Post by davidhr on Jul 26, 2016 7:55:10 GMT -5
Lara was on the show “C’est du Belge” this past week, to celebrate Belgian National Day. The video can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/larafabian.artist/videos/894983813978915/
From Wikipedia: The National Day of Belgium is celebrated on 21 July each year. In 1830, drawing inspiration from the recent July Revolution in France, the southern provinces of the United Netherlands rebelled against Dutch rule after a period of growing economic and religious disparity and political alienation. The Dutch were forced out of much of the area and Belgium gained de facto independence. A National Congress was created to write a Constitution for the new state. The Congress decided that the new country would be a constitutional monarchy (associated with political stability) rather than a republic, in order to reassure foreign governments and the Belgian middle class who associated republicanism with "mob rule" in the aftermath of the French Revolution of 1789. The Congress called upon Leopold of Saxe-Cobourg-Gotha, a German nobleman, to be the first King of the Belgians on 4 June 1831. On 21 July, Leopold was crowned King. In the ceremony, Leopold vowed to accept the Constitution drawn up by the National Congress, officially bringing it into force. The 21 July 1831, is therefore a date commonly used by historians to denote the end of the Belgian Revolution and the start of the Kingdom of Belgium. The festival's formal establishment dates to a law of 27 May 1890.
On the video itself, which was conducted (for all the artists who appeared) from rooftops to emphasize pride in the Brussels skyline, Lara discussed her joint Sicilian/Belgian influences from her parents. They then moved into a discussion of Lara’s performance in Marseilles the night of the attacks on Brussels and the Belgian airport. In particular they reviewed Lara’s singing of ‘Voir un ami pleurer’ by Jaques Brel, and showed a brief clip of it. Lara described it as a message of great intensity and simplicity that emphasizes our connection to one another. She finished by mentioned her coming concert in Brussels on Dec. 17th.
There were many other guests on the full show (whose total running time was 107 minutes) and Lara’s [6 minute] time was brief, but it is a shame that she didn’t make the effort to discuss her duet with Natalia on ‘Razorblade’. This is a holiday for both ‘sides’ of Belgium, and it would have been a good opportunity to mention that her duet was an attempt to try to bring them together, musically. Her pink jacket was beautiful, however
[and uncharacteristic].In lieu of other appearances, Lara’s team did take the opportunity to post several older videos, and one of them was ‘Razorblade’,
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/1174366919271470/
The others were live performances of ‘Je t’aime’ and ‘Quand je ne chante pas’ from Liege:
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/1147356045305891/
and then also ‘S’il ne reste qu’un ami’ from her performance in Lyon:
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/1144601562248006/
Various sites, including Lara’s, are advertising new or recent concert additions for the fall and early winter: at Athens, Greece on Sept. 21; Vinius, Lithuania on Oct. 21; and in Craiova, Romania December 11th. Although the last one is not yet listed on her FB page (nor is the one in Nice on 11/11), she now has 24 concerts scheduled for the months of Aug.-Dec. (including the show in Montreal, which is most likely not a ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ concert). And it’s not impossible that others will be added (though not for France and Belgium, as Lara’s people said their schedule is complete). As usual the announcement of new dates brought the question from Polish fans about when the ‘postponed’ concerts for them would be held. And as usual, Lara’s people responded, “The concert dates for Poland are being rescheduled. The concert organizing company will announce the new dates, and we will communicate them on this page too.” And also, “We are waiting for the dates. Team Lara”. This is consistent with their discussion of several weeks ago that they depend on the promoters to provide sites and dates, they are not in charge (although clearly they set parameters, so they do have some responsibility).
The publicity articles associated with Lara’s concerts, especially for places she has not previously gone (or not for a long while), continue to be creatively written. Here’s the article for her coming appearance in Vilnius (http://zmones.lrytas.lt/muzika/belgijos-zvaigzde-lara-fabian-pirmasyk-koncertuos-vilniuje.htm) [Google translation]:
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Belgian star Lara Fabian will perform for the first time in Vilnius
Full of gratitude, the love songs from "Ma vie dans la Tienne" ("My life in yours") will be presented by the music Diva Lara Fabian in concert in Vilnius Siemens Arena on 21 October.
Sensual, elegant, modest and like streaming above the ground - the most successful Belgian singer of all time will present a new album and a program in the capital.
In the third decade of her career and counting L.Fabian’s popularity is now at the top. The last two albums have achieved "gold" status in Belgium and France, and she has turned into a coveted performer across both Europe and North America.
In attending the concert, the audience comes to elegance and feelings of the universe, which intertwine love and pain, feelings for loved ones and faith in a better world. The unique atmosphere is created by minimal but very effective means, and runs like a concert film in which the singer allows access to intimate moments of her life.
Severe illness has tortured her mother to whom the singer dedicated L'oublié "(Oblivion); disintegrating relations are examined in Le désamour" (The Disaffected); the feminine principle is explored in "Ton of Desire" (Your desire) - with these and other new songs, even in French that is not understood, the person is made to feel all the greatness of the human senses.
Of course, the singer did not remove from the repertoire of contemporary music lovers well-known hits - such as "Je t'aime" or "I Will Love Again", also sung by the Lithuanian Violetta Riaubiskyte.
An interesting accent, L.Fabian concert includes an energetic medley of ABBA songs. Three years ago the singer lost 70 percent of her hearing and was forced to shorten and mute concerts, incorporating more acoustic instruments. It seems that the singer's health has improved - as evidenced by rumbling moments and electric guitar, and the running time, prolonged to more than one and a half hours.
32 million albums sold worldwide L.Fabian first encountered music in childhood, when Santa Claus brought her the gifts for her piano. As a teenager, she began to write songs, and the first success visited her in the Young Performers Competition, when she was 16. In 1988, L.Fabian as the Luxembourg representative participated in the Eurovision song contest and ranked fourth.
After several years the release of her debut and the second album was a great success in Europe and Canada. The artist had been observed and in Hollywood - she was invited to sing the part of Esmeralda in the film “Hunchback of Notre Dame”. So far, the performer has released 12 studio albums, and four of the best concerts of songs and albums.
Two years ago, she held a concert in Kaunas, L.Fabian will appear in Vilnius for the first time.
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As the article notes, Lara’s hearing no longer seems to be impeding her concerts at all, and it is not only the loud instrumentation and length but also their increased frequency. In both early November and also from late November to early December, Lara has six concerts in ~10 days. Hopefully she is being properly cautious…
Last week we discussed Lara’s CDs and their position in the French charts. Lara has also released four live DVDs, which have had the following commercial response:
**Live + Intime (11/2002) which sold 10,000 copies and was certified gold;
**Lara Fabian Live [by itself] (8/2003) which sold 60,000 copies, certified triple platinum;
** En toute intimate (10/2003) which sold 50,000 copies and was certified double platinum. By that time there was DVD charts [top 50], and this started at #1 and remained on it for 20 weeks;
**Un regard neuf (10/2006) which sold 30,000 copies and was certified platinum (requiring 20,000 sales); including re-editions it was on the charts for 16 weeks, having reached #1 as well;
**And then Toutes les femmes en moi font leur show, that remained on the charts for just 4 weeks.
The most recent DVD [not on the list], ‘Un soir autour du monde’, was a ‘best-of’ concert that was a lure for people to buy the re-edition of ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’, so we don’t know what the ‘effective sales’ of it actually were. Ignoring that one, the same scenario of reduced sales over the last decade that we saw for CDs shows up for DVDs as well. Of course ‘Le Secret’ never had a visual release [even though Lara asked for fan videos, and received a ton of them], and so far there is no indication that ‘Ma vie dans la tienne’ is filming one either. Perhaps the English album could have one – her last video recording of a (primarily) English language concert was the PBS show “From Lara with Love” that was never released by Sony as a DVD (although several times they went so far as listing it as becoming available, and there was a VHS videocasette made of it). The American version of the show can be readily seen on the web, e.g., www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6fthD3pN6k . Filming an English language DVD would not only help support the new English album, but would also be a wonderful gift to those fans around the world who speak better English than French.
However, another point of view is that DVDs are already passé, with streaming videos of concerts becoming more common. Lara didn’t believe that for ‘Un soir autour du monde’. Of course the same can be said for CDs in the age of music streaming, though Lara obviously doesn’t believe that, either.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: from the Lara Fabian Greece site of Lara at the “C’est du Belge’ program (and her pink jacket):
www.facebook.com/larafabiangreece/photos/pcb.521180198007078/521180181340413/?type=3&theater
And from the Lara Fabian Voice of Passion site,
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianTheVoiceOfPassion/photos/a.722339551114856.1073741831.720473304634814/1466814136667390/?type=3&theater
Most of Lara’s fan sites have transitioned into a summer ‘relaxed mode’. Lara, on the other hand, is presumably still working on the English album, in one form or another. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, including Lara, hope you are enjoying your summer!
David
