Post by davidhr on Oct 20, 2020 7:09:29 GMT -5
The obvious lead story this week was the release of the documentary “Lara” on the subscription TV channel“Club illico” in Quebec. Lara put a brief promo for it on her FB and Instagram sites from the New York show:
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/341885140246455/
or
Here is a very short summary of what was a truly fantastic production:
The movie of about one hour and 24 minutes was broken into five general parts. Each part had a song (or songs) associated with it, generally Lara singing a small portion of it live as part of the 50 World Tour, or a video of some past performance.
**The first part covering about 18 minutes interestingly enough was associated with Lara’s U.S. experience. In a sense that followed the 50 World Tour, which opened in New York City, and that experience was shown in some detail. But it broadened the scope to include Lara’s U.S. experience some 20 years ago, and why it didn’t “take”. It began with Lara singing a segment of Adagio in Italian (the opening of the show), though the song that epitomized this U.S. portion, was Lara singing at that concert “I Will Love Again”. Included at the end of this segment was a brief discussion of Rick Allison (with a bit of Lara singing “Je suis malade”).
**The next segment, covering about 17 minutes, took place a month later, and it was Lara in Montreal – showing her family life, going out to an event at La Place des Arts (ironically, the song there was Lara singing the English language “Chameleon”). There was a flashback to Lara winning an award in Montreal in 1995, hence her ‘backstory’ there.
**The third segment, also covering about 17 minutes, was Lara in Sicily (in December 2019). It covered the location, Lara’s mother, Lara's marriage to Gabriel, and a New Year’s Eve supper with friends and family. The songs for this part were Lara performing “Perdre l’amore” and, for her marriage, “Par amour”. A highlight of that part was Lara singing a karaoke version of “Vision of Love”.
**The fourth segment, about 10 minutes long, was Lara in Paris. It started with the announcement while she was there of the cancellation of her concert in Romania and continued with Lara’s discussion of the fraud perpetrated against her by the agent who was supposed to disperse the money collected for the shows. Other highlights included brunch with the tour team, the Voice France experience and a brief history of her career in France. Included was Lara’s performance in 1995 at the Palais de congress of “Je suis malade” with Serge Lama (who had some wonderful comments about her); and also a clip of Lara singing “Tout” which she acknowledged made her a hit overnight and brought about her journey to France. This was followed by Lara’s extended discussion of the insults she suffered at the hands of the French press as a “singer of voice”. It ended with her show at the Olympia, with the song “J’y crois encore”.
**The last segment, about 22 minutes long, was, naturally, in Brussels. It involved first meeting with her father in her childhood home and showing it to Lou. One highlight was her meeting fans before her show at the Forest National, whose devotion and love made Lara cry. Given that it was to celebrate her birthday, Lara had some birthday cake at her hotel. We're also shown her meeting with her singing teacher, Pierre-Yves Duchesne. At the Forest National entrance, her fans sang a version of Par Amour they wrote for her (with more tears from Lara. The songs here were “Saisir le jour”, “Humana” and, of course, ending with “Je t’aime”.
This brief resume does not do justice to the depth of the production, nor the heart-warming views of Lara’s life, her interactions with her family, her musicality throughout, and her honesty. I would be astonished if this did not win all sorts of awards – truly an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to all involved.
As an aside: In one of the promos, I thought they seemed to (briefly) show Moscow (though I could be wrong), and even though Lara has not lived there, it was a bit of a surprise that this was not included. It was part of the 50 World Tour that she actually got to perform at, and it would have added a further very interesting geographic element to the program, especially given how enthusiastic her fans are there.
For those who haven’t gotten a chance to see it, note that it was co-produced by Club illico and TVA, which implies that TVA will ultimately make it available via some commercial product [see the end of the Journal of Montreal article below as verification of this]. It has gotten so much publicity, it is essentially a certainty it will be shown in all French-speaking countries (and I think it’s likely there will be a DVD as well).
Some short video segments are readily available, for example of Lara singing “Vision of Love” to karaoke-style can be seen at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRE74jLliI8
The segment (in Sicily) of Lara singing along with the Celine Dion song ‘Boundaries’ can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3GNm8ipENk
Then Lara meeting with fans in Brussels and her breaking up afterwards
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1233551573677496
The fan response, as indicated on social media, was extremely positive. Just picking one that popped up at random (and is representative of many):
Line Gadbois: “A very touching documentary. 😍💛🧡 Thank you Lara for opening the door and especially your heart without any modesty. I was upset to hear the upheavals of your artistic life. Wish u lots of love Congratulations Jean-Philippe for this exceptional editing. ❤”
The documentary has of course been noted in the press. First a more general article (https://www.en24news.com/2020/10/lara-a-documentary-on-lara-fabian-at-illico.html)
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LARA, a documentary on Lara Fabian at Illico
Initially scheduled for last April, the broadcast of LARA will have made more than one wait… Well now, starting October 15, Club Illico subscribers will finally be served.
Under the camera of Jean-François Fontaine, singer Lara Fabian generously lends herself to the lens, filmed around the world, but also in her privacy.
The film crew accompanied her to the New York premiere of the show, which was staged before coming to Montreal. We also follow her to Sicily, during a Christmas vacation spent with her husband, Gabriel.
A highlight for fans here, she lets us enter the privacy of her Montreal home, where she presents her daughter Lou for the first time.
A great moment of the documentary is also this tour which covered the evening of her 50th year birthday, on stage, in Brussels, in front of thousands of admirers.
Host Jean-Philippe Dion chats with Lara in the comfort of his residence. In particular, she will reveal to what extent, since always, those who love her and those who hate her do it for the same reasons.
Whether you’re a fan or not, this is a rich document and a great TV moment.
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Some of the revelations are discussed in articles on-line. Here’s one from www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/10/13/les-drames-de-lara-fabian?fbclid=IwAR1BQqHi9HyTLpgkq3kc14UjA_Z_CUMVaKnfM2ECVo80L0ad2pSXPPej4z8
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Lara Fabian’s dramas
Lara Fabian miscarried in 2017, when she was 47. The singer recounts this drama in Lara, an uncompromising documentary in which she opens up on several sensitive subjects, including Celine Dion.
Expected on Club illico Thursday, this film produced by Déferlantes (The Voice, The True Nature) paints a revealing portrait of the Belgian-Quebec artist as she goes on a world tour to mark her 50th anniversary.
For nearly an hour and a half, Lara Fabian opens up like never before, in an interview with Jean-Philippe Dion, as well as by letting the camera of director Jean-François Fontaine follow her around the world.
One of the most gripping segments of the documentary was captured in Sicily, while she was visiting her family. Supported by Gabriel Di Giorgio, her husband of the past 8 years, she recounts her painful day of March 22, 2017, when she participated in the commemorations of the Brussels attacks, which occurred 12 months earlier. In the space of a few hours, two pieces of news turned her world upside down: she learned that she was pregnant … with an unviable child.
“My baby had no heart,” says the singer, mother of a 12-year-old teenager, fighting back tears behind her dark glasses. “It’s a very strange anomaly.”
A short-circuited career/Rivalry with Celine Dion
Executive producer of the documentary, Jean-Philippe Dion does not hesitate to ask Lara Fabian “the real questions”, even when they concern more painful periods, such as her conquest of the American market, which ended abruptly at the beginning of the 2000s.
The reasons are multiple, insists the report, but reading between the lines, we understand that behind the scenes, the Celine Dion clan, who was also under contract with Sony Music, did not remain quiet in her corner.
To protect her assets and prevent another “vocal singer” from attacking the same market, Celine Dion‘s team played hard, very hard. Result: overnight, Lara Fabian was parachuted to another record company, surrounded by strangers who wanted to turn her into a pseudo dance diva.
In videoconference Tuesday afternoon to talk about the documentary, the main interested party [Lara] did not appear bitter in evoking this difficult period during which her American dream collapsed before her eyes. These are “the rules of the game,” she philosophized.
Even more, she thanks the sky for having been ejected from an environment that forced her to lose weight and change her image to respect a format.
“I don’t know how I would have gotten through this wringer. And believe me, it’s quite a wringer, ”she said.
In letting go mode
Very detailed, the documentary presents a Lara Fabian that we have never seen: a woman sometimes fragile, sometimes strong, sometimes funny, sometimes calm, but always frank and honest … with or without makeup.
Long-term fans will find their account there, just like the general public.
We like this Lara Fabian in a relaxed fashion. Hopefully she’s still in that state of mind when she takes charge of Star Academy this winter, as director.
The documentary Lara will be broadcast on RTL in Belgium. It could also be sold in France. Talks are underway, said Jean-Philippe Dion.
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You may remember that when Lara was signed by Columbia (which was then bought by Sony), Celine Dion took two years off from 2000 to 2002 to help look after her husband, who was diagnosed with throat cancer. Columbia thought they needed a replacement for her. When she came back, there was no room for Lara as a ‘singer of voice’. Thus, as Lara mentioned previously, it was not clear whether she was supposed to be singing “Adagio” or “I Will Love Again” at any particular media event – she was being pulled in two different directions. Finally, as the document notes, she was sent out to Los Angeles where they wanted her to be a ‘dance-diva’.
And there was this article (https://www.en24news.com/2020/10/lara-fabian-bursts-into-tears-in-moving-video.html):
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Lara Fabian bursts into tears in moving video
She returned to Quebec, since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, and failing to return in the next season of The Voice, in France, Lara Fabian is dedicated to projects that she can mount on the other side of the Atlantic. This is how she agreed to appear in an original documentary from the video on demand service Club Illico. In this format, she confides in Jean-Philippe Dion, and tells him in particular the influence that her parents had on her career. [Note - this is incorrect; Lara agreed to this way before the pandemic struck, otherwise there would have been no touring film to speak of].
If Lara Fabian has already explained in the past that it is thanks to her daddy, chimney sweep, who one day entrusted her with all his savings, that she used for her songs, the star also owes a lot to her mom …
Difficult mourning
Maria Luisa Serio died in March 2019, from Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disease whose symptoms are similar to those of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
It is of course with great emotion that Lara Fabian remembered the day she left their house. With tears in her eyes, and her voice trembling, the diva recounts: “I asked her permission to go away and I swear to you that she said, yet there were bits where she was there and bits where she was was not there, she turned to me and she said: ‘Ah, finally my life’, because she called me ‘my life’, ‘Finally my life, you are going to go back to a place where people have their arms wide open. ‘”
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Lara noted this on her Facebook and Instagram pages, showing this segment of the interview at
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/654298838607767
or
with the caption, “And your blessing will have allowed me to go home. Thank you Mom, I love you❤️ ′′
And then a comprehensive article at (https://www.lesoleil.com/arts/richard-therrien/quand-lara-fabian-dit-tout-d38fcd5d896c4a004def60604937f567?fbclid=IwAR0JBHlX4pem_6oB6Wu9d1rCjjatBMxz_M4l7OMhvCGLmVhXZ1xX1KC4bpM):
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When Lara Fabian says it all
CHRONICLE / We expect a rather nice documentary on the backstage of a tour, where Lara Fabian opens up about different moments of her career. And then, right off the bat, there are revelations about the false start of her American career in the early 2000s. On those who pulled the strings, leaving her in the dark. On this love of the time for a great producer, which made her lose her mind.
"I would go back and stick one back like my mother would have!" launches the singer on this last episode.
Lara , the 90-minute documentary available on Club illico from Thursday, is not just a vulgar promotional item or a souvenir album dedicated only to fans. The pretext: to take advantage of her international tour, on the occasion of her 50th birthday, to effectively retrace the thread of a fruitful career but strewn with long empty passages. Followed in several big cities by the cameras, the singer speaks as much of her good as of her bad times, aware of her mistakes but also of what she could not control. At 50, she feels more serene, able to analyze her choices with the hindsight of wisdom.
Lara is not a sad story, nor a shocking documentary. She returns to the dark episodes to better speak of rebirth, of this happiness obtained at the cost of many torments, of those precious moments spent with the family, here as in Sicily, where her husband, Gabriel di Giorgio comes from. Through the revelations, we witness snippets of her shows in New York, Paris, Brussels. But also snippets of her personal life, with her daughter Lou, now a teenager. When she misplaces her OPUS card to talk to her mother on the phone, while she is about to take the stage, let's say that it quickly brings you back to everyday things.
The singer, who will occupy the position of director at Star Académie this winter at TVA, also opens up about the couple she forms with her husband, 12 years her junior, an age difference that initially disturbed. We feel that she is irritated by this detail. "Why is there a validity date on our loves?" she asks. She confides on her marriage to the one she calls her beacon on the horizon, and on the child they could have had but that they lost during pregnancy, another revelation that came out over the confidences. Grief was difficult, but the singer's life would not have been the same; she would not have come to do The Voice in Quebec.
Asked about the most delicate subjects, Lara Fabian delivered. The singer does not have a hot seat served; interviewer and producer Jean-Philippe Dion is always kind to his questions. But the interviewee answers frankly, does not skimp on the revelations. We are making a documentary on a life, as well to reveal itself as never before.
Lara Fabian admits it: she trusted too much. Her flair has often misguided her. Like when she fell in love with record producer Walter Afanasieff, maker of serial hits for Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson. She admits having abandoned herself to him like a teenager, "having entered a sort of delirium", she says. The singer fell from a height, sinking into eating disorders. There is talk of her romantic and professional breakup with Rick Allison, her former manager, but we pass very quickly on the subject. "You fucked up so much Lara," she said to herself out loud at the end of her American adventure.
This is something that will come back often: Lara Fabian doesn't like what she sees in the mirror very much. But she has made progress over time and is now “almost beautiful”. At least she no longer apologizes for existing. Although we talk about it, it is the only requirement of the singer before approving the final product: to remove a few passages that she deemed redundant on this low self-esteem. For the rest, the Productions Déferlantes team was able to address all the questions it wanted.
I had forgotten that long period when the French took her as the head of the Turk. An outright demolition exercise. We hear Laurent Baffie calling her a blood sausage in the middle of the TV, Ardisson comparing her song to a howl, in front of her. The singer laughs about it today, but remembers coming back to the hotel defeated after the recording. You can criticize the work, make fun of someone; hitting the nail on physical appearance night after night, as the Guignols did at the time, is relentless. Karma does things right: all those old guard names that denigrated her are pretty much gone from TV today. And Lara Fabian is a coach at The Voice.
"Yes, I'm too much, yes, I'm intense, and I'll never apologize again."
- Lara Fabian
If we say everything, we can not ignore this famous rivalry with Celine Dion, in her opinion invented from nothing by the media, especially French. "This conflict is not mine," she said, aware that their two teams "had to elbow each other to keep everything in its place." Everything was set up for her to break into the American market with the song "Adagio", but at the last minute, she was changed record companies and instead made her sing a tune that was unlike her. "No one knew what I was anymore: the pseudo dance singer à la Cher, who sang I Will Love Again, or the girl with the emotional and dramatic dimension in Adagio." All that mattered was that she didn't play in Celine's flower beds.
“It is the name of the game. But when you're 27 or 28, you can't understand it. "
- Lara Fabian
Unpaid for months by a producer who would have swindled her, and with whom she had worked for three years, the singer had to cancel her concert in Bucharest in February. Nine months later, there is still nothing settled and she has filed a lawsuit against the individual, who has since been extinct in the wild. He even continued to organize Lara shows in Kazakhstan, Poland and the Czech Republic, going so far as to request cash advances.
You will not see the singer bursting forth as we have seen her often. Sure, eyes get wet when she brings up the death of her mother, who had lost her memory due to a neurodegenerative disease, but it will not be the only time. I challenge you not to do the same.
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There were numerous times when Lara was on talk shows in France when she was made the butt of continual jokes and slights; one wondered at the time why she put herself through it? On the program she seemed to be taking it in good graces, but we learn now that was just a ‘show’, and afterwards she suffered. When Jean-Philippe Dion discussed last week that ‘Acadamecians’ should watch this documentary to appreciate how difficult this profession is, clearly this is one segment that he had in mind.
Lara posted a letter from Joel Legendre (who appeared in the documentary) on her FB site. Here’s the translation:
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Dear Lara,
Finishing drama school my ultimate goal was to go to New York to audition so I could have the privilege of playing on Broadway. 35 years later, it's because of you that I find myself on the stage and behind the scenes of the legendary Beacon Theatre on Broadway! Savored every second spent in this theater located on this famous street in a city that's intoxicated... Thank you dear... Lara Fabian 50 for trusting me to stage your 50 World Tour through the world.
Here's an excerpt from the documentary that highlights all the unique and frank facets of my great friend, so inspiring. Produced by Jean-Philippe Dion and Martin Proulx at directed by Jean-François Fontaine and available on Club Illico: clubillico.videotron.com/.../nouvel.../1255381/Lara #larafabian
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The excerpt referred to can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/Legendrej/videos/2783670518579396/
Lara met with the press to discuss the article, for example, with “Salut Bonjour”, making many of these same points (https://www.salutbonjour.ca/2020/10/15/lara-fabian-se-devoile-dans-le-nouveau-documentaire-lara?fbclid=IwAR0N5yjKWiQBmjqVlvG95Oq_4viudT7tWJt8-z3TjFSM4FADH_5BknyOfnA). There was also an audio interview at (https://www.985fm.ca/audio/340037/catherine-beauchamp-18h15-1?fbclid=IwAR05ThF4tMuU-RmX4TFFO2M1dIMhcQt9XIHJ9k70ghSizvZKG2eIQ9qswLA).
A most extensive Lara gave was in the magazine “7 Jours”, where she appears on the cover:
www.facebook.com/magazine7Jours/photos/a.215281058499409/4001687853192025/
Here’s the translation (thanks to the “Par Amour” Facebook site for the scans):
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The Love of My Family Saved Me
With all the generosity that characterizes her, Lara Fabian consented to give us access to her intimately in the cadre of a release of a documentary on her personal and professional life. In this film, filmed by Jean-Philippe Dion and his team in the United States, in France, in Belgium and in Sicily, who put in the light unknown facets of a star adulated in Quebec and in foreign countries, we have the right of exclusive confidences.
Lara, by the end of the documentary, did you come away abandoning yourself with confidence?
Lara: Yes, because I had the luck of being well-supported. Jean-Philippe and his team followed me without being intrusive. They wanted to accompany me all through this tour around the world - of which I was the producer – which was at the same time an event to celebrate my 50 years. In the documentary, one realizes all that we do wearing so many caps. It is the human being that we see through the mother, the wife, the daughter, the singer and the producer.
How have you reacted in seeing the result?
Lara: There is always a part of me which regards itself with a certain reticence, but I have been amazed by the reaction of my family. For my daughter, I am her mother: she doesn’t regard me through the prism of an artist. Lou saw the documentary with my husband and didn’t leave her seat for a second. At the end of seeing it, she said to me something that I will never forget: “I didn’t imagine that you passed through all that and I understand better who you are.” It is as if she has caught in full view my professional dimension and what my life is when she isn’t there. At the hour of bedtime, we generally count our daily happinesses and we share the things less agreeable. That evening, she simply said to me that her greatest happiness, it was of having me at her side…
Across these imagines, one acknowledges at what point this career implies an important family sacrifice.
Lara: Absolutely. But even if I am submerged by some problems, as soon as I get up on stage, the magic operates. The fans are so marvelous!
You confided that to sing was your dream as a child and that it was even an obsession. Why?
Lara: Because nothing else interested me. Obsession means “to see in one direction only”. I only looked to sing.
We see how much work there has been done to get there…
Lara: I have often had the feeling that there is a great gap between that which people perceive of me and that which I really am. It is perhaps less true in Quebec than elsewhere. I have often experienced this diversion from who I am. I have perhaps sent bad signals, but there has also been malevolence. It is something that we see in the documentary. Sometimes, one said to me mean things just to see how I would react. Those who knew me have seen my heart break into a thousand pieces. I picked up and collected the pieces and told myself that it was necessary that I not lose sight of why I did this metier, that I incarnated in my heart, that which I wanted, that which I was.
This bullying lasted 10 years. Do you believe that one could still act thus today?
[Ed. Note: Lara confided in the documentary on the relentlessness with which she was victimized while, during 10 years, she had been the laughing stock of certain media and French humorists.)
Lara: No, one could not do it anymore. We have all our lot of pains – and for certain, they could be much deeper than those that I’ve traversed. But in my case, that built and nourished me. Strangely, that reconstituted me. Today, I am who I am.
When you evoke your time with Sony, you speak of a love relationship that was a bad choice. With hindsight, how do you explain it?
Lara: The challenge. It was necessary that I display colors that were a little less present in myself, but I told myself that I was going to have the chance to do it later. Bad choice. There are some compromises that I have never been capable of making, and I paid the price for it.
Is it a love addiction?
Lara: I’ve always dreamed of being a great accomplished lover. I’ve looked for that across many facets of my life. I’ve sometimes made some bad anchors.
With your husband, you form today a sold team. Have you reconciled that with love?
Lara: It’s true that that is based on the power of this team that we form with my daughter and Kayla, our small animal. We have feet well anchored in the earth. This great love saved me. This love of my daughter and of my husband made me traverse the most difficult things. I have never lost the view of this immense luck that I have of being loved by these beings.
Your husband seems to be looking very far on the horizon when he talks about your couple…
Lara: What girl on this earth has the absolute certainty that she will always be loved for who she is and across the metamorphoses that life can offer? Gabriel is sure of himself. That, that fixes all the little troubles of the soul and of the heart that life has perforated…
He reminds you of your mother in certain ways…
Lara: They are both Sicilians. But outside of the cultural aspect, their values, his loyalty, his righteousness, his sense of justice and his honesty recalls for me my mother. He is a man of his word. He has always done what he said he was going to do. And he makes me laugh. He is my best friend. He is the love of my life. He knows me perfectly…and he loves me nevertheless! (laughs)
You have been judged on your difference in age, while it is such an insignificant detail…
Lara: Happy, we are no longer in a time when that which isn’t common is not accepted. It’s been nine years since we met each other, Gabriel and me, there have been many adjustments. We asked ourselves how we were going to live with our difference of age, as if there is a generation between us…We are 12 years apart. For certain people, this worry was a form of benevolence, for others it was jealousy. I say it without rancor and without bitterness, but he permitted me to make a domestic life.
The documentary makes us travel with you notably in Sicily where you have a house.
Lara: Yes, we visit nonna (which means grandmother in Italian). To talk and eat pasta prepared by nonna as a family, it is a moment that is difficult to equal. It makes “climb the thermometer of happiness”!
Because your husband gave you a family life extraordinary and down there you are Lara Di Giorgio?
Lara: Yes, I am that lady Di Giorgio! (laughs). That this family welcomes me into its life, is for me a grand gesture of love and of confidence. We have an immense love one for another. It is a place where we deposit ourselves and where I can deposit myself with all that I am, perfectly imperfect. My papa had already left for Belgium when we filmed these images, but he was with us. It was a marvelous moment with my papa and the family of Gab. It was magical!
You moreover render homage to your father in underlining his contribution to your career.
Lara: I won my first contest thanks to him. I had the luck of being born into a good family, I have had this gift. Each day, I measure the heritage of my parents. In this difficult period where I can not go to visit him, I find that painful.
Is it difficult to not be able to give shows?
Lara: No. That which makes me sad, it is to see what humanity traverses. My situation is not unsustainable. I am well surrounded, and my father is in good health. I know that I have something immensely precious: the love of a family. That permits me to traverse the biggest waves and, still today, I know that when I find myself in the deepest hole and when I get lost, I can count on it.
Lou, your daughter, does she manifest some talent for music?
Lara: Yes, she loves music, but it isn’t something that she has desired to incarnate, and I respect that. In the "Lockdown sessions" that I’ve made, she has given me the joy of singing with me.
Considering the circumstances, does everybody actually profit from your presence at home?
Lara: Yes, and me I profit from the presence of everybody! (laughs)
In route towards the Star Academie
After her experience in the red chair while being a coach on La Voix, Lara Fabian will occupy the seat as director of Star Academie this winter. A post which makes her very proud since she already dreamed of opening a school and of giving some courses in the future.
Lara, what led you to accept the post as director of the Academie?
Lara: Before all, I think that it is the human dimension of the adventure in which I am going to be able to implicate myself which motivated my choice. I must admit that in the beginning, the word “director” was a term with which I had a bit of trouble. I found that it was something authoritative and it was far from me. But after having spoken to Jean-Philippe Dion, I saw things differently. I am the leader of a team. And what motivates me above all, it is to help young talents, to enable me to connect to the human and to accompany that person in this voyage thanks to my 30 years of experience.
What genre of director will you be?
Lara: Before all I am going to be an ear, a heart connected to the person that I have in front of me. I am going to be one who will never have any problem with all that one will have the desire to confide and I am going to assure myself that the alignment between the human and the artist is made. I am going to be empathetic, a little mother, a little big sister. I am going to be very much a listener.
You dreamed of opening eventually a school of singing…With Star Academie, you are approaching a little of your dream…
Lara: It is fully, I think that, in some part, I have “automanifested” that which I wanted. To be director of Star Academie, it is a step, in effect, in that sense.
The last winter, you were coach on The Voice in France. What memories do you keep of this experience, and have you voluntarily refused to do another season in order to be in Star Academie?
Lara: I’ve kept of it a marvelous memory, and the coach in me is always there. But with all that is has passed and the borders which are closed, I preferred to remain here, at home, in Quebec. And I knew that I would have some beautiful projects if I remain here.
Is it that you are equally going to give some courses at the Star Academie?
Lara: My first objective will be to create some links with the academicians as director. Bit it is certain that I would well love to participate in the courses of our fabulous professors. The creative side interests me and calls out to me a lot.
Have you other projects to come?
Lara: Yes, I have an experimental project which is going to be released soon. It will be the "Lockdown sessions" that I did during the confinement. It is very particular as a project. It will be 12 experimental voyages where I have utilized my voice and where I read some mantras. I have used my voice and my creativity with an absolute liberty. Otherwise, my 50 World Tour will be taken up again with pleasure next year. I am very excited to find my public again!
Lara and Jean-Philippe
A relationship of confidence
Jean-Philippe Dion has had the privilege of collecting the confidences of Lara and, from all evidence, the confidence was met. “My relationship with Lara was constructed through the course of time, the animator said to us, recently gratified by a Gemeaux. What was most marked for me was to see her sincerity. One sees her with her family, one sees her without makeup. She delivers herself without filter, to such a point that it can be destabilizing. Sometimes I was no longer in the interview mode: I became a spectator impressed by what I heard. As I had the desire that she be satisfied by the final result, I sent to her the documentary, and she didn’t change anything. That, that made me very proud! I was afraid that she would regret certain confidences, but that wasn’t the case. It is necessary to say that we have had access to many moments of very hard truths, but Lara accepted to present herself as is. I found particularly interesting the passage on the United States. Her career was truly big! But Lara fell in love with a bad man. One sees the reverse of décor. One understands finally that the higher you are, the more you are alone…The documentary shows it to us in a different light. One acknowledges that she has certainly surmounted some obstacles…Moreover, this documentary is going to influence her role as director of Star Academie; she will be able to share with the others the pitfalls that she has surmounted during her career.
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Another of the many great interviews Lara has given throughout her career; and kudos to the questioner (Michele Lemieux) for the insightful probes into Lara’s thinking.
With regard to the 50 World Tour that she mentions “taking up again with pleasure”, this morning Lara added three more dates in France to the tour resumption in June, as seen at
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.622966977744803/4617125624995565/
As this now violates her “no more than 12 days away from home” dictum, keeping her in Europe for some 20 straight days, it would imply she plans to bring her family with her, which would also give them a chance to visit her father in Belgium. This, of course, assumes that the virus will be under control by then, an assumption that is widely held by businesses; for example, in the U.S., many major companies have told their employees to expect to return next summer (e.g., www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/offices-reopening-delay-coronavirus.html). Let’s hope this turns out to be true!
The interesting photo(s) of the week : first from the Lara documentary, Lara with her parents as posted by the Lara Fabian Netherlands FB site, at
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianTheNetherlands/photos/a.147591376786267/220589429486461/
Then from the “7 Jours” article, posted by the “Lara Fabian - L’etoile des anges” FB site,
www.facebook.com/Nathalie.caille.ange/photos/a.712979215450076/3816095935138373/
One imagines that the ramifications of the “Lara” documentary will still continue to resound in the coming week(s), while Lara continues with her job as ‘director’ of the Star Academy. She mentioned that the “Lockdown sessions” work will soon be released, so one imagines she might well have some work to do for that as well. Hopefully she – and you – will stay well.
David
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/341885140246455/
or
http://instagram.com/p/CGaG6xxhJDm
Here is a very short summary of what was a truly fantastic production:
The movie of about one hour and 24 minutes was broken into five general parts. Each part had a song (or songs) associated with it, generally Lara singing a small portion of it live as part of the 50 World Tour, or a video of some past performance.
**The first part covering about 18 minutes interestingly enough was associated with Lara’s U.S. experience. In a sense that followed the 50 World Tour, which opened in New York City, and that experience was shown in some detail. But it broadened the scope to include Lara’s U.S. experience some 20 years ago, and why it didn’t “take”. It began with Lara singing a segment of Adagio in Italian (the opening of the show), though the song that epitomized this U.S. portion, was Lara singing at that concert “I Will Love Again”. Included at the end of this segment was a brief discussion of Rick Allison (with a bit of Lara singing “Je suis malade”).
**The next segment, covering about 17 minutes, took place a month later, and it was Lara in Montreal – showing her family life, going out to an event at La Place des Arts (ironically, the song there was Lara singing the English language “Chameleon”). There was a flashback to Lara winning an award in Montreal in 1995, hence her ‘backstory’ there.
**The third segment, also covering about 17 minutes, was Lara in Sicily (in December 2019). It covered the location, Lara’s mother, Lara's marriage to Gabriel, and a New Year’s Eve supper with friends and family. The songs for this part were Lara performing “Perdre l’amore” and, for her marriage, “Par amour”. A highlight of that part was Lara singing a karaoke version of “Vision of Love”.
**The fourth segment, about 10 minutes long, was Lara in Paris. It started with the announcement while she was there of the cancellation of her concert in Romania and continued with Lara’s discussion of the fraud perpetrated against her by the agent who was supposed to disperse the money collected for the shows. Other highlights included brunch with the tour team, the Voice France experience and a brief history of her career in France. Included was Lara’s performance in 1995 at the Palais de congress of “Je suis malade” with Serge Lama (who had some wonderful comments about her); and also a clip of Lara singing “Tout” which she acknowledged made her a hit overnight and brought about her journey to France. This was followed by Lara’s extended discussion of the insults she suffered at the hands of the French press as a “singer of voice”. It ended with her show at the Olympia, with the song “J’y crois encore”.
**The last segment, about 22 minutes long, was, naturally, in Brussels. It involved first meeting with her father in her childhood home and showing it to Lou. One highlight was her meeting fans before her show at the Forest National, whose devotion and love made Lara cry. Given that it was to celebrate her birthday, Lara had some birthday cake at her hotel. We're also shown her meeting with her singing teacher, Pierre-Yves Duchesne. At the Forest National entrance, her fans sang a version of Par Amour they wrote for her (with more tears from Lara. The songs here were “Saisir le jour”, “Humana” and, of course, ending with “Je t’aime”.
This brief resume does not do justice to the depth of the production, nor the heart-warming views of Lara’s life, her interactions with her family, her musicality throughout, and her honesty. I would be astonished if this did not win all sorts of awards – truly an amazing accomplishment. Congratulations to all involved.
As an aside: In one of the promos, I thought they seemed to (briefly) show Moscow (though I could be wrong), and even though Lara has not lived there, it was a bit of a surprise that this was not included. It was part of the 50 World Tour that she actually got to perform at, and it would have added a further very interesting geographic element to the program, especially given how enthusiastic her fans are there.
For those who haven’t gotten a chance to see it, note that it was co-produced by Club illico and TVA, which implies that TVA will ultimately make it available via some commercial product [see the end of the Journal of Montreal article below as verification of this]. It has gotten so much publicity, it is essentially a certainty it will be shown in all French-speaking countries (and I think it’s likely there will be a DVD as well).
Some short video segments are readily available, for example of Lara singing “Vision of Love” to karaoke-style can be seen at
www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRE74jLliI8
The segment (in Sicily) of Lara singing along with the Celine Dion song ‘Boundaries’ can be seen at:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=j3GNm8ipENk
Then Lara meeting with fans in Brussels and her breaking up afterwards
www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1233551573677496
The fan response, as indicated on social media, was extremely positive. Just picking one that popped up at random (and is representative of many):
Line Gadbois: “A very touching documentary. 😍💛🧡 Thank you Lara for opening the door and especially your heart without any modesty. I was upset to hear the upheavals of your artistic life. Wish u lots of love Congratulations Jean-Philippe for this exceptional editing. ❤”
The documentary has of course been noted in the press. First a more general article (https://www.en24news.com/2020/10/lara-a-documentary-on-lara-fabian-at-illico.html)
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LARA, a documentary on Lara Fabian at Illico
Initially scheduled for last April, the broadcast of LARA will have made more than one wait… Well now, starting October 15, Club Illico subscribers will finally be served.
Under the camera of Jean-François Fontaine, singer Lara Fabian generously lends herself to the lens, filmed around the world, but also in her privacy.
The film crew accompanied her to the New York premiere of the show, which was staged before coming to Montreal. We also follow her to Sicily, during a Christmas vacation spent with her husband, Gabriel.
A highlight for fans here, she lets us enter the privacy of her Montreal home, where she presents her daughter Lou for the first time.
A great moment of the documentary is also this tour which covered the evening of her 50th year birthday, on stage, in Brussels, in front of thousands of admirers.
Host Jean-Philippe Dion chats with Lara in the comfort of his residence. In particular, she will reveal to what extent, since always, those who love her and those who hate her do it for the same reasons.
Whether you’re a fan or not, this is a rich document and a great TV moment.
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Some of the revelations are discussed in articles on-line. Here’s one from www.journaldemontreal.com/2020/10/13/les-drames-de-lara-fabian?fbclid=IwAR1BQqHi9HyTLpgkq3kc14UjA_Z_CUMVaKnfM2ECVo80L0ad2pSXPPej4z8
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Lara Fabian’s dramas
Lara Fabian miscarried in 2017, when she was 47. The singer recounts this drama in Lara, an uncompromising documentary in which she opens up on several sensitive subjects, including Celine Dion.
Expected on Club illico Thursday, this film produced by Déferlantes (The Voice, The True Nature) paints a revealing portrait of the Belgian-Quebec artist as she goes on a world tour to mark her 50th anniversary.
For nearly an hour and a half, Lara Fabian opens up like never before, in an interview with Jean-Philippe Dion, as well as by letting the camera of director Jean-François Fontaine follow her around the world.
One of the most gripping segments of the documentary was captured in Sicily, while she was visiting her family. Supported by Gabriel Di Giorgio, her husband of the past 8 years, she recounts her painful day of March 22, 2017, when she participated in the commemorations of the Brussels attacks, which occurred 12 months earlier. In the space of a few hours, two pieces of news turned her world upside down: she learned that she was pregnant … with an unviable child.
“My baby had no heart,” says the singer, mother of a 12-year-old teenager, fighting back tears behind her dark glasses. “It’s a very strange anomaly.”
A short-circuited career/Rivalry with Celine Dion
Executive producer of the documentary, Jean-Philippe Dion does not hesitate to ask Lara Fabian “the real questions”, even when they concern more painful periods, such as her conquest of the American market, which ended abruptly at the beginning of the 2000s.
The reasons are multiple, insists the report, but reading between the lines, we understand that behind the scenes, the Celine Dion clan, who was also under contract with Sony Music, did not remain quiet in her corner.
To protect her assets and prevent another “vocal singer” from attacking the same market, Celine Dion‘s team played hard, very hard. Result: overnight, Lara Fabian was parachuted to another record company, surrounded by strangers who wanted to turn her into a pseudo dance diva.
In videoconference Tuesday afternoon to talk about the documentary, the main interested party [Lara] did not appear bitter in evoking this difficult period during which her American dream collapsed before her eyes. These are “the rules of the game,” she philosophized.
Even more, she thanks the sky for having been ejected from an environment that forced her to lose weight and change her image to respect a format.
“I don’t know how I would have gotten through this wringer. And believe me, it’s quite a wringer, ”she said.
In letting go mode
Very detailed, the documentary presents a Lara Fabian that we have never seen: a woman sometimes fragile, sometimes strong, sometimes funny, sometimes calm, but always frank and honest … with or without makeup.
Long-term fans will find their account there, just like the general public.
We like this Lara Fabian in a relaxed fashion. Hopefully she’s still in that state of mind when she takes charge of Star Academy this winter, as director.
The documentary Lara will be broadcast on RTL in Belgium. It could also be sold in France. Talks are underway, said Jean-Philippe Dion.
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You may remember that when Lara was signed by Columbia (which was then bought by Sony), Celine Dion took two years off from 2000 to 2002 to help look after her husband, who was diagnosed with throat cancer. Columbia thought they needed a replacement for her. When she came back, there was no room for Lara as a ‘singer of voice’. Thus, as Lara mentioned previously, it was not clear whether she was supposed to be singing “Adagio” or “I Will Love Again” at any particular media event – she was being pulled in two different directions. Finally, as the document notes, she was sent out to Los Angeles where they wanted her to be a ‘dance-diva’.
And there was this article (https://www.en24news.com/2020/10/lara-fabian-bursts-into-tears-in-moving-video.html):
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Lara Fabian bursts into tears in moving video
She returned to Quebec, since the start of the Covid-19 crisis, and failing to return in the next season of The Voice, in France, Lara Fabian is dedicated to projects that she can mount on the other side of the Atlantic. This is how she agreed to appear in an original documentary from the video on demand service Club Illico. In this format, she confides in Jean-Philippe Dion, and tells him in particular the influence that her parents had on her career. [Note - this is incorrect; Lara agreed to this way before the pandemic struck, otherwise there would have been no touring film to speak of].
If Lara Fabian has already explained in the past that it is thanks to her daddy, chimney sweep, who one day entrusted her with all his savings, that she used for her songs, the star also owes a lot to her mom …
Difficult mourning
Maria Luisa Serio died in March 2019, from Lewy body dementia, a neurodegenerative disease whose symptoms are similar to those of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.
It is of course with great emotion that Lara Fabian remembered the day she left their house. With tears in her eyes, and her voice trembling, the diva recounts: “I asked her permission to go away and I swear to you that she said, yet there were bits where she was there and bits where she was was not there, she turned to me and she said: ‘Ah, finally my life’, because she called me ‘my life’, ‘Finally my life, you are going to go back to a place where people have their arms wide open. ‘”
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Lara noted this on her Facebook and Instagram pages, showing this segment of the interview at
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/videos/654298838607767
or
http://instagram.com/p/CGcje0rBG7s
with the caption, “And your blessing will have allowed me to go home. Thank you Mom, I love you❤️ ′′
And then a comprehensive article at (https://www.lesoleil.com/arts/richard-therrien/quand-lara-fabian-dit-tout-d38fcd5d896c4a004def60604937f567?fbclid=IwAR0JBHlX4pem_6oB6Wu9d1rCjjatBMxz_M4l7OMhvCGLmVhXZ1xX1KC4bpM):
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When Lara Fabian says it all
CHRONICLE / We expect a rather nice documentary on the backstage of a tour, where Lara Fabian opens up about different moments of her career. And then, right off the bat, there are revelations about the false start of her American career in the early 2000s. On those who pulled the strings, leaving her in the dark. On this love of the time for a great producer, which made her lose her mind.
"I would go back and stick one back like my mother would have!" launches the singer on this last episode.
Lara , the 90-minute documentary available on Club illico from Thursday, is not just a vulgar promotional item or a souvenir album dedicated only to fans. The pretext: to take advantage of her international tour, on the occasion of her 50th birthday, to effectively retrace the thread of a fruitful career but strewn with long empty passages. Followed in several big cities by the cameras, the singer speaks as much of her good as of her bad times, aware of her mistakes but also of what she could not control. At 50, she feels more serene, able to analyze her choices with the hindsight of wisdom.
Lara is not a sad story, nor a shocking documentary. She returns to the dark episodes to better speak of rebirth, of this happiness obtained at the cost of many torments, of those precious moments spent with the family, here as in Sicily, where her husband, Gabriel di Giorgio comes from. Through the revelations, we witness snippets of her shows in New York, Paris, Brussels. But also snippets of her personal life, with her daughter Lou, now a teenager. When she misplaces her OPUS card to talk to her mother on the phone, while she is about to take the stage, let's say that it quickly brings you back to everyday things.
The singer, who will occupy the position of director at Star Académie this winter at TVA, also opens up about the couple she forms with her husband, 12 years her junior, an age difference that initially disturbed. We feel that she is irritated by this detail. "Why is there a validity date on our loves?" she asks. She confides on her marriage to the one she calls her beacon on the horizon, and on the child they could have had but that they lost during pregnancy, another revelation that came out over the confidences. Grief was difficult, but the singer's life would not have been the same; she would not have come to do The Voice in Quebec.
Asked about the most delicate subjects, Lara Fabian delivered. The singer does not have a hot seat served; interviewer and producer Jean-Philippe Dion is always kind to his questions. But the interviewee answers frankly, does not skimp on the revelations. We are making a documentary on a life, as well to reveal itself as never before.
Lara Fabian admits it: she trusted too much. Her flair has often misguided her. Like when she fell in love with record producer Walter Afanasieff, maker of serial hits for Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson. She admits having abandoned herself to him like a teenager, "having entered a sort of delirium", she says. The singer fell from a height, sinking into eating disorders. There is talk of her romantic and professional breakup with Rick Allison, her former manager, but we pass very quickly on the subject. "You fucked up so much Lara," she said to herself out loud at the end of her American adventure.
This is something that will come back often: Lara Fabian doesn't like what she sees in the mirror very much. But she has made progress over time and is now “almost beautiful”. At least she no longer apologizes for existing. Although we talk about it, it is the only requirement of the singer before approving the final product: to remove a few passages that she deemed redundant on this low self-esteem. For the rest, the Productions Déferlantes team was able to address all the questions it wanted.
I had forgotten that long period when the French took her as the head of the Turk. An outright demolition exercise. We hear Laurent Baffie calling her a blood sausage in the middle of the TV, Ardisson comparing her song to a howl, in front of her. The singer laughs about it today, but remembers coming back to the hotel defeated after the recording. You can criticize the work, make fun of someone; hitting the nail on physical appearance night after night, as the Guignols did at the time, is relentless. Karma does things right: all those old guard names that denigrated her are pretty much gone from TV today. And Lara Fabian is a coach at The Voice.
"Yes, I'm too much, yes, I'm intense, and I'll never apologize again."
- Lara Fabian
If we say everything, we can not ignore this famous rivalry with Celine Dion, in her opinion invented from nothing by the media, especially French. "This conflict is not mine," she said, aware that their two teams "had to elbow each other to keep everything in its place." Everything was set up for her to break into the American market with the song "Adagio", but at the last minute, she was changed record companies and instead made her sing a tune that was unlike her. "No one knew what I was anymore: the pseudo dance singer à la Cher, who sang I Will Love Again, or the girl with the emotional and dramatic dimension in Adagio." All that mattered was that she didn't play in Celine's flower beds.
“It is the name of the game. But when you're 27 or 28, you can't understand it. "
- Lara Fabian
Unpaid for months by a producer who would have swindled her, and with whom she had worked for three years, the singer had to cancel her concert in Bucharest in February. Nine months later, there is still nothing settled and she has filed a lawsuit against the individual, who has since been extinct in the wild. He even continued to organize Lara shows in Kazakhstan, Poland and the Czech Republic, going so far as to request cash advances.
You will not see the singer bursting forth as we have seen her often. Sure, eyes get wet when she brings up the death of her mother, who had lost her memory due to a neurodegenerative disease, but it will not be the only time. I challenge you not to do the same.
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There were numerous times when Lara was on talk shows in France when she was made the butt of continual jokes and slights; one wondered at the time why she put herself through it? On the program she seemed to be taking it in good graces, but we learn now that was just a ‘show’, and afterwards she suffered. When Jean-Philippe Dion discussed last week that ‘Acadamecians’ should watch this documentary to appreciate how difficult this profession is, clearly this is one segment that he had in mind.
Lara posted a letter from Joel Legendre (who appeared in the documentary) on her FB site. Here’s the translation:
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Dear Lara,
Finishing drama school my ultimate goal was to go to New York to audition so I could have the privilege of playing on Broadway. 35 years later, it's because of you that I find myself on the stage and behind the scenes of the legendary Beacon Theatre on Broadway! Savored every second spent in this theater located on this famous street in a city that's intoxicated... Thank you dear... Lara Fabian 50 for trusting me to stage your 50 World Tour through the world.
Here's an excerpt from the documentary that highlights all the unique and frank facets of my great friend, so inspiring. Produced by Jean-Philippe Dion and Martin Proulx at directed by Jean-François Fontaine and available on Club Illico: clubillico.videotron.com/.../nouvel.../1255381/Lara #larafabian
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The excerpt referred to can be seen at:
www.facebook.com/Legendrej/videos/2783670518579396/
Lara met with the press to discuss the article, for example, with “Salut Bonjour”, making many of these same points (https://www.salutbonjour.ca/2020/10/15/lara-fabian-se-devoile-dans-le-nouveau-documentaire-lara?fbclid=IwAR0N5yjKWiQBmjqVlvG95Oq_4viudT7tWJt8-z3TjFSM4FADH_5BknyOfnA). There was also an audio interview at (https://www.985fm.ca/audio/340037/catherine-beauchamp-18h15-1?fbclid=IwAR05ThF4tMuU-RmX4TFFO2M1dIMhcQt9XIHJ9k70ghSizvZKG2eIQ9qswLA).
A most extensive Lara gave was in the magazine “7 Jours”, where she appears on the cover:
www.facebook.com/magazine7Jours/photos/a.215281058499409/4001687853192025/
Here’s the translation (thanks to the “Par Amour” Facebook site for the scans):
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The Love of My Family Saved Me
With all the generosity that characterizes her, Lara Fabian consented to give us access to her intimately in the cadre of a release of a documentary on her personal and professional life. In this film, filmed by Jean-Philippe Dion and his team in the United States, in France, in Belgium and in Sicily, who put in the light unknown facets of a star adulated in Quebec and in foreign countries, we have the right of exclusive confidences.
Lara, by the end of the documentary, did you come away abandoning yourself with confidence?
Lara: Yes, because I had the luck of being well-supported. Jean-Philippe and his team followed me without being intrusive. They wanted to accompany me all through this tour around the world - of which I was the producer – which was at the same time an event to celebrate my 50 years. In the documentary, one realizes all that we do wearing so many caps. It is the human being that we see through the mother, the wife, the daughter, the singer and the producer.
How have you reacted in seeing the result?
Lara: There is always a part of me which regards itself with a certain reticence, but I have been amazed by the reaction of my family. For my daughter, I am her mother: she doesn’t regard me through the prism of an artist. Lou saw the documentary with my husband and didn’t leave her seat for a second. At the end of seeing it, she said to me something that I will never forget: “I didn’t imagine that you passed through all that and I understand better who you are.” It is as if she has caught in full view my professional dimension and what my life is when she isn’t there. At the hour of bedtime, we generally count our daily happinesses and we share the things less agreeable. That evening, she simply said to me that her greatest happiness, it was of having me at her side…
Across these imagines, one acknowledges at what point this career implies an important family sacrifice.
Lara: Absolutely. But even if I am submerged by some problems, as soon as I get up on stage, the magic operates. The fans are so marvelous!
You confided that to sing was your dream as a child and that it was even an obsession. Why?
Lara: Because nothing else interested me. Obsession means “to see in one direction only”. I only looked to sing.
We see how much work there has been done to get there…
Lara: I have often had the feeling that there is a great gap between that which people perceive of me and that which I really am. It is perhaps less true in Quebec than elsewhere. I have often experienced this diversion from who I am. I have perhaps sent bad signals, but there has also been malevolence. It is something that we see in the documentary. Sometimes, one said to me mean things just to see how I would react. Those who knew me have seen my heart break into a thousand pieces. I picked up and collected the pieces and told myself that it was necessary that I not lose sight of why I did this metier, that I incarnated in my heart, that which I wanted, that which I was.
This bullying lasted 10 years. Do you believe that one could still act thus today?
[Ed. Note: Lara confided in the documentary on the relentlessness with which she was victimized while, during 10 years, she had been the laughing stock of certain media and French humorists.)
Lara: No, one could not do it anymore. We have all our lot of pains – and for certain, they could be much deeper than those that I’ve traversed. But in my case, that built and nourished me. Strangely, that reconstituted me. Today, I am who I am.
When you evoke your time with Sony, you speak of a love relationship that was a bad choice. With hindsight, how do you explain it?
Lara: The challenge. It was necessary that I display colors that were a little less present in myself, but I told myself that I was going to have the chance to do it later. Bad choice. There are some compromises that I have never been capable of making, and I paid the price for it.
Is it a love addiction?
Lara: I’ve always dreamed of being a great accomplished lover. I’ve looked for that across many facets of my life. I’ve sometimes made some bad anchors.
With your husband, you form today a sold team. Have you reconciled that with love?
Lara: It’s true that that is based on the power of this team that we form with my daughter and Kayla, our small animal. We have feet well anchored in the earth. This great love saved me. This love of my daughter and of my husband made me traverse the most difficult things. I have never lost the view of this immense luck that I have of being loved by these beings.
Your husband seems to be looking very far on the horizon when he talks about your couple…
Lara: What girl on this earth has the absolute certainty that she will always be loved for who she is and across the metamorphoses that life can offer? Gabriel is sure of himself. That, that fixes all the little troubles of the soul and of the heart that life has perforated…
He reminds you of your mother in certain ways…
Lara: They are both Sicilians. But outside of the cultural aspect, their values, his loyalty, his righteousness, his sense of justice and his honesty recalls for me my mother. He is a man of his word. He has always done what he said he was going to do. And he makes me laugh. He is my best friend. He is the love of my life. He knows me perfectly…and he loves me nevertheless! (laughs)
You have been judged on your difference in age, while it is such an insignificant detail…
Lara: Happy, we are no longer in a time when that which isn’t common is not accepted. It’s been nine years since we met each other, Gabriel and me, there have been many adjustments. We asked ourselves how we were going to live with our difference of age, as if there is a generation between us…We are 12 years apart. For certain people, this worry was a form of benevolence, for others it was jealousy. I say it without rancor and without bitterness, but he permitted me to make a domestic life.
The documentary makes us travel with you notably in Sicily where you have a house.
Lara: Yes, we visit nonna (which means grandmother in Italian). To talk and eat pasta prepared by nonna as a family, it is a moment that is difficult to equal. It makes “climb the thermometer of happiness”!
Because your husband gave you a family life extraordinary and down there you are Lara Di Giorgio?
Lara: Yes, I am that lady Di Giorgio! (laughs). That this family welcomes me into its life, is for me a grand gesture of love and of confidence. We have an immense love one for another. It is a place where we deposit ourselves and where I can deposit myself with all that I am, perfectly imperfect. My papa had already left for Belgium when we filmed these images, but he was with us. It was a marvelous moment with my papa and the family of Gab. It was magical!
You moreover render homage to your father in underlining his contribution to your career.
Lara: I won my first contest thanks to him. I had the luck of being born into a good family, I have had this gift. Each day, I measure the heritage of my parents. In this difficult period where I can not go to visit him, I find that painful.
Is it difficult to not be able to give shows?
Lara: No. That which makes me sad, it is to see what humanity traverses. My situation is not unsustainable. I am well surrounded, and my father is in good health. I know that I have something immensely precious: the love of a family. That permits me to traverse the biggest waves and, still today, I know that when I find myself in the deepest hole and when I get lost, I can count on it.
Lou, your daughter, does she manifest some talent for music?
Lara: Yes, she loves music, but it isn’t something that she has desired to incarnate, and I respect that. In the "Lockdown sessions" that I’ve made, she has given me the joy of singing with me.
Considering the circumstances, does everybody actually profit from your presence at home?
Lara: Yes, and me I profit from the presence of everybody! (laughs)
In route towards the Star Academie
After her experience in the red chair while being a coach on La Voix, Lara Fabian will occupy the seat as director of Star Academie this winter. A post which makes her very proud since she already dreamed of opening a school and of giving some courses in the future.
Lara, what led you to accept the post as director of the Academie?
Lara: Before all, I think that it is the human dimension of the adventure in which I am going to be able to implicate myself which motivated my choice. I must admit that in the beginning, the word “director” was a term with which I had a bit of trouble. I found that it was something authoritative and it was far from me. But after having spoken to Jean-Philippe Dion, I saw things differently. I am the leader of a team. And what motivates me above all, it is to help young talents, to enable me to connect to the human and to accompany that person in this voyage thanks to my 30 years of experience.
What genre of director will you be?
Lara: Before all I am going to be an ear, a heart connected to the person that I have in front of me. I am going to be one who will never have any problem with all that one will have the desire to confide and I am going to assure myself that the alignment between the human and the artist is made. I am going to be empathetic, a little mother, a little big sister. I am going to be very much a listener.
You dreamed of opening eventually a school of singing…With Star Academie, you are approaching a little of your dream…
Lara: It is fully, I think that, in some part, I have “automanifested” that which I wanted. To be director of Star Academie, it is a step, in effect, in that sense.
The last winter, you were coach on The Voice in France. What memories do you keep of this experience, and have you voluntarily refused to do another season in order to be in Star Academie?
Lara: I’ve kept of it a marvelous memory, and the coach in me is always there. But with all that is has passed and the borders which are closed, I preferred to remain here, at home, in Quebec. And I knew that I would have some beautiful projects if I remain here.
Is it that you are equally going to give some courses at the Star Academie?
Lara: My first objective will be to create some links with the academicians as director. Bit it is certain that I would well love to participate in the courses of our fabulous professors. The creative side interests me and calls out to me a lot.
Have you other projects to come?
Lara: Yes, I have an experimental project which is going to be released soon. It will be the "Lockdown sessions" that I did during the confinement. It is very particular as a project. It will be 12 experimental voyages where I have utilized my voice and where I read some mantras. I have used my voice and my creativity with an absolute liberty. Otherwise, my 50 World Tour will be taken up again with pleasure next year. I am very excited to find my public again!
Lara and Jean-Philippe
A relationship of confidence
Jean-Philippe Dion has had the privilege of collecting the confidences of Lara and, from all evidence, the confidence was met. “My relationship with Lara was constructed through the course of time, the animator said to us, recently gratified by a Gemeaux. What was most marked for me was to see her sincerity. One sees her with her family, one sees her without makeup. She delivers herself without filter, to such a point that it can be destabilizing. Sometimes I was no longer in the interview mode: I became a spectator impressed by what I heard. As I had the desire that she be satisfied by the final result, I sent to her the documentary, and she didn’t change anything. That, that made me very proud! I was afraid that she would regret certain confidences, but that wasn’t the case. It is necessary to say that we have had access to many moments of very hard truths, but Lara accepted to present herself as is. I found particularly interesting the passage on the United States. Her career was truly big! But Lara fell in love with a bad man. One sees the reverse of décor. One understands finally that the higher you are, the more you are alone…The documentary shows it to us in a different light. One acknowledges that she has certainly surmounted some obstacles…Moreover, this documentary is going to influence her role as director of Star Academie; she will be able to share with the others the pitfalls that she has surmounted during her career.
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Another of the many great interviews Lara has given throughout her career; and kudos to the questioner (Michele Lemieux) for the insightful probes into Lara’s thinking.
With regard to the 50 World Tour that she mentions “taking up again with pleasure”, this morning Lara added three more dates in France to the tour resumption in June, as seen at
www.facebook.com/larafabianofficial/photos/a.622966977744803/4617125624995565/
As this now violates her “no more than 12 days away from home” dictum, keeping her in Europe for some 20 straight days, it would imply she plans to bring her family with her, which would also give them a chance to visit her father in Belgium. This, of course, assumes that the virus will be under control by then, an assumption that is widely held by businesses; for example, in the U.S., many major companies have told their employees to expect to return next summer (e.g., www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/technology/offices-reopening-delay-coronavirus.html). Let’s hope this turns out to be true!
The interesting photo(s) of the week : first from the Lara documentary, Lara with her parents as posted by the Lara Fabian Netherlands FB site, at
www.facebook.com/LaraFabianTheNetherlands/photos/a.147591376786267/220589429486461/
Then from the “7 Jours” article, posted by the “Lara Fabian - L’etoile des anges” FB site,
www.facebook.com/Nathalie.caille.ange/photos/a.712979215450076/3816095935138373/
One imagines that the ramifications of the “Lara” documentary will still continue to resound in the coming week(s), while Lara continues with her job as ‘director’ of the Star Academy. She mentioned that the “Lockdown sessions” work will soon be released, so one imagines she might well have some work to do for that as well. Hopefully she – and you – will stay well.
David
