Post by davidhr on Apr 2, 2019 7:32:17 GMT -5
A sad week for Lara, as her mother’s long odyssey has finally ended. Here (translated) is what Lara wrote to her audience (and to herself):
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We have a strong link, and in this link, a sharing that makes us unique.... I feel in my being that I must tell you this moment of my life, which is without a doubt, the most painful of all those that I've lived to this day.
If I share it to you, it is because I would not want things to be said otherwise than with dignity.
So, without distortion, I write to you, from my broken heart....
My mom just left us.
Her soul came to squeeze me in her arms one last time tonight.
Here is the ancient wisdom that she whispered to me…
"Lara,
Don't stay there crying in front of my grave I'm not there, I don't sleep there...
I am the wind blowing in the trees
I am the sparkle of the diamond on the snow
I am the light of the sun on the ripe grain
I am the sweet autumn rain when you wake in the calm of the morning
I am the flight of these silent birds that turn in the sky.
So don't stay there to lament in front of my grave, I am not there, I am not dead!
Why would i be out of your life simply because I'm out of your view?
Death you know, it's nothing at all.
I just passed to the other side.
I am me and you are you. Whatever we were for each other before, we will always remain.
To talk about me, use the name with which you always called me.
Talk about me simply as you've always done.
Don't change your tone, don't take a serious and sad air.
Laugh like before at the jokes that together we appreciate so much.
Play, smile, think of me, live for me and with me.
Let my name be the comforting song it has always been.
Pronounce it with simplicity and naturally, without any mark of regret.
Life means everything as it has always meant.
Everything is always the same, it continues, the thread is not broken.
What is death if not a passage?
Put in perspective and let go of all the aggression of life, think and talk always about me around you and you will see,
Everything will be fine.
You know, I hear you, I'm not far, I'm here, just on the other side... "
This text that brings me great comfort was sent to me by my best friend Nathalie, and written by a person who wished to remain anonymous.
------------------------------------------
Actually, the first part of this poem was written in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Frye, and is quite famous. The author composed this poem in a moment of inspiration and scribbled it on a paper bag. She wrote it to comfort a family friend who had just lost her mother (so very relevant!) and was unable to even visit her grave .This is the only surviving poem of Mary Elizabeth Frye and quite possibly her only poem. (https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/do-not-stand-by-my-grave-and-weep-by-mary-elizabeth-frye).
Lara has lived with this ever increasingly intense waking nightmare of her mother's dementia for some years now, and, as someone who has gone through a similar experience, I can say that while it’s never easy to lose a parent, the parent she knew departed a long time ago. It can also be a relief that her mother is finally at rest and at peace. Nevertheless, it undoubtedly brings forth all of her memories of their time together, and so the term ‘sadness’ can not encompass what she is going through now.
Lara has received many, many notices of condolences, both personal and professional, but we will not dwell on them here, except to note that the March 31st show of La Voix was dedicated to Lara’s mother (http://showbizz.net/2019/03/31/la-voix-est-dediee-a-la-mere-de-lara-fabian-recemment-decedee/?fbclid=IwAR2IYl6zTFbv8JtDi6ZycqNS9O_osefesKhOUkXfu3BFWh1SoxIdLIkqkdY):
----------------------------------------------------------
LA VOIX IS DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER OF LARA FABIAN RECENTLY DECEASED
The Sunday episode was dedicated to Luisa Serio Crokaert.
Lara Fabian recently spoke openly and with great emotion about her mother's serious illness. Saturday, the singer had to announce a sad news on social networks: her mother had just pushed her last breath.
"If I share it with you, it is because I would not want things to be said otherwise than with dignity. So, without distortion, I write to you, from my broken heart ....” She wrote on Instagram.
La Voix decided to highlight the sad news by dedicating its Sunday episode to this woman of heart." In your memory mom, in the name of the love you had for the Voices - Lara", was the introduction to the last round of the duels. A photo of the mother and daughter accompanied the mention (see the bottom of the article).
We offer our condolences to Lara and her family.
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Hopefully Lara will take solace in the truth of the words she wrote above. Rest in Peace, Louisa.
Lara left the following picture on her site – very appropriate…
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.622966977744803/2682257731815707/?type=3&theater
Going on, as we must, we turn 180° to a positive highlight of the week: it was Lara’s appearance on the show “300 Choirs”, where she performed first ‘Par Amour’ with the chorus. It is available, thanks to the Lara Fabian Coeur de lumière FB site, at:
www.facebook.com/larafabiancoeurdelumiere/videos/402783520536840
and also at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVcT710hido
The chorus did not really have that big an effect, since the song was not set up for it, though the performance was pleasing.
The show was dedicated to Michel Sardou, and Lara’s contribution was to sing his song "La maladie d'amour", where the chorus had more to do. It’s available at:
www.facebook.com/larafabiancoeurdelumiere/videos/855621114775825
and on youtube at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlBymvUiHBo
Various pictures from the show are available at:
www.facebook.com/AICOM.Paris/photos/a.148690135191698/2252833514777339/?type=3&theater
As can be seen, these are from the AICOM site, because, as the caption says, “Several generations of stars of song have invited the students of the AICOM to come and sing at their side the most beautiful titles of Michel Sardou, in versions created for the evening.”
In album promotion news, Lara’s interview on RFM is available on youtube, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiAwSWzotD4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0civAA4xGSyGV2z86csGuD46BvgUrooEMmbDKHJX643yobJS44DtZGhz8
The album got a good reception, as the host Bernard Montiel described it as ‘hypnotic’. As to how it’s doing commercially, Papillon is now 10th in Belgium, while on the Palmarès ADISQ chart in Quebec, it is fourth. In France, as of last week, it was up 11 places to #26, indicating that the promotion appeared to be working.
And Lara was on the show “Les clefs-d’une vie” [The keys of a life] on Sud radio, available at:
www.sudradio.fr/les-clefs-dune-vie-2019-03-29?fbclid=IwAR3UvATpnUce1gTgB_bEgoZ5NC0e4LZSZxl42SQYmkqxRA77t0mMHYAWYxg
The 48 minute radio program discussed her career and life, and included a few interesting short audio clips. Again, from this site, the show is perhaps most easily accessed by downloading it first.
Lara was interviewed in “TribuMove Mag” (https://www.facebook.com/tribumove.mag/photos/pcb.2307681766156413/2307681429489780/?type=3&theater&ifg=1); here’s the translation:
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Lara Fabian
A Spiritual Musical Elevation
This 14th album (11 titles in French) carries the name of her totem: the “Papillon” (Butterfly). This ephemeral animal symbolizes the personal transformation, the world of the soul and of the psyche, a connection with the interior world and the spiritual, a sensibility to the beauty of life…In this symbolism, one finds first and before all her personality, but also her artistic DNA and the grand themes of this disc.
For more than 30 years, Lara draws on her personal life to tell us stories of universal love that the public re-appropriates. It is the power of music : the transmission of words and pains, but also of emotions. Her lyrics, which have always had a double meaning, are very profound and engaging. Each song (contrast between the words and the music) builds like a tableau of a piece of theater, has a different color to symbolize the dichotomy of life: the black and the white, Love and disenchantment, joys and pains…This celestial music, aerial and cinematographic, makes us gain height: we are in spiritual elevation, the communion of souls, uniqueness…
In the image of the photos, where Lara is surrounded by shadows, symbolizing the anxiety of the world in which we live, her aura radiates happiness and transmits her joy, her calmness and her serenity in “Papillon”, but also the keys for a better us, without ever giving a lesson, nor judgment!
The effect “Papillon” metaphor on the consequences of human acts on the Earth, is felt in the three extracts: Papillon, Je suis a toi, Par amour, whose clip evokes a new La Difference (the handicap), a contemporary ballet in the image of life: a veritable battle where passion prevails over reason!
To communicate with her loyal public, Lara will leave in an immense world tour, “50 World Tour”, which will pass by Brussels the day of her birthday (9 January 2020 Forest National) and Paris (24 and 25 March 2020 l’Olympia). Our Diva is well and truly back!
In this work, one feels the joy, the serenity, the calmness…
LF: It is a reflection of my state at the present moment, that which corresponds to my life, it is perfectly in resonance with my interior: as much a human as an artist!
This evolution is it due to personal changes?
LF: I don’t think that it be some thing, but rather a multitude of things which during a life time, over several years and stages of life, that I crossed them in a certain way and that I managed to find keys that allowed me to take a little perspective and height, rather than having the nose stuck up. When you go back a little, suddenly things appear to you clearer and you understand them with more and more serenity, it’s true!
In the symbolism of Papillon, one finds your personality and your artistic DNA.
LF: This symbolism is very correct. A re-connection to the simplicity and the beauty of life. It is the totem that my grandmother nicknamed me to make me measure the urgency of the present moment, for it is an ephemeral animal: in general, it lives between 24 hours and a week. While passing me this totem, she taught me many things. She said to me: “If ever you are preceded by your doubts, if ever you live your life in anguish, if you are always in the past, recall this totem for it is what you are for me: a farfalla (a small butterfly). I have applied that over the years, like a daily action: to return to here, to now and this present moment.
Is it hard to say, “I don’t love you anymore”? (“Je ne t’aime plus”)
LF: It is hard and at the same time, it is lucid! At a given moment, we have lived one or more loves that have been toxic to our cells. Even beyond the break, we have not been able to leave. And one day, we arrive to process by our intellect the No! It is the first time of my life that I write a song which says no, or where there is no light, but the darkness is also an integral part of life. It is an album which is very light, in contemplation and full gratitude, but it has also the state of the dichotomy of life and of its two sides: there is as much hope and light as hard songs like “Je ne t’aime plus”.
These words, are they not extremely violent?
LF: it is true that it is hard to say to someone: I don’t love you anymore! But that takes courage. I don’t know if it is more violent than courageous, me I believe that it is more courageous than violent, when it takes years that one tries to leave a cellular toxic love and one day, one arrives to have the courage to say it. There is too much suffering in silence or disaffection which becomes a kind of shaky interpretation: we need a break, we need to separate ourselves, but perhaps, I know nothing about it…When one lives a grand history and that is terminated for valuable and fundamental reasons, that we no longer look in the same direction and that we are suffering, it is necessary to have the courage to amputate that which makes us sick, by respect for ourselves, but also and especially for the other. “Je ne t’aime plus” was a means of saying: I have the courage today, because I am in forgiveness, resilience and healing, and because I can no longer let myself suffer and let you suffer, to confess that “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE”!
Why do you inscribe these evils in words?
LF: When you branch to inspiration and translation in the clarity of your emotions, they are just the reflection of what you live here and now. The songs are the transmitters, emitters of that which one is not capable of saying. I often used music to translate a state of mind and after, I depersonalize it to make it universal and so it will serve anyone, who has a need to say to someone: Stop!
We have the power of “Changer le jeu”, but still, don’t you need to have the keys?
LF: Often, the problem is us, and not the others, we are not very lucid with respect to that. It is necessary to be humble when we do not immediately find the way to be completely who we are. It is necessary to build up in one's impossibilities sometimes and then when one is able to become aware of it, to do it as an act of faith, an elan ...I say: go out, sing further. It is an act almost physical to change the game and then there is a game of words with the I. For me, it is not just to change the game, which o course defines the parameters of a life, but also to self-realize and to become ourselves. The two are linked. It is an act of true faith! It sometimes goes through a thousand actions and one only becomes oneself during this journey and repeated actions that change the I and therefore allow us to be ourselves. I believe that we are artisans of our lives, but it isn’t easy. It is necessary to have a lot of tenderness for ourselves at the present moment, we must not be made to feel guilty, that we judge ourselves for not having the means to change immediately the I (game). Just to be conscious that one can do it.
People are actually looking for a better us!
LF: I’ve had the experience! There are many actions that one can do to find a form of internal well-being and which are very regenerating. It is just necessary to launch and to try: whether that be Pilates, redecorating the house…That could be full of things, there is not a unique solution.
Did you want to help others in your life?
LF: To pass the keys! It is a gift, after you have to let people go in resonance or not. There is no lesson, pressure or voluntary transmission. I am in the sharing, never in the judgment. Opinions and judgments, it is terrible, it is so bruising.
Is there an ecological message in Papillon?
LF: Spiritually, yes, there is a desire to clean and respect the internal ecosystem. After, in the pragmatic and practical sense of the term, it is not contained in my music, but in my way of living: there are some things I do not buy, nor consume anymore…because I know the evil that we do to all and to our children.
Why have you put the theme of La Difference in the clip “Par Amour”?
LF: It is my preferred song. I wanted to talk about a pain that becomes our handicap and of our faculty of re-entering in resilience when we are hit with a profound violence, of our capacity to be a Phoenix, of surviving…I have written this scenario, I tell the story of the survival of a human being who connects himself to a great love. How a human being can survive at all, and in becoming more beautiful and more grand, when he is connected to this faculty of love and of making love and of being loved. We don’t save ourselves all alone, it is not true. We need support to save ourselves when we are in pain and and meet some people who are pointing us to live a real resurrection. Of course, one does personal and internal work, but one needs to interconnect to someone who passes to us this element to trigger, which for each of us is different, and that makes one go back into resilience and make a pain, an immense teaching and all that becomes bigger than ourselves and we get out of it. The two dancers have thus created this contemporary ballet which recounts in images, by the dance, the story of a resilience in love.
Was it important for you to talk about disability?
LF: Evidently. We can all have an accident of life: a genetic malady, an aggression…Whatever makes this pain which became a physical handicap, how to transcend it?
This song is built like a tableau of a theater piece, with its moments of joy and of pain like in life.
LF: Quite right! Life is full of these paradoxes which accompany us, one doesn’t exist without the other: the beautiful doesn’t exist without the ugly, sacrifice doesn’t exist without joy, love doesn’t exist without disaffection…
Between January and September 2018, there were 262 homophobic acts in France: 15% more than in 2017. What to do against homophobia?
LF: You know at what point I position myself with respect to our community, finally for me, it is “our community”! It is like that. My sexual orientation everyone knows, I am hetero, but I feel part of the community. Hate is a devastating energy. That so touches me (Ed. Note: Lara, very moved, starts crying). That which happened to these beings is a true drama, but the aggressors are so much to complain about. They haven’t understood the beauty of a being for what he is, they are going to live a miserable life and if only they could modify their comportment while transforming this hate into a loving state for life in general, after we could have our convictions and our fears. They don’t measure the horror they are inhabiting. They will not end well and they will auto-eliminate themselves, tranquilly but surely, from what I call the sacred space of life in which one can live and let live, love, let love…they don’t know what it is to love and be loved! They haven’t any idea of it.
You have been courageous to sing “La Difference” at one time when it wasn’t politically correct!
LF: Outside of homophobia, let’s widen the debate for, for me, it goes still much further. These people are empty of all forms of love and are gravely sick. We must take care of them. By their actions they prevent this pure love, just and divine, to exist. For me, it goes much further than homophobia, it touches the sacredness of humanity. I can not understand such hate in the place of humanity, we speak of universal love. Happily from time to time there are glimmers of hope, beautiful gestures that we must exhort. It is necessary to encourage Love and to unify humanity, outside of that which can apparently be our ‘differences’. I sang “La Difference” at one time when it would have simply sufficed to speak of uniqueness, of alignment, of equality, because for me, there is no difference and I finish my song by saying “What difference?” It’s everything I wanted to say. We are one and the same thing. When someone does what these people did to these beings, it is themselves that they assassinate! It is life itself that they assassinate. Hate is a sickness, gangrene!
The world is on the edge of breaking up. Where do you find the energy to give yourself the strength to continue our battle!
LF: Thanks for that, it gives me the hope of telling me that I can still continue to be useful. If I can contribute, at my small level, humanely, to be inspirational, it is the most beautiful thing that I can live as a human and an artist. I have never had the pretension, and I would never have it, to guide anyone or to teach anyone. If I can pass around that which I’ve lived, while being still standing, it can be inspiring, so I’ve won! I have a meaning. Thanks to you, I love you Love!
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An interesting interview in which she was asked some really good questions that forced her to dig deep for answers. As usual, her touchstone was to hold tight to Love.
On a less serious note, Lara was interviewed in Charts in France, translation below:
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Lara Fabian: "I'd love to do a duet with Celine Dion"
Lara Fabian is in full promotion of her 14th album "Papillon". What is she most proud of? "To have always been in phase with what I felt, beyond all the awkwardness that sometimes implies. But also and above all to be here still after 30 years" confided the singer of "Par Amour" in an interview with Pure Charts . A beautiful journey, especially since it started for Lara Fabian in 1988. On April 30, the artist represents Luxembourg at the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest , which will be won by ... Céline Dion with the famous title ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’. “It is the first time we meet. I remember, in the green room, she approaches and she does: "Even when you speak it sounds good!" "I thought it was so nice", recalls Lara Fabian on RTL. For her, Celine Dion is "a great ".
"I admire this woman"
And do not talk to her about rivalry between them! "It's rather you journalists who do that, frankly. Sure it's a game this job sometimes. There are people who "belong" to teams and each team protects his colt. When you post this headline "They are rival", it was perhaps from the reality of this job. But we the artists, we do not see it like that" continues the singer of “Je t’aime" , admitting to have crossed Celine Dion amicably many times "in secret". But Lara Fabian assures that there has never been any animosity in their relationship: "There is a positioning that does not necessarily come from artists, and, on the contrary, "between us it is very very different”.
A duo ? "I would adore"
And its enough to say that Lara Fabian is one of the many fans of Celine Dion . "I love when she sings. I admire this woman. She has the voice of God. There are few people singing like that on this Earth. She is one of the five greatest voices on this planet”, she exclaims, open to the idea of a duet with the Canadian star:" Our fans should talk about it [They want our well-being and they are the bearers of our careers. Who knows maybe it could happen through them.“] And maybe this bias (...) that will pass. An idea that they have not addressed together to date. "No, that never. We never had the opportunity. But I would love, you can imagine”, Lara Fabian says, confirming having heard rumors of a duet between them in 2012, launched by a French television producer. Anyway, the interpreter of "Je t’aime" is for it: "I think it would be a good time".
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Back in 2012 such a duet would probably have had more impact than it would now; time moves on. This article comes from Lara’s appearance on the program “On Refait la Tele” on RTL. The video of that exchange, including Lara singing a bit of the song Celine had sung in the Eurovision contest, is available with this article.
Then the second of the duels for La Voix (remember, we’re one week behind). Here are the highlights (or low lights):
**Lara had a very tough night, most obviously in the final duel between Marianne Mathieu and Genevieve Jodoin. Their voices were almost exactly the same, both did a great job, and Lara just could not choose. After trying to get other opinions, she ended up keeping both, and letting the public ultimately decide. The comments on the La Voix Facebook site did not, in general, approve of her abdication, but it is understandable.
**If there was any doubt that this show is misnamed, the choices that several of the judges made, including Lara, should end any doubt. Lara picked Tony Crow over Laura Elena Gonzalez, and Eric picked Ariana Drapeau over Gabriel Brossard. Both Tony and Ariana had plenty of ‘attitude’ – but unfortunately, neither one of them could carry a tune, and their voices were quite subpar. The two losers in contrast were superb singers. Fortunately, Eric wasn’t completely tone deaf, and he ‘rescued’ Laura Elena for his team. I wonder what Lara’s voice teacher at AICOM would have made of her decision…[Alex’s choice of Gabriel Cyr over Sarah May was also in the same vein, although not quite as ludicrous].
**It was announced that Michael Bolton will join Lara’s team as a guest vocalist. He will sing a medley of his greatest hits with Lara and their finalists. The show will air live on May 5th. This is a big ‘catch’ for La Voix, and it is most likely due to his friendship with Lara, exemplified by their duet of “The Prayer’ on the PBS show honoring David Foster.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: Lara on “300 choeurs chantent Michel Sardou” as posted by Lara on her Instagram site,
Also on that site, Lara with a bag that she calls “memory of a beautiful Parisian journey, from @tods
Then (not actually a photo) there was Lara singing a bit of ‘Par Amour’ while getting her hair done, at
www.facebook.com/larafabianitalia/videos/590127161503843/
Finally, three from the Lara Fabian – PHQ site; first what could well become a classic picture, from “300 choeurs”,
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353954938084519/1695212697292063/?type=3&theater
Then a daily life scene
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353954938084519/1694543334025666/?type=3&theater
and, ultimately,
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353949311418415/1695803403899659/?type=3&theater
Lara undoubtedly will have her hands and heart full with the follow-up to her mother’s passing, but she may well have obligations to La Voix as well. A difficult time for her – our hearts go out to her, and we wish her the best in getting through it.
David
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We have a strong link, and in this link, a sharing that makes us unique.... I feel in my being that I must tell you this moment of my life, which is without a doubt, the most painful of all those that I've lived to this day.
If I share it to you, it is because I would not want things to be said otherwise than with dignity.
So, without distortion, I write to you, from my broken heart....
My mom just left us.
Her soul came to squeeze me in her arms one last time tonight.
Here is the ancient wisdom that she whispered to me…
"Lara,
Don't stay there crying in front of my grave I'm not there, I don't sleep there...
I am the wind blowing in the trees
I am the sparkle of the diamond on the snow
I am the light of the sun on the ripe grain
I am the sweet autumn rain when you wake in the calm of the morning
I am the flight of these silent birds that turn in the sky.
So don't stay there to lament in front of my grave, I am not there, I am not dead!
Why would i be out of your life simply because I'm out of your view?
Death you know, it's nothing at all.
I just passed to the other side.
I am me and you are you. Whatever we were for each other before, we will always remain.
To talk about me, use the name with which you always called me.
Talk about me simply as you've always done.
Don't change your tone, don't take a serious and sad air.
Laugh like before at the jokes that together we appreciate so much.
Play, smile, think of me, live for me and with me.
Let my name be the comforting song it has always been.
Pronounce it with simplicity and naturally, without any mark of regret.
Life means everything as it has always meant.
Everything is always the same, it continues, the thread is not broken.
What is death if not a passage?
Put in perspective and let go of all the aggression of life, think and talk always about me around you and you will see,
Everything will be fine.
You know, I hear you, I'm not far, I'm here, just on the other side... "
This text that brings me great comfort was sent to me by my best friend Nathalie, and written by a person who wished to remain anonymous.
------------------------------------------
Actually, the first part of this poem was written in 1932 by Mary Elizabeth Frye, and is quite famous. The author composed this poem in a moment of inspiration and scribbled it on a paper bag. She wrote it to comfort a family friend who had just lost her mother (so very relevant!) and was unable to even visit her grave .This is the only surviving poem of Mary Elizabeth Frye and quite possibly her only poem. (https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/do-not-stand-by-my-grave-and-weep-by-mary-elizabeth-frye).
Lara has lived with this ever increasingly intense waking nightmare of her mother's dementia for some years now, and, as someone who has gone through a similar experience, I can say that while it’s never easy to lose a parent, the parent she knew departed a long time ago. It can also be a relief that her mother is finally at rest and at peace. Nevertheless, it undoubtedly brings forth all of her memories of their time together, and so the term ‘sadness’ can not encompass what she is going through now.
Lara has received many, many notices of condolences, both personal and professional, but we will not dwell on them here, except to note that the March 31st show of La Voix was dedicated to Lara’s mother (http://showbizz.net/2019/03/31/la-voix-est-dediee-a-la-mere-de-lara-fabian-recemment-decedee/?fbclid=IwAR2IYl6zTFbv8JtDi6ZycqNS9O_osefesKhOUkXfu3BFWh1SoxIdLIkqkdY):
----------------------------------------------------------
LA VOIX IS DEDICATED TO THE MOTHER OF LARA FABIAN RECENTLY DECEASED
The Sunday episode was dedicated to Luisa Serio Crokaert.
Lara Fabian recently spoke openly and with great emotion about her mother's serious illness. Saturday, the singer had to announce a sad news on social networks: her mother had just pushed her last breath.
"If I share it with you, it is because I would not want things to be said otherwise than with dignity. So, without distortion, I write to you, from my broken heart ....” She wrote on Instagram.
La Voix decided to highlight the sad news by dedicating its Sunday episode to this woman of heart." In your memory mom, in the name of the love you had for the Voices - Lara", was the introduction to the last round of the duels. A photo of the mother and daughter accompanied the mention (see the bottom of the article).
We offer our condolences to Lara and her family.
-------------------------------------------------------------
Hopefully Lara will take solace in the truth of the words she wrote above. Rest in Peace, Louisa.
Lara left the following picture on her site – very appropriate…
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.622966977744803/2682257731815707/?type=3&theater
Going on, as we must, we turn 180° to a positive highlight of the week: it was Lara’s appearance on the show “300 Choirs”, where she performed first ‘Par Amour’ with the chorus. It is available, thanks to the Lara Fabian Coeur de lumière FB site, at:
www.facebook.com/larafabiancoeurdelumiere/videos/402783520536840
and also at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVcT710hido
The chorus did not really have that big an effect, since the song was not set up for it, though the performance was pleasing.
The show was dedicated to Michel Sardou, and Lara’s contribution was to sing his song "La maladie d'amour", where the chorus had more to do. It’s available at:
www.facebook.com/larafabiancoeurdelumiere/videos/855621114775825
and on youtube at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlBymvUiHBo
Various pictures from the show are available at:
www.facebook.com/AICOM.Paris/photos/a.148690135191698/2252833514777339/?type=3&theater
As can be seen, these are from the AICOM site, because, as the caption says, “Several generations of stars of song have invited the students of the AICOM to come and sing at their side the most beautiful titles of Michel Sardou, in versions created for the evening.”
In album promotion news, Lara’s interview on RFM is available on youtube, at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiAwSWzotD4&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0civAA4xGSyGV2z86csGuD46BvgUrooEMmbDKHJX643yobJS44DtZGhz8
The album got a good reception, as the host Bernard Montiel described it as ‘hypnotic’. As to how it’s doing commercially, Papillon is now 10th in Belgium, while on the Palmarès ADISQ chart in Quebec, it is fourth. In France, as of last week, it was up 11 places to #26, indicating that the promotion appeared to be working.
And Lara was on the show “Les clefs-d’une vie” [The keys of a life] on Sud radio, available at:
www.sudradio.fr/les-clefs-dune-vie-2019-03-29?fbclid=IwAR3UvATpnUce1gTgB_bEgoZ5NC0e4LZSZxl42SQYmkqxRA77t0mMHYAWYxg
The 48 minute radio program discussed her career and life, and included a few interesting short audio clips. Again, from this site, the show is perhaps most easily accessed by downloading it first.
Lara was interviewed in “TribuMove Mag” (https://www.facebook.com/tribumove.mag/photos/pcb.2307681766156413/2307681429489780/?type=3&theater&ifg=1); here’s the translation:
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Lara Fabian
A Spiritual Musical Elevation
This 14th album (11 titles in French) carries the name of her totem: the “Papillon” (Butterfly). This ephemeral animal symbolizes the personal transformation, the world of the soul and of the psyche, a connection with the interior world and the spiritual, a sensibility to the beauty of life…In this symbolism, one finds first and before all her personality, but also her artistic DNA and the grand themes of this disc.
For more than 30 years, Lara draws on her personal life to tell us stories of universal love that the public re-appropriates. It is the power of music : the transmission of words and pains, but also of emotions. Her lyrics, which have always had a double meaning, are very profound and engaging. Each song (contrast between the words and the music) builds like a tableau of a piece of theater, has a different color to symbolize the dichotomy of life: the black and the white, Love and disenchantment, joys and pains…This celestial music, aerial and cinematographic, makes us gain height: we are in spiritual elevation, the communion of souls, uniqueness…
In the image of the photos, where Lara is surrounded by shadows, symbolizing the anxiety of the world in which we live, her aura radiates happiness and transmits her joy, her calmness and her serenity in “Papillon”, but also the keys for a better us, without ever giving a lesson, nor judgment!
The effect “Papillon” metaphor on the consequences of human acts on the Earth, is felt in the three extracts: Papillon, Je suis a toi, Par amour, whose clip evokes a new La Difference (the handicap), a contemporary ballet in the image of life: a veritable battle where passion prevails over reason!
To communicate with her loyal public, Lara will leave in an immense world tour, “50 World Tour”, which will pass by Brussels the day of her birthday (9 January 2020 Forest National) and Paris (24 and 25 March 2020 l’Olympia). Our Diva is well and truly back!
In this work, one feels the joy, the serenity, the calmness…
LF: It is a reflection of my state at the present moment, that which corresponds to my life, it is perfectly in resonance with my interior: as much a human as an artist!
This evolution is it due to personal changes?
LF: I don’t think that it be some thing, but rather a multitude of things which during a life time, over several years and stages of life, that I crossed them in a certain way and that I managed to find keys that allowed me to take a little perspective and height, rather than having the nose stuck up. When you go back a little, suddenly things appear to you clearer and you understand them with more and more serenity, it’s true!
In the symbolism of Papillon, one finds your personality and your artistic DNA.
LF: This symbolism is very correct. A re-connection to the simplicity and the beauty of life. It is the totem that my grandmother nicknamed me to make me measure the urgency of the present moment, for it is an ephemeral animal: in general, it lives between 24 hours and a week. While passing me this totem, she taught me many things. She said to me: “If ever you are preceded by your doubts, if ever you live your life in anguish, if you are always in the past, recall this totem for it is what you are for me: a farfalla (a small butterfly). I have applied that over the years, like a daily action: to return to here, to now and this present moment.
Is it hard to say, “I don’t love you anymore”? (“Je ne t’aime plus”)
LF: It is hard and at the same time, it is lucid! At a given moment, we have lived one or more loves that have been toxic to our cells. Even beyond the break, we have not been able to leave. And one day, we arrive to process by our intellect the No! It is the first time of my life that I write a song which says no, or where there is no light, but the darkness is also an integral part of life. It is an album which is very light, in contemplation and full gratitude, but it has also the state of the dichotomy of life and of its two sides: there is as much hope and light as hard songs like “Je ne t’aime plus”.
These words, are they not extremely violent?
LF: it is true that it is hard to say to someone: I don’t love you anymore! But that takes courage. I don’t know if it is more violent than courageous, me I believe that it is more courageous than violent, when it takes years that one tries to leave a cellular toxic love and one day, one arrives to have the courage to say it. There is too much suffering in silence or disaffection which becomes a kind of shaky interpretation: we need a break, we need to separate ourselves, but perhaps, I know nothing about it…When one lives a grand history and that is terminated for valuable and fundamental reasons, that we no longer look in the same direction and that we are suffering, it is necessary to have the courage to amputate that which makes us sick, by respect for ourselves, but also and especially for the other. “Je ne t’aime plus” was a means of saying: I have the courage today, because I am in forgiveness, resilience and healing, and because I can no longer let myself suffer and let you suffer, to confess that “I DON’T LOVE YOU ANYMORE”!
Why do you inscribe these evils in words?
LF: When you branch to inspiration and translation in the clarity of your emotions, they are just the reflection of what you live here and now. The songs are the transmitters, emitters of that which one is not capable of saying. I often used music to translate a state of mind and after, I depersonalize it to make it universal and so it will serve anyone, who has a need to say to someone: Stop!
We have the power of “Changer le jeu”, but still, don’t you need to have the keys?
LF: Often, the problem is us, and not the others, we are not very lucid with respect to that. It is necessary to be humble when we do not immediately find the way to be completely who we are. It is necessary to build up in one's impossibilities sometimes and then when one is able to become aware of it, to do it as an act of faith, an elan ...I say: go out, sing further. It is an act almost physical to change the game and then there is a game of words with the I. For me, it is not just to change the game, which o course defines the parameters of a life, but also to self-realize and to become ourselves. The two are linked. It is an act of true faith! It sometimes goes through a thousand actions and one only becomes oneself during this journey and repeated actions that change the I and therefore allow us to be ourselves. I believe that we are artisans of our lives, but it isn’t easy. It is necessary to have a lot of tenderness for ourselves at the present moment, we must not be made to feel guilty, that we judge ourselves for not having the means to change immediately the I (game). Just to be conscious that one can do it.
People are actually looking for a better us!
LF: I’ve had the experience! There are many actions that one can do to find a form of internal well-being and which are very regenerating. It is just necessary to launch and to try: whether that be Pilates, redecorating the house…That could be full of things, there is not a unique solution.
Did you want to help others in your life?
LF: To pass the keys! It is a gift, after you have to let people go in resonance or not. There is no lesson, pressure or voluntary transmission. I am in the sharing, never in the judgment. Opinions and judgments, it is terrible, it is so bruising.
Is there an ecological message in Papillon?
LF: Spiritually, yes, there is a desire to clean and respect the internal ecosystem. After, in the pragmatic and practical sense of the term, it is not contained in my music, but in my way of living: there are some things I do not buy, nor consume anymore…because I know the evil that we do to all and to our children.
Why have you put the theme of La Difference in the clip “Par Amour”?
LF: It is my preferred song. I wanted to talk about a pain that becomes our handicap and of our faculty of re-entering in resilience when we are hit with a profound violence, of our capacity to be a Phoenix, of surviving…I have written this scenario, I tell the story of the survival of a human being who connects himself to a great love. How a human being can survive at all, and in becoming more beautiful and more grand, when he is connected to this faculty of love and of making love and of being loved. We don’t save ourselves all alone, it is not true. We need support to save ourselves when we are in pain and and meet some people who are pointing us to live a real resurrection. Of course, one does personal and internal work, but one needs to interconnect to someone who passes to us this element to trigger, which for each of us is different, and that makes one go back into resilience and make a pain, an immense teaching and all that becomes bigger than ourselves and we get out of it. The two dancers have thus created this contemporary ballet which recounts in images, by the dance, the story of a resilience in love.
Was it important for you to talk about disability?
LF: Evidently. We can all have an accident of life: a genetic malady, an aggression…Whatever makes this pain which became a physical handicap, how to transcend it?
This song is built like a tableau of a theater piece, with its moments of joy and of pain like in life.
LF: Quite right! Life is full of these paradoxes which accompany us, one doesn’t exist without the other: the beautiful doesn’t exist without the ugly, sacrifice doesn’t exist without joy, love doesn’t exist without disaffection…
Between January and September 2018, there were 262 homophobic acts in France: 15% more than in 2017. What to do against homophobia?
LF: You know at what point I position myself with respect to our community, finally for me, it is “our community”! It is like that. My sexual orientation everyone knows, I am hetero, but I feel part of the community. Hate is a devastating energy. That so touches me (Ed. Note: Lara, very moved, starts crying). That which happened to these beings is a true drama, but the aggressors are so much to complain about. They haven’t understood the beauty of a being for what he is, they are going to live a miserable life and if only they could modify their comportment while transforming this hate into a loving state for life in general, after we could have our convictions and our fears. They don’t measure the horror they are inhabiting. They will not end well and they will auto-eliminate themselves, tranquilly but surely, from what I call the sacred space of life in which one can live and let live, love, let love…they don’t know what it is to love and be loved! They haven’t any idea of it.
You have been courageous to sing “La Difference” at one time when it wasn’t politically correct!
LF: Outside of homophobia, let’s widen the debate for, for me, it goes still much further. These people are empty of all forms of love and are gravely sick. We must take care of them. By their actions they prevent this pure love, just and divine, to exist. For me, it goes much further than homophobia, it touches the sacredness of humanity. I can not understand such hate in the place of humanity, we speak of universal love. Happily from time to time there are glimmers of hope, beautiful gestures that we must exhort. It is necessary to encourage Love and to unify humanity, outside of that which can apparently be our ‘differences’. I sang “La Difference” at one time when it would have simply sufficed to speak of uniqueness, of alignment, of equality, because for me, there is no difference and I finish my song by saying “What difference?” It’s everything I wanted to say. We are one and the same thing. When someone does what these people did to these beings, it is themselves that they assassinate! It is life itself that they assassinate. Hate is a sickness, gangrene!
The world is on the edge of breaking up. Where do you find the energy to give yourself the strength to continue our battle!
LF: Thanks for that, it gives me the hope of telling me that I can still continue to be useful. If I can contribute, at my small level, humanely, to be inspirational, it is the most beautiful thing that I can live as a human and an artist. I have never had the pretension, and I would never have it, to guide anyone or to teach anyone. If I can pass around that which I’ve lived, while being still standing, it can be inspiring, so I’ve won! I have a meaning. Thanks to you, I love you Love!
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An interesting interview in which she was asked some really good questions that forced her to dig deep for answers. As usual, her touchstone was to hold tight to Love.
On a less serious note, Lara was interviewed in Charts in France, translation below:
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Lara Fabian: "I'd love to do a duet with Celine Dion"
While her album "Papillon" has just been released, Lara Fabian has an open heart on her relationship with Celine Dion at the microphone of RTL. Rivalry, duo rumors ... The singer confides without equivocation.
Lara Fabian is in full promotion of her 14th album "Papillon". What is she most proud of? "To have always been in phase with what I felt, beyond all the awkwardness that sometimes implies. But also and above all to be here still after 30 years" confided the singer of "Par Amour" in an interview with Pure Charts . A beautiful journey, especially since it started for Lara Fabian in 1988. On April 30, the artist represents Luxembourg at the 53rd Eurovision Song Contest , which will be won by ... Céline Dion with the famous title ‘Ne partez pas sans moi’. “It is the first time we meet. I remember, in the green room, she approaches and she does: "Even when you speak it sounds good!" "I thought it was so nice", recalls Lara Fabian on RTL. For her, Celine Dion is "a great ".
"I admire this woman"
And do not talk to her about rivalry between them! "It's rather you journalists who do that, frankly. Sure it's a game this job sometimes. There are people who "belong" to teams and each team protects his colt. When you post this headline "They are rival", it was perhaps from the reality of this job. But we the artists, we do not see it like that" continues the singer of “Je t’aime" , admitting to have crossed Celine Dion amicably many times "in secret". But Lara Fabian assures that there has never been any animosity in their relationship: "There is a positioning that does not necessarily come from artists, and, on the contrary, "between us it is very very different”.
A duo ? "I would adore"
And its enough to say that Lara Fabian is one of the many fans of Celine Dion . "I love when she sings. I admire this woman. She has the voice of God. There are few people singing like that on this Earth. She is one of the five greatest voices on this planet”, she exclaims, open to the idea of a duet with the Canadian star:" Our fans should talk about it [They want our well-being and they are the bearers of our careers. Who knows maybe it could happen through them.“] And maybe this bias (...) that will pass. An idea that they have not addressed together to date. "No, that never. We never had the opportunity. But I would love, you can imagine”, Lara Fabian says, confirming having heard rumors of a duet between them in 2012, launched by a French television producer. Anyway, the interpreter of "Je t’aime" is for it: "I think it would be a good time".
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Back in 2012 such a duet would probably have had more impact than it would now; time moves on. This article comes from Lara’s appearance on the program “On Refait la Tele” on RTL. The video of that exchange, including Lara singing a bit of the song Celine had sung in the Eurovision contest, is available with this article.
Then the second of the duels for La Voix (remember, we’re one week behind). Here are the highlights (or low lights):
**Lara had a very tough night, most obviously in the final duel between Marianne Mathieu and Genevieve Jodoin. Their voices were almost exactly the same, both did a great job, and Lara just could not choose. After trying to get other opinions, she ended up keeping both, and letting the public ultimately decide. The comments on the La Voix Facebook site did not, in general, approve of her abdication, but it is understandable.
**If there was any doubt that this show is misnamed, the choices that several of the judges made, including Lara, should end any doubt. Lara picked Tony Crow over Laura Elena Gonzalez, and Eric picked Ariana Drapeau over Gabriel Brossard. Both Tony and Ariana had plenty of ‘attitude’ – but unfortunately, neither one of them could carry a tune, and their voices were quite subpar. The two losers in contrast were superb singers. Fortunately, Eric wasn’t completely tone deaf, and he ‘rescued’ Laura Elena for his team. I wonder what Lara’s voice teacher at AICOM would have made of her decision…[Alex’s choice of Gabriel Cyr over Sarah May was also in the same vein, although not quite as ludicrous].
**It was announced that Michael Bolton will join Lara’s team as a guest vocalist. He will sing a medley of his greatest hits with Lara and their finalists. The show will air live on May 5th. This is a big ‘catch’ for La Voix, and it is most likely due to his friendship with Lara, exemplified by their duet of “The Prayer’ on the PBS show honoring David Foster.
Interesting photo(s) of the week: Lara on “300 choeurs chantent Michel Sardou” as posted by Lara on her Instagram site,
http://instagram.com/p/BvmB6HvnV3J
Also on that site, Lara with a bag that she calls “memory of a beautiful Parisian journey, from @tods
http://instagram.com/p/BveSeehnozI
Then (not actually a photo) there was Lara singing a bit of ‘Par Amour’ while getting her hair done, at
www.facebook.com/larafabianitalia/videos/590127161503843/
Finally, three from the Lara Fabian – PHQ site; first what could well become a classic picture, from “300 choeurs”,
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353954938084519/1695212697292063/?type=3&theater
Then a daily life scene
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353954938084519/1694543334025666/?type=3&theater
and, ultimately,
www.facebook.com/larafabianphq/photos/a.353949311418415/1695803403899659/?type=3&theater
Lara undoubtedly will have her hands and heart full with the follow-up to her mother’s passing, but she may well have obligations to La Voix as well. A difficult time for her – our hearts go out to her, and we wish her the best in getting through it.
David
