all the French-speaking songs that you love to travel with me and in other countries, to some extent, it is thanks to you."
So…both her new album and this movie celebrate ‘Francophile’ activities. Of course there were more non-French songs than French songs in those concerts and in the movie, so her 'explanation' was somewhat of a stretch, but its release presumably accomplished the purpose of having her name on the marquee of all those theaters. [There is no real indication of how well-attended they were.]
As to the future of this movie/DVD, when asked whether there were any plans for it to be made available to the general public, Lara’s ‘Team’ indicated that there were no such plans as of that time. It strains the bounds of credibility that they would go to the expense of filming and creating a movie to be shown only for one night in just three countries, and then do nothing further with it. One can only consider all her fans in the countries that Lara did visit with her tour who would desire a remembrance, along with all the others who never got to see it. However – these ‘bounds’ have been strained before (remember the Mademoiselle Zhivago movie?), so we’ll have to wait and see what happens…
HOLLAND: In August, in what appeared to be a quickly scheduled performance, Lara appeared on the main stage of the "Uitmarkt" in Amsterdam, for a tribute to Belgium and Belgian Music: “Symphonica Belgica". Two songs were presented – the first live version of ‘Quand je ne chante pas’, and also a rendition "La chanson des vieux amants" from Jaques Brel (the Belgian master of the ‘modern chanson’). Lara was extremely attractive and sang with the same high quality she’s been showing all year. The audience seemed to enjoy both songs immensely, especially the second one which was accompanied by a ballet performance. As of the time of this writing, close to 9,000 fans have ‘liked’ the video on Lara’s FB site.
The emcee noted that it was strange Lara had never sang in Amsterdam before; she replied that she had been on a show with Cor Bakker (who was there in the back), but agreed that she has never given a full-scale concert there. [As far as Europe goes, it seems the closer the country is to Belgium/France, the less likely Lara will have given a full concert there
– see also Italy, England, and Spain, with Germany only last year…].TURKEY’: While Lara’s big push into this country occurred last year, she did have several notable events here. With the backing of the record company ‘Odacity’, she released at the end of April another ‘best of’ album, this one entitled ‘Selection’ (because it was said Lara selected all the songs herself). A 2 CD set, it was highlighted by the inclusion of Tom York’s alternative mixes of ‘Make Me Yours Tonight’ (with Mustafa Ceceli), including ‘Club’ and ‘Lounge’ versions (there was even an EP released of those cuts in France). In fact, of the 22 total songs on the 2 CDs, 12 of them (including live performance versions) were not previously available on any studio album. The album was made available directly in 23 countries, including Turkey, Greece, Cyrus, Israel, Azerbaijan, Croatia, Serbia, Macedonia, Albania, Georgia, Egypt, UAE, Slovenia.. The remixes of "Make Me Yours Tonight" were released worldwide (iTunes, Spotify, Deezer, Tidal etc..). The album seems to have done relatively well in Turkey.
This best of (‘Selection’) and the Warner Italy one (‘Essential’) had several commonalities. For one thing, outside of the title, they have the same cover photo, obviously one or the other making use of something that was made readily available. In addition, they did not have all of Lara’s catalog of songs to pick from, producing some odd choices. 'Odacity’ made this clear in the following statement. “Some of our personal favorites here among the Odacity team are not included in the album either; the capacity of a CD is limited. And also, because the rights of many songs, including some major hits, are owned by other record companies, and could not be included in this compilation due to publishing rights and registration in specific territories.” Both releases are now available from the major on-line music suppliers.
In addition, in October, right in the middle of her promotional activities for the upcoming release of her new album in France and Belgium, Lara dropped everything to give three concerts in Ankara. It was actually increased to three nights because it kept selling out (the room holds 2300). Lara provided a slightly modified ‘best of’ setlist (lacking the ‘picture frame’ décor), reuniting with her standard musicians for the effort. She was also interviewed there, including a nice spread in the Turkish publication ’46 magazine’. The effort that she made in this regard, with this timing, underlines the importance she places in her ‘Turkish’ connection.
CYPRUS: Another example of this importance was Lara’s agreeing to give a concert during July in Famagusta, the northern portion of Cyprus that is controlled by the Turkish segment of the country. As is well-known, it is not recognized by any other country than Turkey, and Lara’s going was controversial since it implied indirect recognition of the “Turkish occupation”. Lara went anyway, and it was reported that the concerts were ‘magical’, with highly appreciative audiences. Odacity reported, “Salamis Antique Theatre at its fullest capacity...around 6000 people filled up every space to share a magical night with Lara Fabian. The worldwide renowned Lara Fabian, was worthy of the title, appearing in front of a fascinated audience with great enthusiasm…”
One common denominator in these ‘year in review’ summaries is that each year, Lara, very non-political herself (she says), is always involved in one political controversy or another!
II. The Francophile career.
An article that appeared in ‘musique.ados.fr’ in April of this year was entitled: Lara Fabian: Why Is She So Unpopular in France?” The reasons they gave included: “Lara Fabian gives her heart and soul when she sings, committing 100% vocally, physically and emotionally. An unconventional way of understanding and interpreting the song, and not really tuned for France, where reserve is required.Too ambitious, too first degree, too in need of recognition ... Physically ill at ease, unlike Celine, comfortable in her elongated figure, she remains in her shadow and the public still feels compelled to compare the two great French voices. Since the release of the title ‘Je t’aime’, the myth of the "gueularde" [loud, bigmouth] manufactured by TV reporters, was born. Lara Fabian deeply offended by the mockery, had a depression she did not emerge from unscathed, even believing she lost her voice, and put a necessary distance with France.”
This is what Lara, and Warner France her new record company, faced in trying to re-introduce Lara to the French public after a decline in album sales that has lasted more than a decade. They adopted several strategies:
(1) To explain Lara’s reduced presence in France over that time, they introduced her as an international artist – as opposed to a French artist. They emphasized her joint Belgian-Italian-Canadian background to differentiate her from the standard French-born performer, and to ‘excuse’ her international wanderings. So when she wasn’t in France, she was working elsewhere, not as a failure, but as someone who had sold (it was now said), some 32 million discs. Of course, this is all mostly true, but one could also add that her ‘international wanderings’ have been encouraged by her lack of reception by the French public, outside of her devoted ‘angels’.
(2) They played up, in a non-maudlin fashion, Lara’s status as ‘tragic victim’ of an accident due to a technician’s mistake, her brush with deafness, and her need to cancel her tour and live in silence. The stage for this had been set when Lara had cried on a TV show when her affliction had first become apparent, but it was re-emphasized with the choice of her single ‘Quand je ne chante pas’.
(3) The song also emphasized the third theme – that ‘she was just like you’, an average person, of whom one could sympathize, and relate, not someone who thought themselves above others. She even included in the song the self-deprecating line, “Singing is all I know how to do”. [In fact, in Minsk, Lara said, “I'm just an ordinary woman who does not have a piercing mind like Albert Einstein nor the divine form of Claudia Schiffer"].
(4) In Lara’s personal appearances on TV, she went along with the now good-natured mockery of her, in fact building on it, emphasizing that she was no longer the ‘egotist’ who took herself so seriously. This was clearly evident in two recent programs, ‘Folie Passagère’ and ‘C'est votre vie P. Sébastien’, for which Lara received high praise for her performance and attitude.
All this seems to have worked! Without these barriers, people were free to appreciate Lara’s immense talent and lively personality. There is no better indication of that than in the on-line comments one reads after Lara’s interviews, or on the websites for some of the TV shows she is on. Those used to be full of vindictive statements; now they are much more benign, sympathetic, even offering sincere applause. And these are not from Lara’s devoted fans, as they themselves often note.
But it would not have worked if Lara had been faking it – she says she really has changed. We have heard many times in the past her claim that she was now “more serene”, but this time it appears to be true. One can see it in her demeanor on these shows, and her response to the mockery. And she has provided the convincing reasons: she now has a family, husband and 8 year old daughter, whom she knows love her; and she went through a frightening episode that threatened to end her career, so she can clearly distinguish what is important from what is not. She called it “a gift wrapped in evil”, but a gift nonetheless.
Lara initiated her return with the following statement on her website back in June:
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“Hello my Angels
Here I am again close to you !!!
I know some of you have felt that I was a bit distant ..
I understand that you might have felt neglected .. But the distance was only geographical. I am never too far away ...
Today, together with my friend Arthur I am going back to the studios and the promoting tour to present to you my new album "My Life in yours" and my new song, and I have a great feeling about it! What can be nicer than to go have fun like a child for my FIRST TV show!!! ["Ce soir Tout Est Permis].A long time ago Arthur brought me luck by being the first to invite me on a big TV show, when I was unknown in France !!!! I am so delighted to see you again !!!! Thank you for your presence and your love ...
See you very soon ...
Lov ..
Lara
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The first single, "Quand je ne chante pas" [When I don’t sing] was released on June 15th, quickly followed by a corresponding interesting ‘stop-action’ music video. There were then initial promotional appearances throughout June and into early July (e.g., 'Touche pas à mon poste'). After the summer off, Lara got busy again in September, with the release of the second single ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ and its music video in early October, and almost too many to count promotional appearances, interviews, etc. for the three month period extending to the present.
Her new album was released in early November, enabled by having both a new composer and lyricist working with her. As Lara said, “I feel I have found a new musical family with Elodie Hesme and David Gategno. We have made with this album that which we are in life. Everything seemed the first time. The first time you compose a song, that you record it ... This second chance in life, is quite exceptional. I savor the pleasure to sing it. What luck I have had!" The album was titled ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ (My Life in Yours) because its theme was her gratitude to those around her whom she really learned to appreciate and depend upon – there is a song for her daughter, her family, her best friend Nathalie, her husband…It is also, as she has often claimed, “an album without filters”, where she faces squarely the positive and not-so-positive aspects of life that we all experience. Her singing is as strong as ever, and she doesn’t fail to give her voice its full flight when called for. But there have been no complaints – the reviews have been strongly positive. The general impression is that it is her most accessible/successful album since ‘Nue’.
Even the album cover was done creatively. Prepared by Phil Macquet, the cover of 'Ma vie dans la tienne' was developed with the latest technology of 'Augmented reality'. With the help of a simple [‘Lara Fabian’] smartphone or tablet app, the cover 'takes life' and provides some five different pictures, videos, music, etc.
She also has a new record company, Warner France, and the team they have put in place has seemed to be very efficient. Everything from their arranging all those promotional events, to the release of the movie ‘Un soir autour du monde’ simultaneously in all those theaters, has been handled professionally. They have even resurrected Lara’s URL (larafabian.com) to provide additional support for those not using her Facebook site. [However – the ‘discorgraphy’ section lists only the new album – is this supposed to be Warner’s site, or Lara’s?].
And on the Facebook site, Lara has become a much more active presence. We can now expect posts from her or her ‘Team’ regularly, and that provides continual contact with fans. Everybody involved seems to be sparing no effort to make this renewed push as a ‘Francophile’ artist a success. And so far, even from the sales aspect, things are looking positive; the album opened #4 in France, dropped to the mid-20s, and is now slowly rising again, with some 60,000 copies sold in 7 weeks. In Belgium it has been in the top 10 continually. With over 1 million likes, Lara is climbing to the higher echelon ranks in ‘Social Media’ ‘likes’ among French-language female singers. And Lara even hosted a live Twitter session in October.
One cannot leave this topic without a bow towards the world events that have affected Francophile countries and their citizens, including Lara. In response to the shooting at ‘Charlie Hebdo’ the French satirical weekly newspaper in early January, Lara posted the following comment:
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Dear all,
I come to wish you a good new year
The heart at half-mast
May this year give us the strength to remain united beyond all
Give us the space to turn to the other without delay, in order to look him in the eyes and see a brother that we resemble, and a human with whom we make only one… everywhere on this planet...
I AM CHARLIE
Freedom of thought
Freedom of expression
Freedom
Against obscurantism
Let's make resonate our values.
As a sacred bond
Lara
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And then, in response to the November bombings in Paris. Lara left the following statement on her FB site:
“I'm horrified by these abominable acts. My condolences to the French and to France. I pray for all the families who have lost a close being....” The event had even more relevance to Lara than first met the eye, as the heart of the planning seems to have gone on in Molenbeek, Belgium, a municipality in the northern part of Brussels, which has been implicated in terrorist activities previously. Subsequently, Brussels was on ‘lock down’ as threats to the subway system were treated serioiusly.
Lara was actually in Paris at the moment of the attacks. She said, “A little before the events, I was just next to the Bataclan. There was already a bizarre atmosphere. I granted an interview to France Television, and some armed guards monitor the premises. I could not imagine that the day would end thus…There are no words to describe the horror. It is necessary to gather one’s thoughts and to get back up to continue living. It is necessary to love and to unite more than ever. I wish that the politicians of the whole world unite to find the true solutions to this menace. It’s scary, but it’s not going to prevent me from doing what I have to do.”
In early December, the photos of ‘Imaginary Couples’ of Olivier Ciappa, that emphasized the freedom of sexual expression, were vandalized. Lara had the following comment, ““I've come to learn that the exhibition "imaginary couples", of Olivier Ciappa, celebrating love, for which I have posed with Eva Longoria, was vandalized and destroyed in Toulouse...The fight against homophobia is unfortunately not over...”
And even outside France, events had a way of intruding. Lara’s shows in Ankara in October were affected by bombings elsewhere in Turkey. Lara had this to say in response, "Dear Istanbul. I wish I could say the same for Ankara. Humanity was wounded. We really thought a lot about being here today or not, but then I decided that I need to be with you. Because we have to be together at this time. Maybe music will bring peace and tolerance”.
As somewhat of a counter to all of that, Lara was involved with various charities this past year, which is usual for her. These included the ‘Papillion Foundation’ (homes for troubled youth), ‘Little Dreams Foundation’ (fulfilling the dreams of young talents within Music, Art and Sport), AMTM (medical assistance around the world), APAJH (helping the disabled) and even SPA (shelter for animals). She even recently helped out feeding the poor during the Christmas holidays in Belgium, with Noel Solidarity.
IN CONCLUSION: 2015 was a very good year for Lara. She continued to pursue her International career while she reinvigorated her Francophile one with an outstanding new album. As to what happens subsequently to each of them, it depends upon how much effort she puts into each one, and there are only so many hours of the day (in addition to keeping time for her family). While she has certainly covered a lot of non-Francophone places this year, as she has in the past, that coverage is often very shallow. Outside of Russia, she often doesn’t come back for years – in fact, her return to Turkey (and Finland) so quickly was somewhat surprising in that regard. Will she really try to follow-up in Italy, will she organize a concert schedule for Russia? Will she try to expand her audience in North America? There are rumors (as there always are) of a new English album, and as noted, an unreleased one with Krutoi.
And as to that Francophile career that she has appears to have resurrected: the concert schedule so far from March to June features six concerts in France and three in Belgium; in contrast, there are seven in eastern Europe. Is that all the effort she plans to make for her French-speaking audience? One interesting step: she is reported to be rejoining ‘Les Enfoires’, a move toward re-integrating herself into the French music establishment. She did join other French singers this past year in the album ‘Les stars font leur cinéma’ with a beautiful but not overwhelming version of ‘Unchained Melody’. We’ll see if there are more such efforts upcoming.
In addition, Lara has mentioned several times that she has been working on a musical, and that this is a still unfulfilled dream of hers. Perhaps some progress will be made in that direction as well.
Lara seems now to have fully assumed a bimodal career, international and Francophile, with almost equal weight. Assuming she is healthy, and capable of performing non-acoustic concerts in support of the new album this coming year, her goals will be spelled out clearly by where she does and does not go. Here’s hoping that whatever she has in mind, 2016 will be as successful as this year has been.
David
