Post by davidhr on Jan 19, 2016 9:01:52 GMT -5
Lara was enjoying winter this past week, in particular snow cover in Belgium, as she emphasized with pictures on her official site,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1049966101711553/1049965491711614/?type=3&theater
(click on the picture for several more snow scenes)
with the caption, “La neige ! J'adore!... Snow... and I am ecstatic!”
and her ‘tweet’ on her Twitter page, “Snow!!! It's soooo beautiful !!!
(which set off some additional beautiful winter pictures posted by fans on that site).
While she was away, promotional/career activities were in full swing. Of most novelty were the events involved with the coming release of a third single from Lara’s new album. Lara’s people first indicated the following: “"L'oubli" will be the next title of the album "Ma vie dans la tienne" which will be put forward. What do you think?”
The instant response was that it was a great song, but the topic was somewhat depressing.
Next, almost in contradiction to that, they set up a poll to ask fans to choose, among the remaining songs, their three picks for the next single. A day later, they had the following message, “Thank you to all the participants to the poll regarding the future single releases. Your preferences go clearly in favor of "L'Oubli" and "Ton désir", and will be taken into account! Have a great Sunday! Team Lara”
We know that this song is Lara’s favorite from the album, and most fans would agree it is the most like her big ‘hits’ from the past in terms of power and increasing intensity. While Lara initially indicated it wasn’t specifically about Alzheimer’s, her latest comments at least recognize the possibility/probability that people will believe that it is; this is less subtle than her concept, that people ‘forget’ in order to avoid pain. Will the quality of the song, and the power of Lara’s singing, overcome the dour theme in the eyes of radio programmers?
In contrast, ‘Ton desir’ does not have that problem, being a paean to sensual desire without guilt; but whereas ‘L’Oubli’ might be thought to be too consequential, this song risks underlining the (completely wrong) opinion people have of Lara as being a ‘lightweight’. When it was originally heard, some fans commented that it was a ‘song for summer’, and that would still seem to be the case.
In any event, the first post from Lara’s Team seems to have been accurate; Lara announced on the program "De quoi je me mêle " that L’oubli will be the next single. The poll most likely was conducted to give fans a sense of participation, and, who knows, a strongly contrasting result might even have made Lara think twice.
Personally, even though I also voted for those two given their quality, I believe ‘Relève-toi’, with its powerful singing and anthem-like strength would be perfect for radio-play, encouraging the French public during a time when terrorism is still worrying the country. It will be interesting to see how much airplay ‘L’oubli’ actually gets, and whether there will be a video of it [could be somewhat tricky to make].
Charts in France had an article about this choice (http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Lara-Fabian/news-100588.html). Here’s the translation:
-------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian sings "Forgetting", the new single from the album "Ma vie dans la tienne"
Lara Fabian puts out "Forgetting" this winter to defend the colors of her new album "Ma vie dans la tienne," released now two months ago. Listen!
The promo continues for Lara Fabian. After a passage noticed on the stage of the show "C’est votre vie", where she paid tribute in a funny way to Patrick Sébastien, the singer left to meet our neighbors. It is on Belgian television that the artist has actually revealed the name of her next single, the successor of "Quand je ne chante pas" and "Ma vie dans la tienne", both from her latest album released in the month of November. Two pieces that were little broadcast on radio but have helped make the album "My Life in yours" a small success since there are more than 50,000 copies sold here. "Forgetting" is not radiophonic but immediately aroused a certain enthusiasm in the Lara Fabian fan community. This is indeed a classical ballad, played on the piano, and in which the artist evokes a deep sense of regret. "Her past, her sadness / Forgetting is on the surface / That which makes us suffer / But it is on the inside / That makes it hold" she sings softly, evoking the fate of a woman remaining unknown.
Left to choose a ballad, Lara Fabian might have bet on "S’il ne restait qu’un ami." It is equally representative of an album that takes up in a subtle enough manner the joys, injuries and expectations of a woman and an artist, and it should be offered a place in the setlist of the the next show of the singer . A tour is actually being prepared and will include stops in Marseille March 22, Nantes the 24th, Paris June 3 or again Lyon the next day. These will be the first concerts of the artist since the cancellation of her last French tour in 2013 because of the serious health problems she had faced.
Jonathan HAMARD
------------------------------------------------------
Whichever single was chosen, Lara will need it to re-convince the French public about the value of purchasing her new album. In the tenth week after its release, it fell some 18 positions to #55 (combined physical + digital ) on the French charts (#37 for physical CDs). Total sales are estimated at some 78,000. In Belgium, it has dropped three places to #12.
Continuing with this theme a bit longer, if the new single does not revive the album, perhaps the coming tour will. One problem was that the previously schedule had just six concerts in France and three in Belgium. However, Lara has now added a new concert in Charleroi (for June 7) (https://www.facebook.com/events/1509204189384534/) and a second one in Liege (for June 8) (https://www.facebook.com/events/940213426054528/). Furthermore, her ‘Team’ wrote that “other dates in France are coming!” So there will be at least two separated segments where the French public will be reminded of the album’s quality. Perhaps Lara’s breaking the ‘Francophile’ portion of the tour into March and June segments is an effort to save her hearing by providing time-off in between (which is somewhat taken up by concerts in Eastern Europe).
One other item concerning the tour… as noted by the LaraFabianweb site, ‘Decibel Productions’ in partnership with Happy Hours will be the producers of the tour "Ma vie dans la tienne - the concert"... A video associated with that can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/decibelsprodDP/videos/475322929318793/
In current promotional news, Lara was on some six TV broadcasts this past week in Belgium and France, and also today on a radio show for the Flemish portion of Belgium. Starting with that radio show, ‘Concert News' (which was linked to by Lara’s FB site), (http://www.concertnews.be/interviews4.php), the main novelty is that it is in English (although it begins in French – and it says something about Belgium that the Flemish interviewer seemed more comfortable speaking to Lara in that language than in French…). She emphasized that nine years went by between the Eurovision contest and her first album in Canada, in effect downplaying its importance. Lara also downplayed the result of last year’s competition in Italy, saying the audience stood at the end of her performances, which was all that was really important for her. When asked what Disney princess she would be, she cast herself somewhere between Moulin and Pocahontas (being a rebel, but also fragile). Her dreams include health, seeing Lou happy and expressing herself, a long life of love with her husband, and to be always creative. We’ll find these dreams expressed again later in this Update. Lara has a concert set for Antwerp on March 20th, a unique event for her in this portion of Belgium.
As for the TV shows…
1) She was the invitee of Thomas Van Hamme on Bel RTL Matin in Belgium,
www.rtl.be/belrtl/video/564262.aspx
In addition to a general discussion of the personal nature of the new album (and also about Quebec), a small sample of “L’oubli’ was played. Lara then spent some time talking about the song; while the hosts were impressed with its seriousness, it ended with everybody having to take a deep breath to recover!
As Lara herself indicated, it (unfortunately) plays into the concept of Lara’s lyrics being so sad. They then played a small bit of ‘Ton desir’, as antidote! Perhaps Lara could release both songs together (“A” and “B” sides) so that the two extremes could be used to encompass the emotions on display in the album.
2) She was on the program “De quoi je me mêle!” on RTL TV in Belgium,
www.rtl.be/rtltvi/video/564367.aspx
where she was effectively a co-host. Various topics were discussed with a panel, the first being the question, “A bonus for my wife at the end of the year”, i.e., should ‘housewives’ be paid a salary for the work they do. Lara’s, who has seen the juggling that having both a career and a family household entails is sensitive to women being properly recognized for all their efforts (even if they are ‘only’ housewives). Other segments included a discussion about ‘Spending our lives in traffic jams’, and ‘men taking care of themselves’ (grooming).
Another component of this show was that fans were allowed to meet with Lara. She put a set of pictures on her FB site, starting with:
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1048820648492765/1048819855159511/?type=3&theater
(then click to see the other four).
3) Lara was on the quiz show, "L'oeuf ou la poule", on D8 in France,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOfCNxRtGQ
The ‘egg’ or ‘chicken’ aspect seems to relate primarily to the guests often being given two alternatives to questions. Lara did well, though her side lost in the finale. One interesting aspect was the casual dress affected by the participants, Lara included.
Also on this show, Lara performed (lip-synching) a shortened version of ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZtLBKzu40
4) Staying with the ‘animals’ theme, she was on the show ‘On n’est pas des pigeons!’ on RTBF in Belgium.
www.facebook.com/larafabian.artist/videos/788663237944307/?theater
The host called her new album, “an album of maturity”. She answered questions about her songs, albums and clips, including calling ‘Le Secret’ her most personal album (undoubtedly because it focused on her internal life). Another thing it proved – Lara can think/talk as fast as anyone (undoubtedly her Sicilian background!). This was also perhaps the first show to actually apply the ‘app’ on TV to show what Lara’s album cover looks like through the lens of a smart phone or tablet.
5) On the show, ‘Un gar et un chef’ ‘in a segment called L’instantané de Lara Fabian’ on RTBF in Belgium,
www.rtbf.be/video/detail_l-instantane-de-lara-fabian?id=2075659
we got some live ‘video snapshots’ of Lara going about her work, a discussion about the album and her health. She also got a chance (the ‘star’) to cook with the two hosts, ‘a guy and a chef’. Spontaneous, natural, charismatic and complex, was what one host called her at the end - a very good description!
Lara put a picture on her FB site posing with the two hosts,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.215378125170359.50343.201065806601591/1047740738600756/?type=3&theater
6) She was on the show ‘C’est au programme’ on France 2
(on the 11th),
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-38G7dhA5Q
where she discussed the new album and her health issues; the closeness of Lara’s fans (including a video of a fan singing to her); and again a cooking class (with mussels) presented at the end.
On these shows Lara talked about how much it meant to her to regain her health, and this was brought into stark perspective by the news this past week that Celine Dion’s husband and brother both died, several days apart. Lara left the following (translated) message on her FB site,
“On this day of great sadness, all my thoughts of support and light accompany Celine and her family...”
One wonders what sort of karma it was that their deaths were so close in time and that they both suffered from cancer of the throat and affiliated area - while Celine’s career depends so much on those same bodily regions.
Celine came up again this week for Lara. When asked on the Flemish radio program whether she was envious of Celine’s commercial success, Lara said she was instead inspired by iconic voices (and included Streisand and Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston in that discussion). She doesn’t see herself in Celine’s (or the other’s) shadow, she does what she does to communicate music. Her passion is not a shadow of someone else’s, it is her connection to the audience. She said, “These other women are a great motivation to keep being inspired by the essence of what we do”.
Lara also had some wonderful and revealing press interviews this past week. First, from a Belgian site, La Capitale, Brabant Wallon (the link initially from the Lara Fabian – PHQ site, www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/a.353954938084519.1073741828.353946178085395/801283983351610/?type=3&theater an interview translated below:
---------------------------------------
“A second child? I let fate decide.”
Delivered from her ear problems, Lara Fabian prepares a new tour for us.
Released at the end of 2015, her album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ is already a good disc with us. Lara Fabian is quite simply the best selling Francophile singer in our country [Belgium. Note that in various interviews/TV shows, they now routinely refer to Lara as having sold 32 million discs. Lara says she previously thought it was 20 million – and that is the number she used in today’s Flemish interview]. As she is soon going to get back up on stage, she granted us an interview.
A small word on your album first of all. We can say that you work on some intimate subjects, but with a certain modesty. Agree?
LF: It is that. I have written a little like at the beginning of my career, when I descended in pajamas to the cellar to make some songs there…After when there was some success, one is more prudent, one asks oneself more questions. Here, I didn’t want to be objective, just to be freewheeling. But it is normal to keep, despite all, a modest side, secret…
Your favorite song on the CD?
LF: ‘L’oubli’ is the song that touches me the most…
We interpret it as a song on the sickness of Alzheimer’s, is it that?
LF: On the sickness of the century. What I am going to say is very contested, but one can believe that certain people make the choice of forgetting, consciously or unconsciously, to stop suffering.
Have you personally confronted this sickness?
LF: No, not in my intimate family. But I have seen families who have known more a link with the sickness. Certain families have dissolved. And it is an illness which doesn’t only touch the aged, sometimes it takes hold very early.
In ‘Le coeur qui tremble’, the theme is again very evident. You speak of the anguish of a mother for your daughter Lou who is eight years old…
LF: My daughter knows it by heart and speaks of it as ‘her’ song. It is our way of telling her how we love her! Yes, I anguish! One loves as one worries. Is there any doubt that one ‘lives’ more in the south? My Italian roots make me very passionate, and worry a lot also.
You arrive at an age where a woman says to herself that she is going to have to kiss goodbye to becoming a mother. Do you think of it?
LF: I’m 46 years old, it has never been a preoccupation. It is still possible and I don’t express any worry, nor absolute desire. I am already a mother. And I let fate decide if I should have another child. My husband is for. Well, yes, Gabriel, you are for it? (from the other side of the room, he does “Yes of course”).
Your accident to the ears with temporary deafness, it is no more than a bad memory?
LF: Yes, it appears to have passed. I’m not completely recuperated, but I’m ok. There are some sounds nevertheless that I perceive more like vibrations than as sounds, my body has developed some sensations that indicate that frequency and that works for me. But at the time, it was anything but funny. To lose hearing for a singer, it is truly like losing ones hands for a pianist.
You were subject to heavy care. Were there some moments of discouragement?
LF: No, I always believed that it would go, even if at the beginning, I couldn’t hear more than a hubbub deafness. My husband, my daughter, my family, my best friend were magnificent supports for me.
What has changed for you? The soundchecks are different?
LF: No soundchecks. But I treat myself to more rest between concerts. To produce after having taken the plane, it is no longer a good idea. I evade going into clubs. But concerts, I have nevertheless been to see Peter Gabriel. I have some earplugs in my bag, but I haven’t put them on.
A word on the concerts that you’re going to give. The album is very orchestrated with violins and bandoneon. How are you going to reproduce that on stage?
LF: Close. We are going to utilize some samples, some more electronic sounds and also the visuals of Ivan Mocandi to evoke the instruments, that can thus be magical also. But we will be only five on stage, with piano, base, drums and guitar.
A last question a propos of ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’ – that you haven’t inserted on all the albums. A song of homage to Quebec…When the same thing for Wallonia?
LF: Good idea. I will think about it!
Sam Christophe
---------------------------------------------------------------
And then, also thanks to the Lara Fabian - PHQ site, a (translated) interview from ‘Côté Mag’ (https://www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/a.353954938084519.1073741828.353946178085395/802133776599964/?type=3&theater); there are three parts:
------------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian, her hymn to joy
Music. On ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’, Lara Fabian confides having refound the joy and pleasure of her beginnings.
Audrey Verbist
It is a very personal album. It is composed of 13 titles that are as much letters, as much declarations of love to a daughter, to a husband, a friend and even to Quebec, the “country of her second birth” as she calls it. The title?
LF: It is symbolic of the entire album. I speak of my daughter, of my husband…of things as personal, as sensitive, as 'L'Oubli'. Forgetting, even of the intimacy that is approached with humor in Ton desir. It is truly my life that I put in yours when I unveil these songs for you.
The Joy of the Beginnings
Lara Fabian worked with a new team. Elodie Hesme who cowrote the tests and David Gategno, the music. An album of rebirth which has been written in a particular context (see below) without stakes, without pressure with much desire and joy overall, she says. A return to the sources…
LF: I’ve always written my songs. When you are young and do that, for the first time, you are the expression even of your joy, you are not in the process of telling yourself "but how to do it so as to repeat a success or to have some success", you are just in the expression of your joy, the fact of doing that.
And ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ was written exactly in the same circumstances as those that had passed?
LF: Yes, I descended into the basement in pajamas, we plugged in a keyboard, we tried some things, we amused ourselves, we laughed a lot.
This time…
LF: We truly wrote it like that. We arrived at David’s (Gategno) studio with Elodie (Hesme). We sat, there was something good coming out: great. There wasn’t? We went for a bite, we went for a walk in a park, we spoke of our children, or of our lovers…There wasn’t this space of “It is necessary to make a song which is going to pass on the radio, absolutely to have a success”.
No, not too much reflection, not having to take the heat to try to think what could please or not…
LF: I didn’t think of these questions when I was 20 years old and I wrote. I just launched myself in the music with this joy which characterizes the music for me.
On Stage
That which occupies the singer now, other than a two-component part of Ma vie dans la tienne, is the tour that she is actively preparing a tour with the same team. There are the lights, the décor, but also the old songs, ‘the musts’, that it is necessary to readapt to today’s sound.
A tour that will pass through Belgium of course. Always a particular moment for her:
LF: One is always a little the child of the country when one comes here. It is something very comforting. The Belgian public is a welcoming public but very demanding also…
And, then it is still the period at the beginning of the year, one asks her what she could want from it. She responds tit for tat.
LF: Health! It’s the same old thing, but it is the base of the articulation of all. A very very beautiful continuity of my family life, that is to say that my little girl be well, that my husband and me live a true longevity in this story of love.
And musically:
LF: To be always creative, to have always much smoke between the ears. That it continues to wake me up in the morning with a smile.
----------
A Musical Comedy
Lara Fabian works on a project of which she has dreamed for a long time: a musical comedy.
LF: David (Gategno, who cowrote the music of her album) and me, we are in the process of imagining a musical comedy, both of us. I had an idea which I spoke to him about, and he adored it. He said to me, “It would please me a lot to do it with you”. But I will do it in English also because I imagine it more in London or on Broadway. That, it is a great dream for me. This is not necessarily a musical comedy in which I will play. But I'd be the designer, author, composer ... I see myself more in these than in the actress-singer. It is a transcendental love story which passes through many epochs.
However, she will not advance a date for the presentation of the project, which “will take some time”.
----------------
“My deafness, it was a poorly wrapped gift"
In 2014 Lara Fabian underwent an auditory shock that rendered her deaf for several weeks. A terrible test from which she drew great strength, she says in retrospect:
LF: I know it’s a funny formula: it was a badly wrapped gift, but it was a gift. I wanted to make from this silence something more than a silence. A sudden deafness for a singer, it is a little like losing ones legs for a dancer, or ones hands for a pianist…I always make some analogies that are a little caricatures but it is a better way of saying it. Because the people often think that to sing can’t be compromised outside of a voice problem. It isn’t true. When one can no longer hear what one sings, it is complicated.
LF: It was complex to understand the diagnostic. But after, I never let myself be knocked down, I never thought that it was definitive, never. That is perhaps why I succeeded in envisioning the music despite the fact that I couldn’t hear it at that moment.”
Following the serious health problem, she had to interrupt her tour. And it took her a year to get back to the writing of this album. For her, to make this disc has been a way to go towards a more luminous future.
----------------------------------------------------
Both articles were very informative! With respect to making this album like ‘in her beginnings’ – that may well be true, but the result may not be the same in terms of sales, as evidenced by the recent slide in the album’s position. Outside of a few legendary figures pushed to the forefront by events (David Bowe, Daniel Balavoine), all the other artists in the top 10 on the French album chart are under 30 years of age. Perhaps it’s time to stop focusing on the quantity of Francophile sales in judging the success of her new albums…. On today’s Flemish radio program, Lara said, “We don’t align figures, we align joys, and we walk on a path that lasts years…”
Interesting photo(s) of the week:
An additional photo of Lara in winter, from the Lara's own Twitter site
From the Operation Fan Club Lara Fabian site, a beautiful pensive picture,
www.facebook.com/OperationFanClubLaraFabian/photos/a.674006339373232.1073741828.673991206041412/891405140966683/?type=3&theater
and from the Lara Fabian Greece site (with a nice accompanying text on happiness from Lara),
www.facebook.com/443548625770236/photos/a.443804005744698.1073741828.443548625770236/463974093727689/?type=3&theater
As indicated in one of the interviews, Lara is in the process of configuring the coming tour, and seems to have it fairly well thought out. We may expect additional dates in France and perhaps Belgium to be added in the coming week(s).
David
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1049966101711553/1049965491711614/?type=3&theater
(click on the picture for several more snow scenes)
with the caption, “La neige ! J'adore!... Snow... and I am ecstatic!”
and her ‘tweet’ on her Twitter page, “Snow!!! It's soooo beautiful !!!
(which set off some additional beautiful winter pictures posted by fans on that site).
While she was away, promotional/career activities were in full swing. Of most novelty were the events involved with the coming release of a third single from Lara’s new album. Lara’s people first indicated the following: “"L'oubli" will be the next title of the album "Ma vie dans la tienne" which will be put forward. What do you think?”
The instant response was that it was a great song, but the topic was somewhat depressing.
Next, almost in contradiction to that, they set up a poll to ask fans to choose, among the remaining songs, their three picks for the next single. A day later, they had the following message, “Thank you to all the participants to the poll regarding the future single releases. Your preferences go clearly in favor of "L'Oubli" and "Ton désir", and will be taken into account! Have a great Sunday! Team Lara”
We know that this song is Lara’s favorite from the album, and most fans would agree it is the most like her big ‘hits’ from the past in terms of power and increasing intensity. While Lara initially indicated it wasn’t specifically about Alzheimer’s, her latest comments at least recognize the possibility/probability that people will believe that it is; this is less subtle than her concept, that people ‘forget’ in order to avoid pain. Will the quality of the song, and the power of Lara’s singing, overcome the dour theme in the eyes of radio programmers?
In contrast, ‘Ton desir’ does not have that problem, being a paean to sensual desire without guilt; but whereas ‘L’Oubli’ might be thought to be too consequential, this song risks underlining the (completely wrong) opinion people have of Lara as being a ‘lightweight’. When it was originally heard, some fans commented that it was a ‘song for summer’, and that would still seem to be the case.
In any event, the first post from Lara’s Team seems to have been accurate; Lara announced on the program "De quoi je me mêle " that L’oubli will be the next single. The poll most likely was conducted to give fans a sense of participation, and, who knows, a strongly contrasting result might even have made Lara think twice.
Personally, even though I also voted for those two given their quality, I believe ‘Relève-toi’, with its powerful singing and anthem-like strength would be perfect for radio-play, encouraging the French public during a time when terrorism is still worrying the country. It will be interesting to see how much airplay ‘L’oubli’ actually gets, and whether there will be a video of it [could be somewhat tricky to make].
Charts in France had an article about this choice (http://www.chartsinfrance.net/Lara-Fabian/news-100588.html). Here’s the translation:
-------------------------------------------------
Lara Fabian sings "Forgetting", the new single from the album "Ma vie dans la tienne"
Lara Fabian puts out "Forgetting" this winter to defend the colors of her new album "Ma vie dans la tienne," released now two months ago. Listen!
The promo continues for Lara Fabian. After a passage noticed on the stage of the show "C’est votre vie", where she paid tribute in a funny way to Patrick Sébastien, the singer left to meet our neighbors. It is on Belgian television that the artist has actually revealed the name of her next single, the successor of "Quand je ne chante pas" and "Ma vie dans la tienne", both from her latest album released in the month of November. Two pieces that were little broadcast on radio but have helped make the album "My Life in yours" a small success since there are more than 50,000 copies sold here. "Forgetting" is not radiophonic but immediately aroused a certain enthusiasm in the Lara Fabian fan community. This is indeed a classical ballad, played on the piano, and in which the artist evokes a deep sense of regret. "Her past, her sadness / Forgetting is on the surface / That which makes us suffer / But it is on the inside / That makes it hold" she sings softly, evoking the fate of a woman remaining unknown.
Left to choose a ballad, Lara Fabian might have bet on "S’il ne restait qu’un ami." It is equally representative of an album that takes up in a subtle enough manner the joys, injuries and expectations of a woman and an artist, and it should be offered a place in the setlist of the the next show of the singer . A tour is actually being prepared and will include stops in Marseille March 22, Nantes the 24th, Paris June 3 or again Lyon the next day. These will be the first concerts of the artist since the cancellation of her last French tour in 2013 because of the serious health problems she had faced.
Jonathan HAMARD
------------------------------------------------------
Whichever single was chosen, Lara will need it to re-convince the French public about the value of purchasing her new album. In the tenth week after its release, it fell some 18 positions to #55 (combined physical + digital ) on the French charts (#37 for physical CDs). Total sales are estimated at some 78,000. In Belgium, it has dropped three places to #12.
Continuing with this theme a bit longer, if the new single does not revive the album, perhaps the coming tour will. One problem was that the previously schedule had just six concerts in France and three in Belgium. However, Lara has now added a new concert in Charleroi (for June 7) (https://www.facebook.com/events/1509204189384534/) and a second one in Liege (for June 8) (https://www.facebook.com/events/940213426054528/). Furthermore, her ‘Team’ wrote that “other dates in France are coming!” So there will be at least two separated segments where the French public will be reminded of the album’s quality. Perhaps Lara’s breaking the ‘Francophile’ portion of the tour into March and June segments is an effort to save her hearing by providing time-off in between (which is somewhat taken up by concerts in Eastern Europe).
One other item concerning the tour… as noted by the LaraFabianweb site, ‘Decibel Productions’ in partnership with Happy Hours will be the producers of the tour "Ma vie dans la tienne - the concert"... A video associated with that can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/decibelsprodDP/videos/475322929318793/
In current promotional news, Lara was on some six TV broadcasts this past week in Belgium and France, and also today on a radio show for the Flemish portion of Belgium. Starting with that radio show, ‘Concert News' (which was linked to by Lara’s FB site), (http://www.concertnews.be/interviews4.php), the main novelty is that it is in English (although it begins in French – and it says something about Belgium that the Flemish interviewer seemed more comfortable speaking to Lara in that language than in French…). She emphasized that nine years went by between the Eurovision contest and her first album in Canada, in effect downplaying its importance. Lara also downplayed the result of last year’s competition in Italy, saying the audience stood at the end of her performances, which was all that was really important for her. When asked what Disney princess she would be, she cast herself somewhere between Moulin and Pocahontas (being a rebel, but also fragile). Her dreams include health, seeing Lou happy and expressing herself, a long life of love with her husband, and to be always creative. We’ll find these dreams expressed again later in this Update. Lara has a concert set for Antwerp on March 20th, a unique event for her in this portion of Belgium.
As for the TV shows…
1) She was the invitee of Thomas Van Hamme on Bel RTL Matin in Belgium,
www.rtl.be/belrtl/video/564262.aspx
In addition to a general discussion of the personal nature of the new album (and also about Quebec), a small sample of “L’oubli’ was played. Lara then spent some time talking about the song; while the hosts were impressed with its seriousness, it ended with everybody having to take a deep breath to recover!
As Lara herself indicated, it (unfortunately) plays into the concept of Lara’s lyrics being so sad. They then played a small bit of ‘Ton desir’, as antidote! Perhaps Lara could release both songs together (“A” and “B” sides) so that the two extremes could be used to encompass the emotions on display in the album. 2) She was on the program “De quoi je me mêle!” on RTL TV in Belgium,
www.rtl.be/rtltvi/video/564367.aspx
where she was effectively a co-host. Various topics were discussed with a panel, the first being the question, “A bonus for my wife at the end of the year”, i.e., should ‘housewives’ be paid a salary for the work they do. Lara’s, who has seen the juggling that having both a career and a family household entails is sensitive to women being properly recognized for all their efforts (even if they are ‘only’ housewives). Other segments included a discussion about ‘Spending our lives in traffic jams’, and ‘men taking care of themselves’ (grooming).
Another component of this show was that fans were allowed to meet with Lara. She put a set of pictures on her FB site, starting with:
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1048820648492765/1048819855159511/?type=3&theater
(then click to see the other four).
3) Lara was on the quiz show, "L'oeuf ou la poule", on D8 in France,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTOfCNxRtGQ
The ‘egg’ or ‘chicken’ aspect seems to relate primarily to the guests often being given two alternatives to questions. Lara did well, though her side lost in the finale. One interesting aspect was the casual dress affected by the participants, Lara included.
Also on this show, Lara performed (lip-synching) a shortened version of ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’,
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPZtLBKzu40
4) Staying with the ‘animals’ theme, she was on the show ‘On n’est pas des pigeons!’ on RTBF in Belgium.
www.facebook.com/larafabian.artist/videos/788663237944307/?theater
The host called her new album, “an album of maturity”. She answered questions about her songs, albums and clips, including calling ‘Le Secret’ her most personal album (undoubtedly because it focused on her internal life). Another thing it proved – Lara can think/talk as fast as anyone (undoubtedly her Sicilian background!). This was also perhaps the first show to actually apply the ‘app’ on TV to show what Lara’s album cover looks like through the lens of a smart phone or tablet.
5) On the show, ‘Un gar et un chef’ ‘in a segment called L’instantané de Lara Fabian’ on RTBF in Belgium,
www.rtbf.be/video/detail_l-instantane-de-lara-fabian?id=2075659
we got some live ‘video snapshots’ of Lara going about her work, a discussion about the album and her health. She also got a chance (the ‘star’) to cook with the two hosts, ‘a guy and a chef’. Spontaneous, natural, charismatic and complex, was what one host called her at the end - a very good description!
Lara put a picture on her FB site posing with the two hosts,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.215378125170359.50343.201065806601591/1047740738600756/?type=3&theater
6) She was on the show ‘C’est au programme’ on France 2
(on the 11th),
www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-38G7dhA5Q
where she discussed the new album and her health issues; the closeness of Lara’s fans (including a video of a fan singing to her); and again a cooking class (with mussels) presented at the end.
On these shows Lara talked about how much it meant to her to regain her health, and this was brought into stark perspective by the news this past week that Celine Dion’s husband and brother both died, several days apart. Lara left the following (translated) message on her FB site,
“On this day of great sadness, all my thoughts of support and light accompany Celine and her family...”
One wonders what sort of karma it was that their deaths were so close in time and that they both suffered from cancer of the throat and affiliated area - while Celine’s career depends so much on those same bodily regions.
Celine came up again this week for Lara. When asked on the Flemish radio program whether she was envious of Celine’s commercial success, Lara said she was instead inspired by iconic voices (and included Streisand and Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston in that discussion). She doesn’t see herself in Celine’s (or the other’s) shadow, she does what she does to communicate music. Her passion is not a shadow of someone else’s, it is her connection to the audience. She said, “These other women are a great motivation to keep being inspired by the essence of what we do”.
Lara also had some wonderful and revealing press interviews this past week. First, from a Belgian site, La Capitale, Brabant Wallon (the link initially from the Lara Fabian – PHQ site, www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/a.353954938084519.1073741828.353946178085395/801283983351610/?type=3&theater an interview translated below:
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“A second child? I let fate decide.”
Delivered from her ear problems, Lara Fabian prepares a new tour for us.
Released at the end of 2015, her album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ is already a good disc with us. Lara Fabian is quite simply the best selling Francophile singer in our country [Belgium. Note that in various interviews/TV shows, they now routinely refer to Lara as having sold 32 million discs. Lara says she previously thought it was 20 million – and that is the number she used in today’s Flemish interview]. As she is soon going to get back up on stage, she granted us an interview.
A small word on your album first of all. We can say that you work on some intimate subjects, but with a certain modesty. Agree?
LF: It is that. I have written a little like at the beginning of my career, when I descended in pajamas to the cellar to make some songs there…After when there was some success, one is more prudent, one asks oneself more questions. Here, I didn’t want to be objective, just to be freewheeling. But it is normal to keep, despite all, a modest side, secret…
Your favorite song on the CD?
LF: ‘L’oubli’ is the song that touches me the most…
We interpret it as a song on the sickness of Alzheimer’s, is it that?
LF: On the sickness of the century. What I am going to say is very contested, but one can believe that certain people make the choice of forgetting, consciously or unconsciously, to stop suffering.
Have you personally confronted this sickness?
LF: No, not in my intimate family. But I have seen families who have known more a link with the sickness. Certain families have dissolved. And it is an illness which doesn’t only touch the aged, sometimes it takes hold very early.
In ‘Le coeur qui tremble’, the theme is again very evident. You speak of the anguish of a mother for your daughter Lou who is eight years old…
LF: My daughter knows it by heart and speaks of it as ‘her’ song. It is our way of telling her how we love her! Yes, I anguish! One loves as one worries. Is there any doubt that one ‘lives’ more in the south? My Italian roots make me very passionate, and worry a lot also.
You arrive at an age where a woman says to herself that she is going to have to kiss goodbye to becoming a mother. Do you think of it?
LF: I’m 46 years old, it has never been a preoccupation. It is still possible and I don’t express any worry, nor absolute desire. I am already a mother. And I let fate decide if I should have another child. My husband is for. Well, yes, Gabriel, you are for it? (from the other side of the room, he does “Yes of course”).
Your accident to the ears with temporary deafness, it is no more than a bad memory?
LF: Yes, it appears to have passed. I’m not completely recuperated, but I’m ok. There are some sounds nevertheless that I perceive more like vibrations than as sounds, my body has developed some sensations that indicate that frequency and that works for me. But at the time, it was anything but funny. To lose hearing for a singer, it is truly like losing ones hands for a pianist.
You were subject to heavy care. Were there some moments of discouragement?
LF: No, I always believed that it would go, even if at the beginning, I couldn’t hear more than a hubbub deafness. My husband, my daughter, my family, my best friend were magnificent supports for me.
What has changed for you? The soundchecks are different?
LF: No soundchecks. But I treat myself to more rest between concerts. To produce after having taken the plane, it is no longer a good idea. I evade going into clubs. But concerts, I have nevertheless been to see Peter Gabriel. I have some earplugs in my bag, but I haven’t put them on.
A word on the concerts that you’re going to give. The album is very orchestrated with violins and bandoneon. How are you going to reproduce that on stage?
LF: Close. We are going to utilize some samples, some more electronic sounds and also the visuals of Ivan Mocandi to evoke the instruments, that can thus be magical also. But we will be only five on stage, with piano, base, drums and guitar.
A last question a propos of ‘Je vais revoir l’hiver’ – that you haven’t inserted on all the albums. A song of homage to Quebec…When the same thing for Wallonia?
LF: Good idea. I will think about it!
Sam Christophe
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And then, also thanks to the Lara Fabian - PHQ site, a (translated) interview from ‘Côté Mag’ (https://www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/a.353954938084519.1073741828.353946178085395/802133776599964/?type=3&theater); there are three parts:
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Lara Fabian, her hymn to joy
Music. On ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’, Lara Fabian confides having refound the joy and pleasure of her beginnings.
Audrey Verbist
It is a very personal album. It is composed of 13 titles that are as much letters, as much declarations of love to a daughter, to a husband, a friend and even to Quebec, the “country of her second birth” as she calls it. The title?
LF: It is symbolic of the entire album. I speak of my daughter, of my husband…of things as personal, as sensitive, as 'L'Oubli'. Forgetting, even of the intimacy that is approached with humor in Ton desir. It is truly my life that I put in yours when I unveil these songs for you.
The Joy of the Beginnings
Lara Fabian worked with a new team. Elodie Hesme who cowrote the tests and David Gategno, the music. An album of rebirth which has been written in a particular context (see below) without stakes, without pressure with much desire and joy overall, she says. A return to the sources…
LF: I’ve always written my songs. When you are young and do that, for the first time, you are the expression even of your joy, you are not in the process of telling yourself "but how to do it so as to repeat a success or to have some success", you are just in the expression of your joy, the fact of doing that.
And ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ was written exactly in the same circumstances as those that had passed?
LF: Yes, I descended into the basement in pajamas, we plugged in a keyboard, we tried some things, we amused ourselves, we laughed a lot.
This time…
LF: We truly wrote it like that. We arrived at David’s (Gategno) studio with Elodie (Hesme). We sat, there was something good coming out: great. There wasn’t? We went for a bite, we went for a walk in a park, we spoke of our children, or of our lovers…There wasn’t this space of “It is necessary to make a song which is going to pass on the radio, absolutely to have a success”.
No, not too much reflection, not having to take the heat to try to think what could please or not…
LF: I didn’t think of these questions when I was 20 years old and I wrote. I just launched myself in the music with this joy which characterizes the music for me.
On Stage
That which occupies the singer now, other than a two-component part of Ma vie dans la tienne, is the tour that she is actively preparing a tour with the same team. There are the lights, the décor, but also the old songs, ‘the musts’, that it is necessary to readapt to today’s sound.
A tour that will pass through Belgium of course. Always a particular moment for her:
LF: One is always a little the child of the country when one comes here. It is something very comforting. The Belgian public is a welcoming public but very demanding also…
And, then it is still the period at the beginning of the year, one asks her what she could want from it. She responds tit for tat.
LF: Health! It’s the same old thing, but it is the base of the articulation of all. A very very beautiful continuity of my family life, that is to say that my little girl be well, that my husband and me live a true longevity in this story of love.
And musically:
LF: To be always creative, to have always much smoke between the ears. That it continues to wake me up in the morning with a smile.
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A Musical Comedy
Lara Fabian works on a project of which she has dreamed for a long time: a musical comedy.
LF: David (Gategno, who cowrote the music of her album) and me, we are in the process of imagining a musical comedy, both of us. I had an idea which I spoke to him about, and he adored it. He said to me, “It would please me a lot to do it with you”. But I will do it in English also because I imagine it more in London or on Broadway. That, it is a great dream for me. This is not necessarily a musical comedy in which I will play. But I'd be the designer, author, composer ... I see myself more in these than in the actress-singer. It is a transcendental love story which passes through many epochs.
However, she will not advance a date for the presentation of the project, which “will take some time”.
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“My deafness, it was a poorly wrapped gift"
In 2014 Lara Fabian underwent an auditory shock that rendered her deaf for several weeks. A terrible test from which she drew great strength, she says in retrospect:
LF: I know it’s a funny formula: it was a badly wrapped gift, but it was a gift. I wanted to make from this silence something more than a silence. A sudden deafness for a singer, it is a little like losing ones legs for a dancer, or ones hands for a pianist…I always make some analogies that are a little caricatures but it is a better way of saying it. Because the people often think that to sing can’t be compromised outside of a voice problem. It isn’t true. When one can no longer hear what one sings, it is complicated.
LF: It was complex to understand the diagnostic. But after, I never let myself be knocked down, I never thought that it was definitive, never. That is perhaps why I succeeded in envisioning the music despite the fact that I couldn’t hear it at that moment.”
Following the serious health problem, she had to interrupt her tour. And it took her a year to get back to the writing of this album. For her, to make this disc has been a way to go towards a more luminous future.
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Both articles were very informative! With respect to making this album like ‘in her beginnings’ – that may well be true, but the result may not be the same in terms of sales, as evidenced by the recent slide in the album’s position. Outside of a few legendary figures pushed to the forefront by events (David Bowe, Daniel Balavoine), all the other artists in the top 10 on the French album chart are under 30 years of age. Perhaps it’s time to stop focusing on the quantity of Francophile sales in judging the success of her new albums…. On today’s Flemish radio program, Lara said, “We don’t align figures, we align joys, and we walk on a path that lasts years…”
Interesting photo(s) of the week:
An additional photo of Lara in winter, from the Lara's own Twitter site
From the Operation Fan Club Lara Fabian site, a beautiful pensive picture,
www.facebook.com/OperationFanClubLaraFabian/photos/a.674006339373232.1073741828.673991206041412/891405140966683/?type=3&theater
and from the Lara Fabian Greece site (with a nice accompanying text on happiness from Lara),
www.facebook.com/443548625770236/photos/a.443804005744698.1073741828.443548625770236/463974093727689/?type=3&theater
As indicated in one of the interviews, Lara is in the process of configuring the coming tour, and seems to have it fairly well thought out. We may expect additional dates in France and perhaps Belgium to be added in the coming week(s).
David
