Post by davidhr on Jul 16, 2019 8:05:33 GMT -5
Lara appeared at with Eric Lapointe at the Festival d'été de Québec this past week. They joined in a performance of “Je suis malade”, that can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdFZdCbqcRw
One can hardly envision an ‘odder couple’ vocally; suffice it to say they probably won’t be putting out too many albums together.
There are some nice photos of Lara with several of the participants, at
www.facebook.com/larafabiantonautre/photos/pcb.2276089175778067/2276088879111430/?type=3&theater
Last week it was announced that Lara would be the face of the jewelry designs of Gloria Bass Design. Another example of that can be seen at
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianBienPlusQuunePassionCorseReunion/photos/a.501228263404688/1154478414746333/?type=3&theater
One of the few times we’ve seen Lara with rings on her fingers.
This summer ‘La Presse’ in Canada is running a series in which artists analyze their first work. Here is Lara’s, translated below (https://www.lapresse.ca/arts/musique/201907/14/01-5233885-ma-premiere-oeuvre-lara-fabian.php?fbclid=IwAR32zXwrLFZk1juUKL3SaYuoQVHFfEXXUsPfFAAsn1ewsuPjRja3HK39irQ):
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Posted on July 15, 2019 at 7:00 AM | Updated at 13:52
This summer, artists dive into their memories to analyze their first professional work and tell us the memories that go back to them.
In 1993, Lara Fabian burst into tears when her parents arrived by surprise on the set of Sonia Benezra. Her emotion increased when his father gave her a gold record for her first self-titled album, a gesture that reflected their reconciliation, after he disavowed his daughter's work when he heard the first recorded songs. All because of a misunderstanding ...
Originally, no record company wanted Lara Fabian. Never mind, the young artist and her partner at the time, Rick Allison, produced the album independently in a small Belgian studio.
"We did this on our own with my father's money, who gave us 20 years of savings from sweeping chimneys.
- Lara Fabian
When it came time to let her father hear the fruit of her labor, she gave him - without knowing it - a demagnetized cassette: altered quality, muffled sounds, truncated or erased words, missing consonants. "When he contacted me, he said that he did not expect his investment to be used to do something so inaudible and bad ... It's a curve of destiny that I did not plan! It created a great disappointment between the person who had nourished this dream and me who proposed it."
Feeling the need to "put an ocean between her anger and her," Lara Fabian moved to Quebec. "I felt disqualified and left, saying,"You do not like it, it does not matter, I'll prove to you that you're wrong."
Long after recovering the famous tape, she listened to what her father had heard. "I still remember my face on removing the headset and handing it to Rick. It was bullshit ... I realized we had defeated hope and broken a heart. We were gone. How could we fix that?"
A silence of several months settled between her and her father. During this period, the singer worked in a fast food restaurant, in a supermarket and in bars. "I changed in refrigerated rooms and I sang in bars when smoking was still allowed. It was hard. But I would not be who I am if I had not been trained at that time. We slept in the car and we went everywhere, from Val-d'Or to Havre-Saint-Pierre."
Of tenderness
At the beginning of the 90's, in spite of all her will, her confidence in herself was extremely limited. "I took my trust in what others had in me. I often used this light that Rick projected on me to feed my confidence."
Today, she says she has a look of tenderness on the 21-year-old woman she was during the creation of her first opus. "I say to myself, "Poor little chick!", she exclaims, laughing. With hindsight, I see all the limits within which I was, the will to do well and the extravagances resulting from insecurity."
She quotes the song “Pourquoi pas l'exotisme” to illustrate her old need to find interesting formulas, but offset by a feeling she could have expressed more directly.
"It was anything but what translated me with transparency. Now, I have a lot of tenderness for the girl who masked her insecurities and who needed to please at all costs. She was afraid that what she was, was not enough ..."
- Lara Fabian
Lara Fabian says she did not feel well during her years in Belgium. "I had trouble finding my place. When I arrived in Quebec, I discovered a cultural identity so much closer to what I wanted to live. I had the immediate feeling that I had the right to be who I was, even perfectly imperfect."
This duality is particularly noticeable when she describes the process of creating her first album. "It was natural for me to put myself behind a microphone to sing for the first time, but I had to tame the fact of listening to myself, reading the texts that I was going to record and seeing me in pictures. It was very difficult."
Launched in the summer of 1991, her eponymous album is more than a succession of songs. "It's especially the stage that has allowed me to cross infinite limits and great fears. This album was the field of all the first possible for me. I discovered all the perseverance of which I am made.” An inner strength that allowed her to overcome many obstacles, painful words and a move to a new continent to be reborn.
Between the studio recording and the father-daughter reconciliation, several months have passed. "When dad hears the good version of my album, I'll have three day and night jobs. I will have sung in all the bars of Quebec. Jean-Pierre Coallier invited me to Ad Lib. I will have festivals. A lot of way had been done. But the day my dad gave me the platinum record and was proud of me, that's one of the highlights of my life."
Watch Lara Fabian on Sonia Benezra's show (YouTube)
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Every time we hear this story, it comes across as so heart-felt, touching and full of destiny. If Lara had not had the strength to persevere despite the unfortunate turn of events, her life would not have been fulfilled. It all seemed destined to bring her to Quebec, where she is now once again at home.
About this time each year, when things get slow, we do a quick review of how Lara ranks in terms of Facebook ‘likes’ compared to other singers of her ilk. Here are some updated numbers plus some Canadian performers thrown in.The birth years of the performers are included, as younger performers logically have younger followers more likely to use social media.
2017 2018 2019
Shy’m (1985) 1,681,028 1,575,730 1,535,837
Jenifer (1982) 1,231,486 1,191,074 1,182,745
Zaz (1980) 1,218,804 1,328,429 1,374,951
Lara (1970) 1,167,860 1,224,372 1,230,875
Alizee (1984) 1,037,273 1,060,289 1,063,379
Mylene Farmer(1961) 838,074 823,073 814,684
Amel Bent (1985) 1,577,089 1,543,987
Isabelle Boulay (1972) 220,789
Ginette Reno (1946) 103,896
As you can see, Lara hasn’t changed much in terms of Facebook likes in the last year, but neither has anyone else, in fact, some of the performers lost numbers. This may say as much or more about Facebook as about these singers. Lara is still doing well though in this category, and much better than her Canadian counterparts. How it translates into current record sales is another story. As of June 1, “Papillon” had sold 14,500 copies in France. That number is actually quite similar to what "Camouflage" sold - so much for the language difference. "Papillon" still has a way to go, especially considering Lara's 50 World Tour will feature some cuts from it. [And, IMHO, “Alien” would be perfect as the 4th single, a wonderful summer-time song].
On the other hand, still dealing with numbers, the ‘Lara Fabian Coeur de lumiere’ site noted that the clip for ‘Par amour” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjrTd8VeP64) has now exceed 3 million views (with 44,000 likes). The video for ‘Je suis a toi’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b7jHPvnpjNQ&fbclid=) has 870,000 (11,000 likes), while the first clip, “Papillon’ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzWit_mevK0) has about 1.7 million (14,000 likes). From ‘Camouflage’, “Growing Wings” had 2.2 million views (21,000 likes); “Choose What You Love Most” had 3.2 million views (28,000 likes). Again pretty commensurate numbers, though the Camouflage songs have been out longer, and these numbers do tend to accumulate with time. As of June 1, on Spotify the two songs from Camouflage had about 900,000 plays, while those from Papillon were under 300,000. Lara’s official videos and many of her album cuts can be found on her ‘youtube’ channel, at:
www.youtube.com/user/larafabianoff/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=0
Interesting photo(s) of the week: from Lara Fabian Mexico, of Lara and Eric
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianfromMexico/photos/a.747329741987755/2273202562733791/?type=3&theater
Lara is presumably working to put together her 50 World Tour, and with nothing obvious on her public agenda, we could expect her to be out of sight most of the time, aside from a few personal postings. However, we know that she has the habit of her popping up in some unexpected places. Hopefully she’ll have plenty of time to enjoy the season, and you will too.
David
