Post by davidhr on Jan 26, 2016 9:05:34 GMT -5
A week of pictures and long interviews...
Lara’s time away from Belgium continued this past week, this time marked by photos she placed on her FB site taken in Modena, Italy, which as she noted was the birth place of Pavorotti [in 1935]
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1052714951436668/1052714738103356/?type=3&theater
and from Lara’s Twitter page,
The pictures show some sites around town. Lara also posted another two, taken at the Osteria Francescana restaurant in the city.
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1053825987992231/1053825777992252/?type=3&theater
It’s actually on a list of the world’s 50 best restaurants (http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Osteria-Francescana)
Of course, what this did is remind Italian fans that Lara has yet to give a full concert in their country, so they wrote in to remind her of that. For once, Lara’s team did not have their customary reply, offered to many other such country requests, holding out promise. It seems like this is a tough nut to crack for her for some reason (though that’s certainly not true for other performers, who include Italy on their tour of Europe in what seems like routine fashion). Another one of the endless puzzles that dot the landscape of Lara’s comings and goings.
The big news this week was an interview that Lara gave for GAEL magazine. Gael is a French language monthly women's and lifestyle magazine published in Mechelen, Belgium. Lara posted numerous references to the piece on her site, as well as to various side articles associated with the main one. One of them concerns objects Lara says represent her, or help her feel better
(http://www.gael.be/rencontres/femmes-inspirantes/367866/lara-fabian-en-vrai)
Here is the translation:
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‘Lara Fabian for real”.
“Want to know Lara Fabian a little better, the woman behind the star? She reveals five items.
---and---
Lara Fabian is our GAEL guest of February. Generous and full, the singer reveals 5 items that represent her.
1) s10.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543178/1543178.jpg
whose legend reads: “The Monchichi family, it's a way of never leaving childhood. I'm the wife, but also the little one who has her baby. I am a mother who loves to disguise herself as a little girl to make her kid laugh. "
2) s1.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543180/1543180.jpg
"This cube which has been bought in Quebec bears the inscription 'Angels fly because they take themselves lightly'. It sits enthroned in my dressing room, where my job requires me to pass several times per day. With my propensity to worry, it tells me: 'Pssst, all is well!'"
3) s3.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543182/1543182.jpg
"It's been twenty years that I’ve been wearing Musk, of Reminiscence. One day, at my home in Montreal, I go down the stairs without knowing that my makeup person was waiting for me. A fragrance seduces me, disturbs me. Before even saying hello, I ask: "Excuse me, what are you wearing?" She laughed: "! It always has that effect “”
4) s5.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543184/1543184.jpg
“The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. This book has been my bible when I have had need of healing from being too much in anticipation or in nostalgia. It is like chicken soup when one is sick”.
[I’ll do something I don’t often do here, and that is interrupt the flow of this Update for a personal anecdote. In February of 2004, Lara gave two concerts at the OSM in Montreal, Canada. One of the heads of the fan club in Montreal, a woman named Gigi, had arranged a party for Lara beforehand; unfortunately, at the last minute Lara said she didn’t feel well, and sent some gifts for the people instead, e.g., a mug with her picture on it, and chocolates that had been made especially for her by a local Montreal chocolatier. In return, the presents we had for Lara were collected and given to her – Gigi subsequently assured us that they had in fact been delivered. My gift for Lara was – this book! It had seemed to me to be the perfect antidote for Lara’s concerns, and indeed she has validated that belief with her comments here. Now – it wouldn’t be at all surprising for Lara not to remember that, and for that matter, she may already have had the book or got it from some other source. Note that the book pictured in this image is the French translation – the copy I had provided was in English. And Lara has always had a fascination with living in the moment – hence the album title ‘Carpe Diem’. But soon after the Montreal party, when Lara was doing her short-lived promotion for ‘A Wonderful Life’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbJOFbMDo0) she mentions the book title several different times, first in reference to the song ‘The Last Goodbye” at the 4:20 mark, and then again in association with ‘No Big Deal’ at ~6:36 mark. Of course, regardless of how she first encountered it, her true benefactor is Eckhart Tolle, for writing this enlightened text in the first place].
5) s7.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543186/1543186.jpg
“For a girl who would be content to have four pairs of jeans, this Versa Versa bag is a must, with its interchangeable flaps. I carry it around everywhere!”
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One wouldn’t be surprised to find Lara’s last comment included in an advertisement eventually
.
And then there was a blurb called “Lara in full shooting” (associated with the photographs).
www.gael.be/rencontres/people/364500/une-journee-avec-lara-fabian/photo-1.
A day with Lara… The point of view of an intern at GAEL Magazine. Here’s the translation:
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How is a day with Lara Fabian? The view of the trainee.
As an intern at GAEL, one has the opportunity to attend beautiful meetings. That day, the GAEL team - Anne-Sophie, editorial 'leader, Joëlle, culture journalist, and yours truly, Danae, trainee - welcome the first rate team Lara Fabian. Hairdresser, makeup artist, manager, press attache ... Lara Fabian is surrounded by a real family! Moreover, even Gabriel, her hyper love husband is present.
The first thing that strikes me is Italian. Of a Sicilian mother, Lara mastered perfectly this language singing. She, her husband and the hairdresser discuss in French-Italian without even realizing it, which brings even more spontaneity to the atmosphere.
Then I am excited by the warmth of Lara. From the first interaction, she takes care to remember my name (I promise, this is not easy!). Me, little intern passing through in a large magazine, she knows how to compliment me and make me feel comfortable from the start. Shhh, Lara is ready with encouragement and intimacy for the first interview of the day.
When Milow, our second star of the day arrives, it's almost noon. Tall, slim, discreet and smiling, it is with pleasure (mutual!) that he just met Lara. Their music styles may be different, but the two of them understand right away. Ah, the great family of artists! Ah, the humility of Belgians! "She's great, this kid!" Lara slips us a wink at the end of the interview.
Once Milow leaves, and despite fatigue (she has a sore throat), Lara poses with expertise for the many portraits that will illustrate our GAEL special. The photographer - who has shot the biggest - tells me that he finds Lara very patient and agreeable. This is frankly not the case with the big stars!
The day ends in the kitchen with Canadian and Sicilian recipes of Lara ... which can not prevent her from slipping into her Quebecois accent. I did not imagine she would be as funny nor as expert a cook.
I can assure you that at the end of the day, I go back to my home with stars in my eyes and a head full of recipes and ideas ...
Danae, GAEL intern
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Nice comments about how Lara treats people, something we have long known and come to love and respect her for.
Lara’s website pointed out that GAEL magazine will also have a contest to meet Lara on the occasion of her concert in Brussels on March 18 and in Liege on March 19. Here’s their offer (http://www.gael.be/concours/367514/meet-and-greet-lara-fabian):
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Meet and Greet Lara Fabian
Contest
Lara Fabian will be at BOZAR on 18 March, or at the forum of Liège on 19 March and at the Stadsschouwburg of Anvers on 20 March to present her new album “Ma vie dans la tienne”.
Want to go listen to live one of the most beautiful French voices and meet the sparkling artist?
Lara Fabian and GAEL offer you 1x2 places "Meet and Greet" for the performances at BOZAR and at the Forum of Liège. Try to hurry your chance to meet Lara Fabian!
[You then have to check off that you want to participate, and click the box to notify them].
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Then, finally, the main article. As usual the Lara Fabian – PHQ site was kind enough to put scans of the article on their FB site (as did the Lara Fabian est ton autre site), and, as usual, here is the [very long!] translation. The article is in three parts; there are also some very nice pictures associated with the piece, which the Lara Fabian – PHQ site has also made available (https://www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/ms.c.eJw9zckRwDAIA8COMtxI~;TcWB8d~_LhIAce2Eu5aF5YNxkzAKr~;2zih7H9D1uXsHswjH2ft17O7ffiHH2GA5bXhOOKfr978p8AShkIJw~-.bps.a.803175726495769.1073741858.353946178085395/803175833162425/?type=3&theater). In addition, there’s a ‘selfie’ of Lara with Milow at (http://www.gael.be/rencontres/people/364500/une-journee-avec-lara-fabian/photo-3#.Vp_34mpQOS4.facebook). Overall, this article is so impressive, one might actually be tempted to purchase it.
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LARA FABIAN
In Real Life
At 46 years of age, our GAEL guest has marked out a dazzling career. Her 15 million discs sold, her concerts in the four corners of the world, and her 1,100,000 fans on Facebook, nothing will prevent her from letting go in this head-to-head. Lara gets worked up. Lara passes in slang, and one can understand why her friends speak of her as generous and funny.
What a journey since I saw you sing in the gym room of our school in Waterloo, with you father on the guitar! You were 14 years old…
LF: It is crazy what it is that a simple human being can do when he has just a dream. The energy that one can deploy! It is a destiny that I observe almost with an outside perspective.
At your house, this flame ignited at 5 years old.
And your parents authorized you to keep it going.
LF: Yes! They do not come from all of the artistic world, but papa profoundly loved this métier. He would have wanted to do it, I believe. For him, his father censured him about this. With me, he did the opposite. Accompanying me on the guitar was for him a way of expressing his proper road. His small dream. For all begins by a small dream.
What was yours?
LF: The precise image that I had, small, it was of arriving to sing for many people, standing on a stage, with a grand piano in the rear and some small lights. Besides, my first great stage here – I remember, it was in Beaux-Arts, January 28, 1998 – I insisted to see this dream concretized. And I had it; the lighting engineer designed a backsplash with the stars of my fantasy.
You dared to insist it…
LF: At that moment, yes. At 28 years old, I had sold many albums…But I had struggled for nine years! The people think: “When Lara Fabian arrived, it was like the Spanish flu, one could not escape it”. My ass, yes! I already worked for a long time.
You launched your career in Canada, with your companion of the time, Rick Allison.
LF: In Canada, I “rowed my race”! But with the motivation of tasting and learning my métier. Changing in cold rooms of piano-bars, and then? I was deeply into the action, spontaneously. Only later did it go bad…
Because?
LF: I started to think deeply about facing success in the mirror.
Your glance splits?
You begin to see yourself from the outside?
LF: Exactly! It is horrible: you stop ‘being’ and you begin to perceive yourself in accord with the regard of others. Even under the form of great success, one is not equipped to live this split. The Quebecois don’t attach importance to the regard of others. Here, in Europe, one is very attentive to it.
From where comes this love for Canada, as your father is Belgian and your mother Sicillian?
LF: The root of my soul – if one believes in that – is Quebecoise. I feel it in my attachment to the earth, to nature. If one let me live completely, I would have just four jeans, four identical sweaters…And I would not ask myself questions like: “I am well? That will go for the photo?” I have a very complicated rapport with the image. I know that it is useful, but also how it is deforming, how it can displace me from what I am. As an artist, you pass your life making changes because of what one says of you. In Canada, I found myself in phase with what I was.
You had any doubts before you went overseas at 19 years old?
LF: Not at all. It is my mother and father who put me in an airplane with 1000 Canadian dollars, a valise and a ticket to go. Period.
It is my impression, this confidence that they gave you!
LF: Yes, but attention, with full of ‘must do’s’ beforehand: “You finish your school, you pick up a diploma”. I learned the music, musical theory, classical singing, piano, theater, tap dancing, plenty of things. They wanted that I acquire enough methods to then be free. My family didn’t say to me, “Find yourself a true job”, for they had the love of music. There were many others who said it to me. Papa and mama wanted to protect me and accompanied me in my 14 years on the stage of the piano-bars in Brussels.
And despite that, they let you leave.
LF: Yes, hat! And today, I see how they still try to protect me, for examples from pains tied to their age.
What is it that you have taken from your mother?
LF: The lightness, the sunny side. I am a girl who always wakes up in good humor. Even if, like today, I cough like crazy at breakfast. My husband says to me: “But you’re going to die!”, and I laugh. The beginning of the day is a new opportunity to be happy. I enjoy even more my present happiness that I’ve worked sentimentally to find one day the father of my daughter, and then one day the man of my life.
And it isn’t the same man…
LF: It is not serious, it was not my destiny. And especially, Lou, my daughter must be who she is. My true great success, it is to have succeeded in being happy. Thank mother, therefore, for this faculty of enjoyment.
And from your father, what have you taken?
LF: The capacity to anticipate, to analyze, indeed to worry. Thanks to him I’ve learned to sometime prepare myself for the worst. One is a little more armed when difficulties arrive. At the same time, he is also the joyful jolly fellow who takes his guitar and sets the mood.
To put our priorities in good order, one can imagine what one would want our friends to say about us at our burial. You, what would it be?
LF: I would love that they say that I was there when it was necessary, that we shared a great many things. And that I was a beautiful mother, a good mother. That’s almost all. It could appear to you that there is only that, but it is my quest: in the exchange, to contribute to the well-being of someone.
How to put it in practice with the life that you lead?
LF: In organizing myself so as to be able to nourish my friends. As soon as I have two free days in my schedule, I anticipate. Good, evidently, sometimes I pick up like yesterday where I had to cancel because I had an unforeseen invitation for a broadcast of Michel Drucker. But our appointment has already been postponed until next week.
If you had to name a challenging experience that made you stronger…
LF: My very painful breakup with my first work partner, Rick Allison, with whom I had gone to Canada. Outright, I took it, but had not at all metabolized the pain. It was only much later that I really confronted it with the help of a therapist. I have been able to understand how to welcome it, that which is different from accepting it. To accept a pain, you double up with pain; to welcome it, you take it on your knees. It is magnificent because you truly heal. In these theories of non-violent communication , Marshall Rosenberg describes us as mini-vultures, mini-giraffes. We think to meet some vulture people or some giraffe people. But it is false, we are all some part of one and of the other. This multitude of small parts speaks to itself, shouts at itself, clashes with itself, or finishes by understanding itself. During a great pain, the only thing that you can do, it is to learn to welcome what it’s telling you. In fact, this breakup rendered me stronger thanks to the way that I metabolized it. If not, what robbery, what treachery, what rape can make you stronger? None.
You utilize the techniques of non-violent communication with your daughter?
LF: All the time. It is brilliant. Children are even more receptive to it, for they are open, still not clouded by all these beliefs that we drag, these fears that become scabs. This technique changes all in the relation! Attention, I have also my beliefs, my scabs…And then, when I flare up, I realize that I have married a natural giraffe, Gabriel. He looks at me and says, “OK, I manage”. That’s it, the magic of a true family. The one who is the most elevated in consciousness at the moment, takes the job.
What does your husband Gabriel bring you?
LF: The love of my life! Love in the sense of the greatest I have ever been able to touch. For me, someone who loves you, it is someone who knows you well and who loves you nevertheless. It is like a friend, but with sexuality and more, and the barrier of modesty which is raised more easily. In friendship, I am very modest. With my husband, if there be anything at all, I say it, the slightest thing.
You don’t prefer to hide certain things to maintain the attraction?
LF: That is another thing. To preserve the magic, I practice it daily. I’ve observed that if I put on this pair of shoes or if I cook such a dish, it makes him happy, then I do it regularly. The consideration. I myself have a lot lacking in my relationships. Gabriel, he constantly considers me. Moreover, he guides me if I feel lost. There it is... he is my great love, my greatest support and my sage. My sage-giraffe moreover!
And you, what is it that you bring to him?
LF: You need to ask him (Discover the response of Gabriel on http://www.gaellaralove…)
[Note – it is provided at the end of this three-part article].
How did you meet?
LF: Gab played in a musical comedy in Sicily. I had gone there to give a free masterclass. I was a little embarrassed for Gabriel was himself already a singer, a musician, a polymorphic artist. At the end, he came out of the room and he did a very touching thing: he came back and asked me if he could just shake my hand. Then, I got up, I came around the table which separated us, I took his hand. And I had a very strange instinct, I pulled him to me and I hugged him. I don’t normally do that. And I said: “Voila, like that we have truly met”. He left, paralyzed. Later, we saw each other at a party over there. And this time, it was my daughter who really saw it, even more than I, which ended my separation…”Mama, a magician?!” I was scared stiff, but Gabriel was already sure.
What is your preferred hour of the day?
LF: 11:00, in-between, I’m going to leave for singing lessons, but I am already washed and dressed and woken up with Lou, I’ve prepared her briefcase, I took her to school, I looked through the window, I went to buy fresh oranges…
People often accost you in the stores?
LF: It happens, but once you’re settled in a neighborhood where the people know you, in Belgium, there is a true welcoming. When they see me arrive in my jogging suit entering into the UGG and my ‘bad hair day’, they leave me in peace. Yes, I surely welcome two or three words of incredible love, do two or three selfies…
That doesn’t alter your day?
LF: On the contrary! I tell myself, “Ah, that still happens?” I continue to be astonished of what has happened to me. One day, I hang up ‘in the nose’ of Barbra Streisand. “Hello, Lara Fabian? Barbra Streisand here…” Click! I thought it was a joke. But it was truly her!
Is it that you would allow Lou be free to follow her way, like your parents did with you?
LF: Like them, I want to help her become what she is by giving her my full support.
You find that difficult?
LF: Yes, for us women we love like we worry. For example, Lou doesn’t like the method. At the piano, I want to explain to her how to place the fingers to play such a piece. “Let me do it my way!” It’s necessary that I trust her, that I sit on my fears. Me, I like to follow piles of courses. She, she likes only the one of dance. Happily, her teacher, Joelle Morane, is a being of great evolution: she understood that if dance isn’t the strength of Lou, it is her joy. Some teachers do not care to contribute to your joy and break you. When I was eight years old, the age of my daughter, my dance teacher spotted my flat feet and my weight. He crushed my feet with a cane and told me, “You’re fat, who could ever make a carry with that?” I didn’t want to dance anymore. And moreover, if I don’t have a body sized for classical dance, I am a very good dancer. That said, I see well what Lou is oriented towards: cooking. I am certain that that is going to be that. To nourish people.
Quickly before finishing, can you tell us a makeup trick spun for you by the experts who surround you?
LF: To avoid the effect of ‘drooping cow eyelids’, I must darken the eyelashes and between the lashes, with a powder and a beveled brush. And then put on the mascara. Just that, it lightens the look. That’s about all, because I have a correct skin.
Ah, you recognize in yourself an asset anyway, outside of your ‘drooping cow eyelids’!
LF: Yes, and I have a nice nose! Whether you like it or not in dirty language, it is a real one. Otherwise I could not do that (Note: she squashed it with the tip of her finger). I have a pretty profile and a pretty neckline.
I have read that you have made peace with your body. How do you take it, that I do the same thing?
LF: It came from the fatigue of being at war with the thing. And probably from the love of Gabriel. He repeats to me so often that I am beautiful. For a magician, it is almost the most incredible illusion that he has ever succeeded, to happen to put me at peace, at least at certain moments.
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Lara meets Millow
She is one of the most beautiful voices. He is a Belgian folkman, the most reputed abroad. Meeting of the two great talents. MADE IN BELGIUM
It is the melange of people. The Sicilian diva and the Flemish folk singer. On the outset, that seems intriguing. In this magnificent mansion, loaned by an individual in Schaerbeek, Lara and Milow really are at the rendezvous. It is to say that she has truly heard the first cuts, ultra confidential, of the album of Milow predicted for the spring and she does not pretend when she tells him that she adores them. And that he, the big guy – as relaxed as one can be when you live like him in L.A. - seems to know very well who is our GAEL guest. The interview will be in French but evidently, she would have also been very able to do it in English. The language of show-biz.
I wondered what were your points in common. Other than the love of music that you both have, there is, for the one like the other, a desire to make an international career.
Lara: Also, I am attached to my roots, and I understand that Milow was equally. The desire to make a career outside of our borders while knowing that the origin is Belgian, that makes sense. The aim of music is to connect to others, to the greatest number. We have another point in common: we chose to leave to live elsewhere at a moment of our career to find an inspiration. And then, the fact that we are both songwriters is a supplementary common point.
Milow: I think that all artists dream, in their beginnings in any case, of having an audience that passes their borders of origin. It is a pity that most of them never arrive at it. I didn’t want to mandatorily become super known in Belgium, but I dreamed of having a fanbase in numerous countries. From 2007, I made first parts in the Netherlands and the following years, I repeated. The goal was to use the success in a country to translate it into another country. I began to write some songs in 2003. The industry of music was in full mutation. I sent some demos to everybody and no one understood that they has some potential. I have therefore created my own label.
Lara: Voila another common point! During nine years, I tried to contact some record companies. In France, one responded to me, “You sing very well, that will never sell”. And during nine years, in Canada, I mounted my own box because no one wanted to sign me. One days, things came unlocked. I still have my proper box, that which permits me to keep my artistic liberty.
You, Lara, you first became known in Canada.
Lara: Yes, and then, one day, the fashion changed. And I went through the door like a tidal wave.
Milow has also benefited from the change in fashion and of the taste for folk music, which is still relevant.
Milow: I also profited in 2007 from the beginnings of iTunes. For the first time, some telecharged songs are entered in the official charts. My single “You Don’t Know’ didn’t leave in physical format, only digital. And therefore, I became one of the first telecharged artists. It was a little revolution.
Lara has just released her new album and you, Milow, you prepare the next album (expected to be released in March). What is the best part of the work? The writing and the composition, the recording, the promotion, or the touring of concerts?
Milow: I like that there are as many cycles. The sensation that one feels when one has written a new song which pleases us is very special. That gives energy for many weeks. At this moment I refine the details and that isn’t the part that I prefer. I am impatient to hear the reactions. I don’t make the music only for myself.
Lara: The most important part is the moment where one connects with others. For this album I worked with David Gattegno and Elodie Hesme, and that has been one of the most rich periods of my artistic life. I have found some people who understand me today. They are the people who have the desire to do something timeless, who perpetuate a tradition and who go outside some modes all while being nevertheless modern.
During the concerts, you know that which touches most of the public and that which is asked?
Lara: The people who love us and make the approach to come see us in concert have of course heard the hits which pass on the radio but they have especially heard the album. And certain of them react in an incredible manner, because those songs precisely touch them.
Milow: Some years ago the artists make tours to promote their albums. And now, they record albums so as to be able to leave on tours. This could lead some to not always refine their discs.
Lara: And yet, it’s still your presentation photo.
Milow: Daft Punk doesn’t go on a tour after each album. They have recently said to regret that less and less artists aim for a masterpiece. The ambition of many albums is no longer the same.
Lara: I think it is the economic system that has completely changed.
The length of life of albums is shorter than before?
Lara: No, we consume them more quickly because of the speed of transmission. But someone who loves an album remains with it for as much time as before. It is the diffusion which is much shorter, but not the love that one carries for it.
Recently, I’ve seen Arno who told me not to be a star because ‘the stars are in the sky’. Are there some stars in Belgium?
Lara: I quite agree with Arno. A star is someone who is all alone. It is high up. It is a word invented by an effervescent media. It is not the definition of an artist. One becomes a star when one is propelled by a success, accompanied by our most precious vehicles, which are the media. Connect the music to as many people, that’s divine. But the word ‘star’, like one hears it today, it is a caricature. That doesn’t reflect at all the sense that I have given to my life and my profession. It is like the word ‘diva’, it is Maria Calas. She made you cry and you don’t even know why you cried. The true stars are those who pass the test of time.
Milow: In Belgium, one relativizes a lot. The Belgian public loves the proximity. In France I believe it is different. They love stars.
Lara: Yes, they love that the artists be inaccessible. In Belgium, like in Quebec, the human counts as much as his art. In France, the culture is that what shines is what is encouraged. But not for all artists. Alain Souchon and Laurent Voudry, for example, are not at all stars in their comportment. Moreover, there are some stars in the musical sky for many years.
Milow: When one presents me as a Belgian star, that makes me laugh. It’s like the people of whom one says that they are ‘big in Japan’. And there is a difference with francophone Belgian athletes who can be adopted in France, in Canada, in Switzerland. Otherwise, for Belgians singing in English, it is not obvious to construct culture elsewhere. But I see that Stroeve is in the course of making a beautiful international journey. Me, I’ve put on humility with some more countries.
Lara: There is an interesting passage: the day when you sell three million albums in the world, the Belgians are very happy of being able to say that you are Belgian.
Milo: I believe that today there exist some opportunities for artists who are not Anglo-Saxons, but just different.
Lara: When I signed in the United States with a big label, the discourse of the day was: “You must be blond, very thin, and sing in this fashion”. I was hallucinating! Me, I sang as if I was dying tomorrow. But all of a sudden, it was necessary that I dance. For me, it truly had been a rupture between what I am and what one wanted that I be.
What question do you want to ask to the other?
Lara: How to you see yourself in twenty years?
MIlow: My grandfather died at the age of 56 and my father at 53. So, even if I take care of my health and live another life than them, I think that, maybe, I will not live to be very old. But I hope that, in twenty years, I will be exactly as I am today.
Lara: Therefore, what you want, it is to remain in this profession.
Milow: I want to be able to be proud of my route. My question for Lara, if you could meet your 20 year old version, what would you say to her?
Lara: I would tell her: “Remain yourself, even if you hear some reproaches, even if it is difficult”.
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Sicily vs Quebec
Belgian by birth Lara Fabian is Canadian by heart, and profoundly Italian, like her mother, when she dons an apron. That is to say generous and whole, such as one knows her on stage. Here is how she magnifies her typical dishes.
When asking Lara to describe her method of cooking, she doesn’t have the time to respond: all the witnesses present – makeup person, press attaché, husband…- launch in choir: “Excellent!” To hear them detail with warmth her favorite recipes, one believes it willingly. “I am a creative traditionalist, explains Lara. “I add my touch of modernity to the recipes transmitted from mother to daughter. For example, for Osso bucco, I replace the orange of the gremolata by lemon, less heavy, less sugary, thinner. I choose another type of tomato than my mother, I add no cream and I replace the usual egg tagliatelles by a parmesan risotto. A friend says that would console a new widow. [They also then showed a recipe of Lara’s for grilled lobster with herbs. A picture of Lara with the lobster can be seen at: www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/pcb.953587121361619/953587084694956/?type=3&theater].
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In the article, Gabriel’s response to what Lara brings to him was mentioned. The'Lara Fabian est ton autre' site provided it, and Lara’s additional comment, translated below (http://www.gael.be/rencontres/people/367266/lara-love?utm_source=laralove&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_content=laralove&utm_term=shorturl&utm_campaign=laralove):
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Lara Fabian, our GAEL Guest of February, is in love with Gabriel, her husband, which makes him good for her. He told us everything Lara brought to him.
GABRIEL, WHAT DOES LARA BRING TO YOU?
"In a word: happiness. The way that this woman has looked at me! In her eyes, I feel happy, loved. I feel that I belong to someone and that gives me a crazy pleasure. This is the first time I feel like that. And it is so since the day that I met her, the day when I returned to the room after this masterclass that she gave us in Sicily. Watching her, I felt a sensation too complicated, too weird. I asked myself: "Is this real? I will come back again to try to speak two seconds with this woman. "
LARA, YOU CELEBRATE VALENTINE'S DAY?
“My daughter Lou called it the "Salabentin" and we continue to call it that. But now it is celebrated for three. This festival a little farfetched at the base makes sense if there is true love, which is fed continuously. Between ‘Gab’, Lou and me, there is that, while it was not really won, after having broken a family, to recompose another. It is celebrated with a cake in heart roses and lychees, and a raspberry macaroon, the Joy of Wittamer’s. Creamy and crunchy at the same time, it symbolizes us the best. I have some films of my daughter dancing like crazy while Gabriel plays the guitar and I sing.”
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All of this is very informative, as the last few interviews have all been! Lara is approaching with the Belgian press the kind of ‘air it all out’ honesty normally associated with her interviews in Quebec. Both with this approach, and her continuing to post photos of her activities on her FB site from different locales, Lara seems to be fulfilling a goal of getting even closer to her fans. The French language media seems to be greatly impressed by the more than 1 million likes on Lara’s FB site; perhaps Lara too feels an extra obligation to all of them. Or, Lara is just in a more open, less defensive mood now, since she mainly has what she wants in life, and is not afraid of losing it (not in press interviews, anyway).
Also, conversely, doesn’t it seem as if the media in Belgium is valuing Lara much higher than they have in the past, as a ‘Belgian’ celebrity? It’s not as if she’s just moved there – she’s been living in Belgium for more than a decade now. But she’s routinely introduced as ‘the best selling (female) Belgian artist of all time, and, as in this example, a lot of press is devoted to exploring her daily life as a celebrity ‘living a normal life amongst the people’. Maybe this is the result of the ‘framing’ issue of her as ‘an international star’; or, with her changed attitude and appreciation of what she has, the reality around her has changed. Another answer is provided in the following interview…
In the same vein, Lara today is on the cover of the weekly publication ‘Nous Deux’ ; that cover can be seen here: (https://www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/a.168982793155393.43222.166959643357708/955978417789156/?type=3&theater). Again, Lara Fabian – PHQ provided the scans, and here’s the translation:
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Today I go to the essential…
Interview Lara Fabian
With ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’, Lara Fabian returns to the front of the stage and to the heart of life. Forgotten the anguish of deafness and of silence! She feels herself connected with happiness, finally soothed, happy to live and sing… David Lelait-Helo
Smiling but not too much, pretty in all simplicity, sincerely sympathetic, Lara Fabian spent a beautiful moment of confidences with us. Her magician husband, her daughter Lou, the happiness in her family or on stage, she doesn’t avoid any question and speaks to us clearly of re-finding her joy.
ND: This album seems to be one of recovery, as much physical as morale…
LF: We say that it is what you feel…Me, I would say that it is one of reconnection to life. I evoke in it the joys and pains of a life, I present myself in it in total liberty and without filter. Finally! Some episodes of my life have taught me to liberate myself from questions that ‘eat up’ your head. I really feel a new energy, in a renaissance. In that, I am more relaxed, lighter, I am less ‘nose right over the steering wheel’.
ND: It is the episode of your deafness, these ten months of silence, which has given you this new start?
LF: It was the cherry on the cake. But before that, I was already interrogating myself on the why of my life, the why and the how of my career. The deafness, the fear which accompanied it, put things in perspective and gave me back the sense of priorities. I never forgot what I was told by Nana Mouskouri, one of my idols: “Never let the singer go before the mother…” As she is right!
ND: Your role of mother is at the center of it all?
LF: Obviously! Lou at 7 and a half years old, I don’t want to miss anything of what she is. I have confidence in her, I sense that she is going to be a beautiful person. I am a mother present but not oppressive, I believe. Moreover, if it was the case, she would not be shy about telling me (laughs). Lou is constantly in communication, she argues, suggests, she is empathetic. But I will not hide from you that I am 100% “Italian mother”, therefore totally worried. I have the heart that trembles permanently for her, it is not by chance if a song from my album is called ‘Le Coeur qui tremble!
ND: You share many activities with her?
LF: Her most favorite thing at the moment, is cooking. And that is very good, I adore to be at the stove! She loves to make cake. She loves that I find for her some documentaries on the great chefs. She also loves music, she sings very accurately but she has already told me that she would never want to be in my profession. She has seen me on stage but she doesn’t care and when I pass on the television she doesn’t watch, and it is very good like that, I prefer it.
ND: The ten months that you passed without singing permitted you to profit from real life?
LF: I grew up and I have been educated in the real life, I have never left it, it is in my DNA. I have a life that could not be more normal and tranquil, I go to the supermarket, put gas in my car, tidy up my house. It is in my nature to lead this life, I am an earthling. But of course I took more time for Lou, to go look for her at school, to take a pause and think about my life, of the road that I would desire to take…
ND: In the song, 'Le Desamour', you speak of the love that goes away. This is from experience?
LF: Like everybody, no? I am a born lover, so yes, I have lived some great affecting tsunamis…I am sometimes fooled, we are lovers of love but not truly of the person in front of us. We are still trying to persuade ourselves that it is good and we plunge in until the final explosion. All that, I know…But isn’t it necessary to pass through all the steps to arrive at the true and great love?
ND: The great love with Gabriel, your husband? So how is it, the love with a magician?
LF: It is magical (laughs)! He is a magician on stage but also as a husband. As I said it in the song ‘L'Illusionniste’, he invented the world that I have always imagined. He has moreover been very touched by this lyric, I have surprised him. He is a magnificent man, who neither speaks ill nor judges. In his life as an artist, he plays as well a show for children as for the grand illusion, he sings divinely, he is a musician, he writes also. In short, he has all the talents!
ND: He did not cut you into pieces for a magical trick?
LF: No, not yet (laughs) but I can say that I have begun to have a great desire that we work together, it’s making me itch! To be continued…
ND: What lovers are you every day?
LF: A loving integrated, intense and whole. But I’m not necessarily screwed on to the other, I am autonomous. I am not jealous, it is ugly, jealousy…Of course, it should not be that a girl comes along and walks on my flower beds (laughs). The problem doesn’t arise, I have confidence in him and the love that he carries for me.
ND: We have confidence in the other from the moment that we have confidence in ourselves, no?
LF: Yes, obviously, but that, it is still not certain (bursts of laughter)…We say that I have confidence in the look that my husband gives me. I am beautiful in his eyes but not still in mine. The ideal for me it is a Grace Kelly, a Blake Lively…I prefer by far the evanescent prima ballerinas to the Mediterranean types like me.
ND: 'Ma vie dans la tienne' is a song dedicated to your best friend. Friendship, it is precious in your life?
LF: Very! With this friend, it is thirty years of friendship. I was 14 years old… I wanted to honor this history which ties us. The friendship, it is the pure sentiment par excellence, according to me the form of absolute and unconditional love, it is who remains when the lover, he, has gone away. With my best friend, it is everyday, we send each other SMS all day. Her presence is indispensable to me, I wanted to tell it to her by this song.
ND: There has been much criticism of you for doing too much…smiling too much, too much voice…Do you understand the criticism that has often been made of you?
LF: Totally, yes…I was a little this girl who never went on TV and to be seen, put on a red dress. As a result, she does too much. I find myself tiring when I see these images. But you know, we tend to sweeten the sugar when we want to convince, to be accepted…and then a TV passage last three minutes, so we have a ton of fear of not being included. Since then, I’ve calmed down. Whew!
IN A FEW WORDS
ND: If you were a color?
LF: White.
ND: The objects that you never leave behind?
LF: My wedding ring and my telephone.
ND: The song you would like to sing
LF: ‘She’s a Maniac”, from the film ‘Flashdance’.
ND: The first thought of the morning?
LF: For my daughter, Lou.
ND: The personality that you would have loved to know?
LF: Charlie Chaplin.
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Lara’s last full response, to the question of her being ‘too much’ signifies, in a nutshell, how she has changed, and why she is so much more accepted by the media.
[Note: Lara’s Team also put on her FB site the scans of the ‘TribuMove Mag article, that was covered in the News Update of 1/12].
In other news, Lara’s new album dropped another 10 positions for the physical CD on the French charts, from 37 to 47. In Belgium it went up one from #12 to #11.
An article in Luxembourg verified what we already knew, that ‘L’oubli’ is the next single from the album
(http://esctoday.com/108249/luxembourg-lara-fabian-new-single-out/). Another article concerning this, in this case from pitiblog, is available at (http://www.ptitblog.net/Lara-Fabian/lara-fabian-mise-sur-le-poignant-l-oubli_art13354.html); here’s the translation:
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Lara Fabian puts out the poignant “L’oubli’
After having released two new singles on the radio "Quand je ne chante pas" and "Ma vie dans la tienne", giving its name to her new album which has just passed the significant 50,000 sales bar at home, Lara Fabian puts out the poignant "L'Oubli" this winter.
We have been convinced by this new album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ of the Belgian singer, finding the consistency of her beginnings and returning to more simplicity also. Some beautiful songs compose her new project, that she wanted like a postcard tribute to her relatives: her daughter, her husband, her parents, her friends. At the time when we publish this article, the artist was doing as well as her last album ‘Le Secret’ which had allowed her to be certified as a gold record and sell some 50,000 copies of her album in a few weeks . With her new album, the singer is in 48th place in the TOP 200 best-selling albums in 2015 and has found honorable positions. The promotion on television that she works currently is not irrelevant to these results.
Paradoxically it's more on the level of radio that the singer is struggling to impose her new titles. Trying to be always closer to her fans, she has not hesitated to probe them these last weeks via social networks to find out their favorite titles. "L’oubli" was part of this selection and it is therefore quite natural that the singer has decided to make it the third official single. The title is a poignant statement where the voice of the artist is put forward to the delight of her admirers. Powerful, present, without restraint, it's Lara Fabian 200%. And the choice is not bad, "L’oubli" is one of the best songs of the album. Hopefully she comes into the playlist of some radios to allow her new album to continue on its way without too much difficulty.
Starting in March, Lara takes the road for her new tour built around her new songs. A show that she wants simple and the pure reflection of the spirit in which she found herself at the time of the writing of her new project. As she is accustomed to, the singer begins by the Belgians, her homeland, to offer a preview of the show on March 16 to our border friends. She will return in the countries of the East in the month of April to continue developing her career in this market who have welcomed her with open arms. In the French capital, it will be necessary to wait until June 3 to see the show at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.
Julien PIRAUD
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Julien Piraud who has been so down on Lara at times in the past, is certainly all in on this venture, which is very nice to see. With respect to a potential video: we’ve come to expect that from the last two singles, but not every single, historically, has had an associated video. Again, this one might be somewhat sensitive to make, though it could be very ‘poignant’, as the article describes the song. There is on youtube a very effective fan-made video of that nature for the song, which can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptnsZNVPFQ
Interesting picture(s) of the week:
From one of the GAEL article blurbs, with the caption “Inspiring women”
s8.cdn.sanomamedia.be/a/view/q75/w700/h700/1543176/lara-fabian.jpg
Also from GAEL, as shown on the 'Lara Fabian est ton autre' site, among others:
www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/pcb.953587121361619/953587098028288/?type=3&theater
Finally, from the Lara Fabian Connecting People FB site,
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianCP/photos/a.1475028129487287.1073741828.1474601329529967/1556858724637560/?type=3&theater
Given that Lara has been out of the country, all of the promotional activities of the past few weeks were obviously pre-recorded, so it’s not clear how many are left. Whether she has time for any more while preparing for the concert tour is unclear, but, while healthy, Lara generally finds a way to make her presence known in the media. In addition, we may expect at any point notification of some new concerts in France, probably for June.
David
Lara’s time away from Belgium continued this past week, this time marked by photos she placed on her FB site taken in Modena, Italy, which as she noted was the birth place of Pavorotti [in 1935]
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1052714951436668/1052714738103356/?type=3&theater
and from Lara’s Twitter page,
The pictures show some sites around town. Lara also posted another two, taken at the Osteria Francescana restaurant in the city.
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/pcb.1053825987992231/1053825777992252/?type=3&theater
It’s actually on a list of the world’s 50 best restaurants (http://www.theworlds50best.com/list/1-50-winners/Osteria-Francescana)
Of course, what this did is remind Italian fans that Lara has yet to give a full concert in their country, so they wrote in to remind her of that. For once, Lara’s team did not have their customary reply, offered to many other such country requests, holding out promise. It seems like this is a tough nut to crack for her for some reason (though that’s certainly not true for other performers, who include Italy on their tour of Europe in what seems like routine fashion). Another one of the endless puzzles that dot the landscape of Lara’s comings and goings.
The big news this week was an interview that Lara gave for GAEL magazine. Gael is a French language monthly women's and lifestyle magazine published in Mechelen, Belgium. Lara posted numerous references to the piece on her site, as well as to various side articles associated with the main one. One of them concerns objects Lara says represent her, or help her feel better
(http://www.gael.be/rencontres/femmes-inspirantes/367866/lara-fabian-en-vrai)
Here is the translation:
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‘Lara Fabian for real”.
“Want to know Lara Fabian a little better, the woman behind the star? She reveals five items.
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Lara Fabian is our GAEL guest of February. Generous and full, the singer reveals 5 items that represent her.
1) s10.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543178/1543178.jpg
whose legend reads: “The Monchichi family, it's a way of never leaving childhood. I'm the wife, but also the little one who has her baby. I am a mother who loves to disguise herself as a little girl to make her kid laugh. "
2) s1.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543180/1543180.jpg
"This cube which has been bought in Quebec bears the inscription 'Angels fly because they take themselves lightly'. It sits enthroned in my dressing room, where my job requires me to pass several times per day. With my propensity to worry, it tells me: 'Pssst, all is well!'"
3) s3.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543182/1543182.jpg
"It's been twenty years that I’ve been wearing Musk, of Reminiscence. One day, at my home in Montreal, I go down the stairs without knowing that my makeup person was waiting for me. A fragrance seduces me, disturbs me. Before even saying hello, I ask: "Excuse me, what are you wearing?" She laughed: "! It always has that effect “”
4) s5.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543184/1543184.jpg
“The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. This book has been my bible when I have had need of healing from being too much in anticipation or in nostalgia. It is like chicken soup when one is sick”.
[I’ll do something I don’t often do here, and that is interrupt the flow of this Update for a personal anecdote. In February of 2004, Lara gave two concerts at the OSM in Montreal, Canada. One of the heads of the fan club in Montreal, a woman named Gigi, had arranged a party for Lara beforehand; unfortunately, at the last minute Lara said she didn’t feel well, and sent some gifts for the people instead, e.g., a mug with her picture on it, and chocolates that had been made especially for her by a local Montreal chocolatier. In return, the presents we had for Lara were collected and given to her – Gigi subsequently assured us that they had in fact been delivered. My gift for Lara was – this book! It had seemed to me to be the perfect antidote for Lara’s concerns, and indeed she has validated that belief with her comments here. Now – it wouldn’t be at all surprising for Lara not to remember that, and for that matter, she may already have had the book or got it from some other source. Note that the book pictured in this image is the French translation – the copy I had provided was in English. And Lara has always had a fascination with living in the moment – hence the album title ‘Carpe Diem’. But soon after the Montreal party, when Lara was doing her short-lived promotion for ‘A Wonderful Life’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZbJOFbMDo0) she mentions the book title several different times, first in reference to the song ‘The Last Goodbye” at the 4:20 mark, and then again in association with ‘No Big Deal’ at ~6:36 mark. Of course, regardless of how she first encountered it, her true benefactor is Eckhart Tolle, for writing this enlightened text in the first place].
5) s7.cdn.sanomamedia.be//a/view/q90/w640/h/1543186/1543186.jpg
“For a girl who would be content to have four pairs of jeans, this Versa Versa bag is a must, with its interchangeable flaps. I carry it around everywhere!”
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One wouldn’t be surprised to find Lara’s last comment included in an advertisement eventually
. And then there was a blurb called “Lara in full shooting” (associated with the photographs).
www.gael.be/rencontres/people/364500/une-journee-avec-lara-fabian/photo-1.
A day with Lara… The point of view of an intern at GAEL Magazine. Here’s the translation:
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How is a day with Lara Fabian? The view of the trainee.
As an intern at GAEL, one has the opportunity to attend beautiful meetings. That day, the GAEL team - Anne-Sophie, editorial 'leader, Joëlle, culture journalist, and yours truly, Danae, trainee - welcome the first rate team Lara Fabian. Hairdresser, makeup artist, manager, press attache ... Lara Fabian is surrounded by a real family! Moreover, even Gabriel, her hyper love husband is present.
The first thing that strikes me is Italian. Of a Sicilian mother, Lara mastered perfectly this language singing. She, her husband and the hairdresser discuss in French-Italian without even realizing it, which brings even more spontaneity to the atmosphere.
Then I am excited by the warmth of Lara. From the first interaction, she takes care to remember my name (I promise, this is not easy!). Me, little intern passing through in a large magazine, she knows how to compliment me and make me feel comfortable from the start. Shhh, Lara is ready with encouragement and intimacy for the first interview of the day.
When Milow, our second star of the day arrives, it's almost noon. Tall, slim, discreet and smiling, it is with pleasure (mutual!) that he just met Lara. Their music styles may be different, but the two of them understand right away. Ah, the great family of artists! Ah, the humility of Belgians! "She's great, this kid!" Lara slips us a wink at the end of the interview.
Once Milow leaves, and despite fatigue (she has a sore throat), Lara poses with expertise for the many portraits that will illustrate our GAEL special. The photographer - who has shot the biggest - tells me that he finds Lara very patient and agreeable. This is frankly not the case with the big stars!
The day ends in the kitchen with Canadian and Sicilian recipes of Lara ... which can not prevent her from slipping into her Quebecois accent. I did not imagine she would be as funny nor as expert a cook.
I can assure you that at the end of the day, I go back to my home with stars in my eyes and a head full of recipes and ideas ...
Danae, GAEL intern
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Nice comments about how Lara treats people, something we have long known and come to love and respect her for.
Lara’s website pointed out that GAEL magazine will also have a contest to meet Lara on the occasion of her concert in Brussels on March 18 and in Liege on March 19. Here’s their offer (http://www.gael.be/concours/367514/meet-and-greet-lara-fabian):
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Meet and Greet Lara Fabian
Contest
Lara Fabian will be at BOZAR on 18 March, or at the forum of Liège on 19 March and at the Stadsschouwburg of Anvers on 20 March to present her new album “Ma vie dans la tienne”.
Want to go listen to live one of the most beautiful French voices and meet the sparkling artist?
Lara Fabian and GAEL offer you 1x2 places "Meet and Greet" for the performances at BOZAR and at the Forum of Liège. Try to hurry your chance to meet Lara Fabian!
[You then have to check off that you want to participate, and click the box to notify them].
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Then, finally, the main article. As usual the Lara Fabian – PHQ site was kind enough to put scans of the article on their FB site (as did the Lara Fabian est ton autre site), and, as usual, here is the [very long!] translation. The article is in three parts; there are also some very nice pictures associated with the piece, which the Lara Fabian – PHQ site has also made available (https://www.facebook.com/353946178085395/photos/ms.c.eJw9zckRwDAIA8COMtxI~;TcWB8d~_LhIAce2Eu5aF5YNxkzAKr~;2zih7H9D1uXsHswjH2ft17O7ffiHH2GA5bXhOOKfr978p8AShkIJw~-.bps.a.803175726495769.1073741858.353946178085395/803175833162425/?type=3&theater). In addition, there’s a ‘selfie’ of Lara with Milow at (http://www.gael.be/rencontres/people/364500/une-journee-avec-lara-fabian/photo-3#.Vp_34mpQOS4.facebook). Overall, this article is so impressive, one might actually be tempted to purchase it.
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LARA FABIAN
In Real Life
At 46 years of age, our GAEL guest has marked out a dazzling career. Her 15 million discs sold, her concerts in the four corners of the world, and her 1,100,000 fans on Facebook, nothing will prevent her from letting go in this head-to-head. Lara gets worked up. Lara passes in slang, and one can understand why her friends speak of her as generous and funny.
What a journey since I saw you sing in the gym room of our school in Waterloo, with you father on the guitar! You were 14 years old…
LF: It is crazy what it is that a simple human being can do when he has just a dream. The energy that one can deploy! It is a destiny that I observe almost with an outside perspective.
At your house, this flame ignited at 5 years old.
And your parents authorized you to keep it going.
LF: Yes! They do not come from all of the artistic world, but papa profoundly loved this métier. He would have wanted to do it, I believe. For him, his father censured him about this. With me, he did the opposite. Accompanying me on the guitar was for him a way of expressing his proper road. His small dream. For all begins by a small dream.
What was yours?
LF: The precise image that I had, small, it was of arriving to sing for many people, standing on a stage, with a grand piano in the rear and some small lights. Besides, my first great stage here – I remember, it was in Beaux-Arts, January 28, 1998 – I insisted to see this dream concretized. And I had it; the lighting engineer designed a backsplash with the stars of my fantasy.
You dared to insist it…
LF: At that moment, yes. At 28 years old, I had sold many albums…But I had struggled for nine years! The people think: “When Lara Fabian arrived, it was like the Spanish flu, one could not escape it”. My ass, yes! I already worked for a long time.
You launched your career in Canada, with your companion of the time, Rick Allison.
LF: In Canada, I “rowed my race”! But with the motivation of tasting and learning my métier. Changing in cold rooms of piano-bars, and then? I was deeply into the action, spontaneously. Only later did it go bad…
Because?
LF: I started to think deeply about facing success in the mirror.
Your glance splits?
You begin to see yourself from the outside?
LF: Exactly! It is horrible: you stop ‘being’ and you begin to perceive yourself in accord with the regard of others. Even under the form of great success, one is not equipped to live this split. The Quebecois don’t attach importance to the regard of others. Here, in Europe, one is very attentive to it.
From where comes this love for Canada, as your father is Belgian and your mother Sicillian?
LF: The root of my soul – if one believes in that – is Quebecoise. I feel it in my attachment to the earth, to nature. If one let me live completely, I would have just four jeans, four identical sweaters…And I would not ask myself questions like: “I am well? That will go for the photo?” I have a very complicated rapport with the image. I know that it is useful, but also how it is deforming, how it can displace me from what I am. As an artist, you pass your life making changes because of what one says of you. In Canada, I found myself in phase with what I was.
You had any doubts before you went overseas at 19 years old?
LF: Not at all. It is my mother and father who put me in an airplane with 1000 Canadian dollars, a valise and a ticket to go. Period.
It is my impression, this confidence that they gave you!
LF: Yes, but attention, with full of ‘must do’s’ beforehand: “You finish your school, you pick up a diploma”. I learned the music, musical theory, classical singing, piano, theater, tap dancing, plenty of things. They wanted that I acquire enough methods to then be free. My family didn’t say to me, “Find yourself a true job”, for they had the love of music. There were many others who said it to me. Papa and mama wanted to protect me and accompanied me in my 14 years on the stage of the piano-bars in Brussels.
And despite that, they let you leave.
LF: Yes, hat! And today, I see how they still try to protect me, for examples from pains tied to their age.
What is it that you have taken from your mother?
LF: The lightness, the sunny side. I am a girl who always wakes up in good humor. Even if, like today, I cough like crazy at breakfast. My husband says to me: “But you’re going to die!”, and I laugh. The beginning of the day is a new opportunity to be happy. I enjoy even more my present happiness that I’ve worked sentimentally to find one day the father of my daughter, and then one day the man of my life.
And it isn’t the same man…
LF: It is not serious, it was not my destiny. And especially, Lou, my daughter must be who she is. My true great success, it is to have succeeded in being happy. Thank mother, therefore, for this faculty of enjoyment.
And from your father, what have you taken?
LF: The capacity to anticipate, to analyze, indeed to worry. Thanks to him I’ve learned to sometime prepare myself for the worst. One is a little more armed when difficulties arrive. At the same time, he is also the joyful jolly fellow who takes his guitar and sets the mood.
To put our priorities in good order, one can imagine what one would want our friends to say about us at our burial. You, what would it be?
LF: I would love that they say that I was there when it was necessary, that we shared a great many things. And that I was a beautiful mother, a good mother. That’s almost all. It could appear to you that there is only that, but it is my quest: in the exchange, to contribute to the well-being of someone.
How to put it in practice with the life that you lead?
LF: In organizing myself so as to be able to nourish my friends. As soon as I have two free days in my schedule, I anticipate. Good, evidently, sometimes I pick up like yesterday where I had to cancel because I had an unforeseen invitation for a broadcast of Michel Drucker. But our appointment has already been postponed until next week.
If you had to name a challenging experience that made you stronger…
LF: My very painful breakup with my first work partner, Rick Allison, with whom I had gone to Canada. Outright, I took it, but had not at all metabolized the pain. It was only much later that I really confronted it with the help of a therapist. I have been able to understand how to welcome it, that which is different from accepting it. To accept a pain, you double up with pain; to welcome it, you take it on your knees. It is magnificent because you truly heal. In these theories of non-violent communication , Marshall Rosenberg describes us as mini-vultures, mini-giraffes. We think to meet some vulture people or some giraffe people. But it is false, we are all some part of one and of the other. This multitude of small parts speaks to itself, shouts at itself, clashes with itself, or finishes by understanding itself. During a great pain, the only thing that you can do, it is to learn to welcome what it’s telling you. In fact, this breakup rendered me stronger thanks to the way that I metabolized it. If not, what robbery, what treachery, what rape can make you stronger? None.
You utilize the techniques of non-violent communication with your daughter?
LF: All the time. It is brilliant. Children are even more receptive to it, for they are open, still not clouded by all these beliefs that we drag, these fears that become scabs. This technique changes all in the relation! Attention, I have also my beliefs, my scabs…And then, when I flare up, I realize that I have married a natural giraffe, Gabriel. He looks at me and says, “OK, I manage”. That’s it, the magic of a true family. The one who is the most elevated in consciousness at the moment, takes the job.
What does your husband Gabriel bring you?
LF: The love of my life! Love in the sense of the greatest I have ever been able to touch. For me, someone who loves you, it is someone who knows you well and who loves you nevertheless. It is like a friend, but with sexuality and more, and the barrier of modesty which is raised more easily. In friendship, I am very modest. With my husband, if there be anything at all, I say it, the slightest thing.
You don’t prefer to hide certain things to maintain the attraction?
LF: That is another thing. To preserve the magic, I practice it daily. I’ve observed that if I put on this pair of shoes or if I cook such a dish, it makes him happy, then I do it regularly. The consideration. I myself have a lot lacking in my relationships. Gabriel, he constantly considers me. Moreover, he guides me if I feel lost. There it is... he is my great love, my greatest support and my sage. My sage-giraffe moreover!
And you, what is it that you bring to him?
LF: You need to ask him (Discover the response of Gabriel on http://www.gaellaralove…)
[Note – it is provided at the end of this three-part article].
How did you meet?
LF: Gab played in a musical comedy in Sicily. I had gone there to give a free masterclass. I was a little embarrassed for Gabriel was himself already a singer, a musician, a polymorphic artist. At the end, he came out of the room and he did a very touching thing: he came back and asked me if he could just shake my hand. Then, I got up, I came around the table which separated us, I took his hand. And I had a very strange instinct, I pulled him to me and I hugged him. I don’t normally do that. And I said: “Voila, like that we have truly met”. He left, paralyzed. Later, we saw each other at a party over there. And this time, it was my daughter who really saw it, even more than I, which ended my separation…”Mama, a magician?!” I was scared stiff, but Gabriel was already sure.
What is your preferred hour of the day?
LF: 11:00, in-between, I’m going to leave for singing lessons, but I am already washed and dressed and woken up with Lou, I’ve prepared her briefcase, I took her to school, I looked through the window, I went to buy fresh oranges…
People often accost you in the stores?
LF: It happens, but once you’re settled in a neighborhood where the people know you, in Belgium, there is a true welcoming. When they see me arrive in my jogging suit entering into the UGG and my ‘bad hair day’, they leave me in peace. Yes, I surely welcome two or three words of incredible love, do two or three selfies…
That doesn’t alter your day?
LF: On the contrary! I tell myself, “Ah, that still happens?” I continue to be astonished of what has happened to me. One day, I hang up ‘in the nose’ of Barbra Streisand. “Hello, Lara Fabian? Barbra Streisand here…” Click! I thought it was a joke. But it was truly her!
Is it that you would allow Lou be free to follow her way, like your parents did with you?
LF: Like them, I want to help her become what she is by giving her my full support.
You find that difficult?
LF: Yes, for us women we love like we worry. For example, Lou doesn’t like the method. At the piano, I want to explain to her how to place the fingers to play such a piece. “Let me do it my way!” It’s necessary that I trust her, that I sit on my fears. Me, I like to follow piles of courses. She, she likes only the one of dance. Happily, her teacher, Joelle Morane, is a being of great evolution: she understood that if dance isn’t the strength of Lou, it is her joy. Some teachers do not care to contribute to your joy and break you. When I was eight years old, the age of my daughter, my dance teacher spotted my flat feet and my weight. He crushed my feet with a cane and told me, “You’re fat, who could ever make a carry with that?” I didn’t want to dance anymore. And moreover, if I don’t have a body sized for classical dance, I am a very good dancer. That said, I see well what Lou is oriented towards: cooking. I am certain that that is going to be that. To nourish people.
Quickly before finishing, can you tell us a makeup trick spun for you by the experts who surround you?
LF: To avoid the effect of ‘drooping cow eyelids’, I must darken the eyelashes and between the lashes, with a powder and a beveled brush. And then put on the mascara. Just that, it lightens the look. That’s about all, because I have a correct skin.
Ah, you recognize in yourself an asset anyway, outside of your ‘drooping cow eyelids’!
LF: Yes, and I have a nice nose! Whether you like it or not in dirty language, it is a real one. Otherwise I could not do that (Note: she squashed it with the tip of her finger). I have a pretty profile and a pretty neckline.
I have read that you have made peace with your body. How do you take it, that I do the same thing?
LF: It came from the fatigue of being at war with the thing. And probably from the love of Gabriel. He repeats to me so often that I am beautiful. For a magician, it is almost the most incredible illusion that he has ever succeeded, to happen to put me at peace, at least at certain moments.
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Lara meets Millow
She is one of the most beautiful voices. He is a Belgian folkman, the most reputed abroad. Meeting of the two great talents. MADE IN BELGIUM
It is the melange of people. The Sicilian diva and the Flemish folk singer. On the outset, that seems intriguing. In this magnificent mansion, loaned by an individual in Schaerbeek, Lara and Milow really are at the rendezvous. It is to say that she has truly heard the first cuts, ultra confidential, of the album of Milow predicted for the spring and she does not pretend when she tells him that she adores them. And that he, the big guy – as relaxed as one can be when you live like him in L.A. - seems to know very well who is our GAEL guest. The interview will be in French but evidently, she would have also been very able to do it in English. The language of show-biz.
I wondered what were your points in common. Other than the love of music that you both have, there is, for the one like the other, a desire to make an international career.
Lara: Also, I am attached to my roots, and I understand that Milow was equally. The desire to make a career outside of our borders while knowing that the origin is Belgian, that makes sense. The aim of music is to connect to others, to the greatest number. We have another point in common: we chose to leave to live elsewhere at a moment of our career to find an inspiration. And then, the fact that we are both songwriters is a supplementary common point.
Milow: I think that all artists dream, in their beginnings in any case, of having an audience that passes their borders of origin. It is a pity that most of them never arrive at it. I didn’t want to mandatorily become super known in Belgium, but I dreamed of having a fanbase in numerous countries. From 2007, I made first parts in the Netherlands and the following years, I repeated. The goal was to use the success in a country to translate it into another country. I began to write some songs in 2003. The industry of music was in full mutation. I sent some demos to everybody and no one understood that they has some potential. I have therefore created my own label.
Lara: Voila another common point! During nine years, I tried to contact some record companies. In France, one responded to me, “You sing very well, that will never sell”. And during nine years, in Canada, I mounted my own box because no one wanted to sign me. One days, things came unlocked. I still have my proper box, that which permits me to keep my artistic liberty.
You, Lara, you first became known in Canada.
Lara: Yes, and then, one day, the fashion changed. And I went through the door like a tidal wave.
Milow has also benefited from the change in fashion and of the taste for folk music, which is still relevant.
Milow: I also profited in 2007 from the beginnings of iTunes. For the first time, some telecharged songs are entered in the official charts. My single “You Don’t Know’ didn’t leave in physical format, only digital. And therefore, I became one of the first telecharged artists. It was a little revolution.
Lara has just released her new album and you, Milow, you prepare the next album (expected to be released in March). What is the best part of the work? The writing and the composition, the recording, the promotion, or the touring of concerts?
Milow: I like that there are as many cycles. The sensation that one feels when one has written a new song which pleases us is very special. That gives energy for many weeks. At this moment I refine the details and that isn’t the part that I prefer. I am impatient to hear the reactions. I don’t make the music only for myself.
Lara: The most important part is the moment where one connects with others. For this album I worked with David Gattegno and Elodie Hesme, and that has been one of the most rich periods of my artistic life. I have found some people who understand me today. They are the people who have the desire to do something timeless, who perpetuate a tradition and who go outside some modes all while being nevertheless modern.
During the concerts, you know that which touches most of the public and that which is asked?
Lara: The people who love us and make the approach to come see us in concert have of course heard the hits which pass on the radio but they have especially heard the album. And certain of them react in an incredible manner, because those songs precisely touch them.
Milow: Some years ago the artists make tours to promote their albums. And now, they record albums so as to be able to leave on tours. This could lead some to not always refine their discs.
Lara: And yet, it’s still your presentation photo.
Milow: Daft Punk doesn’t go on a tour after each album. They have recently said to regret that less and less artists aim for a masterpiece. The ambition of many albums is no longer the same.
Lara: I think it is the economic system that has completely changed.
The length of life of albums is shorter than before?
Lara: No, we consume them more quickly because of the speed of transmission. But someone who loves an album remains with it for as much time as before. It is the diffusion which is much shorter, but not the love that one carries for it.
Recently, I’ve seen Arno who told me not to be a star because ‘the stars are in the sky’. Are there some stars in Belgium?
Lara: I quite agree with Arno. A star is someone who is all alone. It is high up. It is a word invented by an effervescent media. It is not the definition of an artist. One becomes a star when one is propelled by a success, accompanied by our most precious vehicles, which are the media. Connect the music to as many people, that’s divine. But the word ‘star’, like one hears it today, it is a caricature. That doesn’t reflect at all the sense that I have given to my life and my profession. It is like the word ‘diva’, it is Maria Calas. She made you cry and you don’t even know why you cried. The true stars are those who pass the test of time.
Milow: In Belgium, one relativizes a lot. The Belgian public loves the proximity. In France I believe it is different. They love stars.
Lara: Yes, they love that the artists be inaccessible. In Belgium, like in Quebec, the human counts as much as his art. In France, the culture is that what shines is what is encouraged. But not for all artists. Alain Souchon and Laurent Voudry, for example, are not at all stars in their comportment. Moreover, there are some stars in the musical sky for many years.
Milow: When one presents me as a Belgian star, that makes me laugh. It’s like the people of whom one says that they are ‘big in Japan’. And there is a difference with francophone Belgian athletes who can be adopted in France, in Canada, in Switzerland. Otherwise, for Belgians singing in English, it is not obvious to construct culture elsewhere. But I see that Stroeve is in the course of making a beautiful international journey. Me, I’ve put on humility with some more countries.
Lara: There is an interesting passage: the day when you sell three million albums in the world, the Belgians are very happy of being able to say that you are Belgian.
Milo: I believe that today there exist some opportunities for artists who are not Anglo-Saxons, but just different.
Lara: When I signed in the United States with a big label, the discourse of the day was: “You must be blond, very thin, and sing in this fashion”. I was hallucinating! Me, I sang as if I was dying tomorrow. But all of a sudden, it was necessary that I dance. For me, it truly had been a rupture between what I am and what one wanted that I be.
What question do you want to ask to the other?
Lara: How to you see yourself in twenty years?
MIlow: My grandfather died at the age of 56 and my father at 53. So, even if I take care of my health and live another life than them, I think that, maybe, I will not live to be very old. But I hope that, in twenty years, I will be exactly as I am today.
Lara: Therefore, what you want, it is to remain in this profession.
Milow: I want to be able to be proud of my route. My question for Lara, if you could meet your 20 year old version, what would you say to her?
Lara: I would tell her: “Remain yourself, even if you hear some reproaches, even if it is difficult”.
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Sicily vs Quebec
Belgian by birth Lara Fabian is Canadian by heart, and profoundly Italian, like her mother, when she dons an apron. That is to say generous and whole, such as one knows her on stage. Here is how she magnifies her typical dishes.
When asking Lara to describe her method of cooking, she doesn’t have the time to respond: all the witnesses present – makeup person, press attaché, husband…- launch in choir: “Excellent!” To hear them detail with warmth her favorite recipes, one believes it willingly. “I am a creative traditionalist, explains Lara. “I add my touch of modernity to the recipes transmitted from mother to daughter. For example, for Osso bucco, I replace the orange of the gremolata by lemon, less heavy, less sugary, thinner. I choose another type of tomato than my mother, I add no cream and I replace the usual egg tagliatelles by a parmesan risotto. A friend says that would console a new widow. [They also then showed a recipe of Lara’s for grilled lobster with herbs. A picture of Lara with the lobster can be seen at: www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/pcb.953587121361619/953587084694956/?type=3&theater].
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In the article, Gabriel’s response to what Lara brings to him was mentioned. The'Lara Fabian est ton autre' site provided it, and Lara’s additional comment, translated below (http://www.gael.be/rencontres/people/367266/lara-love?utm_source=laralove&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_content=laralove&utm_term=shorturl&utm_campaign=laralove):
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Lara Fabian, our GAEL Guest of February, is in love with Gabriel, her husband, which makes him good for her. He told us everything Lara brought to him.
GABRIEL, WHAT DOES LARA BRING TO YOU?
"In a word: happiness. The way that this woman has looked at me! In her eyes, I feel happy, loved. I feel that I belong to someone and that gives me a crazy pleasure. This is the first time I feel like that. And it is so since the day that I met her, the day when I returned to the room after this masterclass that she gave us in Sicily. Watching her, I felt a sensation too complicated, too weird. I asked myself: "Is this real? I will come back again to try to speak two seconds with this woman. "
LARA, YOU CELEBRATE VALENTINE'S DAY?
“My daughter Lou called it the "Salabentin" and we continue to call it that. But now it is celebrated for three. This festival a little farfetched at the base makes sense if there is true love, which is fed continuously. Between ‘Gab’, Lou and me, there is that, while it was not really won, after having broken a family, to recompose another. It is celebrated with a cake in heart roses and lychees, and a raspberry macaroon, the Joy of Wittamer’s. Creamy and crunchy at the same time, it symbolizes us the best. I have some films of my daughter dancing like crazy while Gabriel plays the guitar and I sing.”
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All of this is very informative, as the last few interviews have all been! Lara is approaching with the Belgian press the kind of ‘air it all out’ honesty normally associated with her interviews in Quebec. Both with this approach, and her continuing to post photos of her activities on her FB site from different locales, Lara seems to be fulfilling a goal of getting even closer to her fans. The French language media seems to be greatly impressed by the more than 1 million likes on Lara’s FB site; perhaps Lara too feels an extra obligation to all of them. Or, Lara is just in a more open, less defensive mood now, since she mainly has what she wants in life, and is not afraid of losing it (not in press interviews, anyway).
Also, conversely, doesn’t it seem as if the media in Belgium is valuing Lara much higher than they have in the past, as a ‘Belgian’ celebrity? It’s not as if she’s just moved there – she’s been living in Belgium for more than a decade now. But she’s routinely introduced as ‘the best selling (female) Belgian artist of all time, and, as in this example, a lot of press is devoted to exploring her daily life as a celebrity ‘living a normal life amongst the people’. Maybe this is the result of the ‘framing’ issue of her as ‘an international star’; or, with her changed attitude and appreciation of what she has, the reality around her has changed. Another answer is provided in the following interview…
In the same vein, Lara today is on the cover of the weekly publication ‘Nous Deux’ ; that cover can be seen here: (https://www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/a.168982793155393.43222.166959643357708/955978417789156/?type=3&theater). Again, Lara Fabian – PHQ provided the scans, and here’s the translation:
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Today I go to the essential…
Interview Lara Fabian
With ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’, Lara Fabian returns to the front of the stage and to the heart of life. Forgotten the anguish of deafness and of silence! She feels herself connected with happiness, finally soothed, happy to live and sing… David Lelait-Helo
Smiling but not too much, pretty in all simplicity, sincerely sympathetic, Lara Fabian spent a beautiful moment of confidences with us. Her magician husband, her daughter Lou, the happiness in her family or on stage, she doesn’t avoid any question and speaks to us clearly of re-finding her joy.
ND: This album seems to be one of recovery, as much physical as morale…
LF: We say that it is what you feel…Me, I would say that it is one of reconnection to life. I evoke in it the joys and pains of a life, I present myself in it in total liberty and without filter. Finally! Some episodes of my life have taught me to liberate myself from questions that ‘eat up’ your head. I really feel a new energy, in a renaissance. In that, I am more relaxed, lighter, I am less ‘nose right over the steering wheel’.
ND: It is the episode of your deafness, these ten months of silence, which has given you this new start?
LF: It was the cherry on the cake. But before that, I was already interrogating myself on the why of my life, the why and the how of my career. The deafness, the fear which accompanied it, put things in perspective and gave me back the sense of priorities. I never forgot what I was told by Nana Mouskouri, one of my idols: “Never let the singer go before the mother…” As she is right!
ND: Your role of mother is at the center of it all?
LF: Obviously! Lou at 7 and a half years old, I don’t want to miss anything of what she is. I have confidence in her, I sense that she is going to be a beautiful person. I am a mother present but not oppressive, I believe. Moreover, if it was the case, she would not be shy about telling me (laughs). Lou is constantly in communication, she argues, suggests, she is empathetic. But I will not hide from you that I am 100% “Italian mother”, therefore totally worried. I have the heart that trembles permanently for her, it is not by chance if a song from my album is called ‘Le Coeur qui tremble!
ND: You share many activities with her?
LF: Her most favorite thing at the moment, is cooking. And that is very good, I adore to be at the stove! She loves to make cake. She loves that I find for her some documentaries on the great chefs. She also loves music, she sings very accurately but she has already told me that she would never want to be in my profession. She has seen me on stage but she doesn’t care and when I pass on the television she doesn’t watch, and it is very good like that, I prefer it.
ND: The ten months that you passed without singing permitted you to profit from real life?
LF: I grew up and I have been educated in the real life, I have never left it, it is in my DNA. I have a life that could not be more normal and tranquil, I go to the supermarket, put gas in my car, tidy up my house. It is in my nature to lead this life, I am an earthling. But of course I took more time for Lou, to go look for her at school, to take a pause and think about my life, of the road that I would desire to take…
ND: In the song, 'Le Desamour', you speak of the love that goes away. This is from experience?
LF: Like everybody, no? I am a born lover, so yes, I have lived some great affecting tsunamis…I am sometimes fooled, we are lovers of love but not truly of the person in front of us. We are still trying to persuade ourselves that it is good and we plunge in until the final explosion. All that, I know…But isn’t it necessary to pass through all the steps to arrive at the true and great love?
ND: The great love with Gabriel, your husband? So how is it, the love with a magician?
LF: It is magical (laughs)! He is a magician on stage but also as a husband. As I said it in the song ‘L'Illusionniste’, he invented the world that I have always imagined. He has moreover been very touched by this lyric, I have surprised him. He is a magnificent man, who neither speaks ill nor judges. In his life as an artist, he plays as well a show for children as for the grand illusion, he sings divinely, he is a musician, he writes also. In short, he has all the talents!
ND: He did not cut you into pieces for a magical trick?
LF: No, not yet (laughs) but I can say that I have begun to have a great desire that we work together, it’s making me itch! To be continued…
ND: What lovers are you every day?
LF: A loving integrated, intense and whole. But I’m not necessarily screwed on to the other, I am autonomous. I am not jealous, it is ugly, jealousy…Of course, it should not be that a girl comes along and walks on my flower beds (laughs). The problem doesn’t arise, I have confidence in him and the love that he carries for me.
ND: We have confidence in the other from the moment that we have confidence in ourselves, no?
LF: Yes, obviously, but that, it is still not certain (bursts of laughter)…We say that I have confidence in the look that my husband gives me. I am beautiful in his eyes but not still in mine. The ideal for me it is a Grace Kelly, a Blake Lively…I prefer by far the evanescent prima ballerinas to the Mediterranean types like me.
ND: 'Ma vie dans la tienne' is a song dedicated to your best friend. Friendship, it is precious in your life?
LF: Very! With this friend, it is thirty years of friendship. I was 14 years old… I wanted to honor this history which ties us. The friendship, it is the pure sentiment par excellence, according to me the form of absolute and unconditional love, it is who remains when the lover, he, has gone away. With my best friend, it is everyday, we send each other SMS all day. Her presence is indispensable to me, I wanted to tell it to her by this song.
ND: There has been much criticism of you for doing too much…smiling too much, too much voice…Do you understand the criticism that has often been made of you?
LF: Totally, yes…I was a little this girl who never went on TV and to be seen, put on a red dress. As a result, she does too much. I find myself tiring when I see these images. But you know, we tend to sweeten the sugar when we want to convince, to be accepted…and then a TV passage last three minutes, so we have a ton of fear of not being included. Since then, I’ve calmed down. Whew!
IN A FEW WORDS
ND: If you were a color?
LF: White.
ND: The objects that you never leave behind?
LF: My wedding ring and my telephone.
ND: The song you would like to sing
LF: ‘She’s a Maniac”, from the film ‘Flashdance’.
ND: The first thought of the morning?
LF: For my daughter, Lou.
ND: The personality that you would have loved to know?
LF: Charlie Chaplin.
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Lara’s last full response, to the question of her being ‘too much’ signifies, in a nutshell, how she has changed, and why she is so much more accepted by the media.
[Note: Lara’s Team also put on her FB site the scans of the ‘TribuMove Mag article, that was covered in the News Update of 1/12].
In other news, Lara’s new album dropped another 10 positions for the physical CD on the French charts, from 37 to 47. In Belgium it went up one from #12 to #11.
An article in Luxembourg verified what we already knew, that ‘L’oubli’ is the next single from the album
(http://esctoday.com/108249/luxembourg-lara-fabian-new-single-out/). Another article concerning this, in this case from pitiblog, is available at (http://www.ptitblog.net/Lara-Fabian/lara-fabian-mise-sur-le-poignant-l-oubli_art13354.html); here’s the translation:
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Lara Fabian puts out the poignant “L’oubli’
After having released two new singles on the radio "Quand je ne chante pas" and "Ma vie dans la tienne", giving its name to her new album which has just passed the significant 50,000 sales bar at home, Lara Fabian puts out the poignant "L'Oubli" this winter.
We have been convinced by this new album ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ of the Belgian singer, finding the consistency of her beginnings and returning to more simplicity also. Some beautiful songs compose her new project, that she wanted like a postcard tribute to her relatives: her daughter, her husband, her parents, her friends. At the time when we publish this article, the artist was doing as well as her last album ‘Le Secret’ which had allowed her to be certified as a gold record and sell some 50,000 copies of her album in a few weeks . With her new album, the singer is in 48th place in the TOP 200 best-selling albums in 2015 and has found honorable positions. The promotion on television that she works currently is not irrelevant to these results.
Paradoxically it's more on the level of radio that the singer is struggling to impose her new titles. Trying to be always closer to her fans, she has not hesitated to probe them these last weeks via social networks to find out their favorite titles. "L’oubli" was part of this selection and it is therefore quite natural that the singer has decided to make it the third official single. The title is a poignant statement where the voice of the artist is put forward to the delight of her admirers. Powerful, present, without restraint, it's Lara Fabian 200%. And the choice is not bad, "L’oubli" is one of the best songs of the album. Hopefully she comes into the playlist of some radios to allow her new album to continue on its way without too much difficulty.
Starting in March, Lara takes the road for her new tour built around her new songs. A show that she wants simple and the pure reflection of the spirit in which she found herself at the time of the writing of her new project. As she is accustomed to, the singer begins by the Belgians, her homeland, to offer a preview of the show on March 16 to our border friends. She will return in the countries of the East in the month of April to continue developing her career in this market who have welcomed her with open arms. In the French capital, it will be necessary to wait until June 3 to see the show at the Palais des Congrès in Paris.
Julien PIRAUD
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Julien Piraud who has been so down on Lara at times in the past, is certainly all in on this venture, which is very nice to see. With respect to a potential video: we’ve come to expect that from the last two singles, but not every single, historically, has had an associated video. Again, this one might be somewhat sensitive to make, though it could be very ‘poignant’, as the article describes the song. There is on youtube a very effective fan-made video of that nature for the song, which can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qptnsZNVPFQ
Interesting picture(s) of the week:
From one of the GAEL article blurbs, with the caption “Inspiring women”
s8.cdn.sanomamedia.be/a/view/q75/w700/h700/1543176/lara-fabian.jpg
Also from GAEL, as shown on the 'Lara Fabian est ton autre' site, among others:
www.facebook.com/166959643357708/photos/pcb.953587121361619/953587098028288/?type=3&theater
Finally, from the Lara Fabian Connecting People FB site,
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianCP/photos/a.1475028129487287.1073741828.1474601329529967/1556858724637560/?type=3&theater
Given that Lara has been out of the country, all of the promotional activities of the past few weeks were obviously pre-recorded, so it’s not clear how many are left. Whether she has time for any more while preparing for the concert tour is unclear, but, while healthy, Lara generally finds a way to make her presence known in the media. In addition, we may expect at any point notification of some new concerts in France, probably for June.
David
