Post by davidhr on May 10, 2022 6:04:50 GMT -5
A week with sadness for Lara. She was in mourning, due to the death of a close friend. She posted on her Instagram site the following picture:
with the caption, “I will always love you, ....may this last journey guide you to the eternity of love you deserve."
Although she didn’t mention the woman by name (for some reason), fans noted that she was referring to Lise Richard, who was her first manager and agent. Here’s an article about it (https://showbizz.net/stars/lara-fabian-en-deuil):
-----------------------------
Lara Fabian in mourning
She loses a precious friend.
This Friday, Lara Fabian posted a photo on Instagram that she accompanied with the following text: “ I will always love you, ….may this last journey guide you to the eternity of love you deserve.
By browsing the comments under the publication, we understand that it is about Lise Richard, a woman who was the agent of the singer and a great friend for many years.
In the pages of 7Jours magazine , Lara Fabian said that Lise Richard was the one who gave her her first chance. “Lise is first and foremost an exceptional woman. I would even say that I was very much in contact with the maternal side that she inspired. She was the mother of two young daughters whom she left for long periods to come with me around the world. So, by extension, she became my big sister”, she confided in 2021.
Several Quebec personalities and members of the public offered their deepest condolences to the director of the academy. We do the same.
---------------------------------
Lise Richard was instrumental in Lara’s first few albums in Quebec. As discussed in an article at (lara-fabian.pagesperso-orange.fr/montreal2.htm), when Lara started her record company, LES PRODUCTIONS CLANDESTINES in 1998, Lise was its president. She had started in the music business 20 years earlier at Trans Canada. You may remember the story, of her first interaction with Lara. Rick Allison had given her a tape of their songs, and she was so impressed with them, that she signed Lara to a contract without ever having seen her. She said to Rick, “I hope she looks like she sings”, imagining the worst
. When she did get to meet Lara she was greatly relieved!
As noted by the publication (https://seorevo.com/lara-fabians-memorial-to-the-death-of-a-loved-one-her-heartbreaking-compliment/), these were some comments left for Lara by fans:
“Not Lise”, “Courage”, “Sorry from the bottom of my heart”, “I had a chance to get to know her for a while, but she is a very elegant woman.“Four years from Maurane’s death to almost that day … these damn dates coming back”, “Lize will watch over her daughter from there.”. These words give Lara Fabian a balm of heart. I would like to express my deepest condolences to her”.
And as indicated, her death (on May 5) comes almost four years to the day from Maurane’s death (May 7, 2018)). This time of year will henceforth be one of true sadness and memory for Lara.
On the brighter side, Lara was featured on the cover and in an interview of the publication Osez Lire, a journal devoted to reading (https://osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=1) [thanks to the Lara Fabian Lockdown Sessions FB site for the link]:
----------------------------------
The Music of Words
Samuel Pradier
Singer with a golden voice, Lara Fabian has conquered the world and sold over 20 million records worldwide. Since her debut, she is also the author of her own songs. Although she has never put forward this aspect of her work, she knows how to handle words with poetry and lyricism. She has written timeless songs that resonate in the heads of millions of people. With her usual generosity, she agreed to talk to us about writing, reading and creating.
The act of writing, of putting one's emotions or thoughts on a sheet of paper is not trivial. Like many teenagers, Lara Fabian felt this impulse at the time of the passage to adulthood. "I have this habit of writing since I was very young. I needed to tell my story in a journal. I think I needed to transmute what was hurting me. It was a way for me to transcend suffering."
The teenager then puts on paper her moods, her feelings and her daily life. "The writing was fundamental in this experience. However, I didn't only write about what hurt me, I could also write about my happier days. In the process of telling your story, you don't necessarily reveal only the darker side."
Her precious documents still exist, they sleep in a cellar, but are never reopened. "I never open them again. I'm not a nostalgic person, I'm a girl who always looks ahead, to the future."
A Natural Gesture
The songwriting came later, when the young woman was to have a career in the music business. If you don't write a song like you write your diary, the structure came naturally to Lara Fabian. "The way of writing a song has always been guided by the melody. I usually start by looking at the melody. It is the music that has always been the birth of the prosody [NB: the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry], the rhyme or the story. It always starts with the melody that runs through me, and then I find the message that it carries in it. The deciphering of the music is done naturally by the assembly of the words and the text.
In her recent book, 'Je passe a table', a sort of culinary autobiography, Lara Fabian tells how she wrote many of her greatest hits, while some aspects of her life seemed to be in tatters. "What makes the most beautiful songs is often the ugliest and most difficult. When it's a conscious, intellectual gesture, it's usually the music that flows through me, and then I develop the text. The music brings an intention that becomes the text."
Although it may seem easy and spontaneous, everyone knows that there is nothing easy about creation. "Sometimes things are more fluid, because they are already transformed in my head. I've already worked out in my brain how I want to tell the story, but there's nothing easy about writing. it's a real commitment."
The writing of her book, however, was different. "It wasn't the same, because they weren't songs. For a book, you listen to the voice inside you that rises to revive a memory. For me, soliciting my memory triggered the story that could be articulated with immense simplicity through my desire to tell my story. The most difficult thing was certainly to recapture the emotions of the moment when I lived them."
A Discrete Approach
After more than thirty years of career, writing is still an intimate process for Lara Fabian. "I write when there's an album in preparation, but I can also get down to the nitty gritty. It is still, for me, a way to evacuate. However, it's not a daily exercise, it's only when I need it."
Throughout her career, which has taken her from the United States to Russia, through the Belgian plains and the regions of France, Lara Fabian has never wanted to put forward her status as a singer-songwriter. A choice that she explains by several reasons as personal as circumstantial.
"I think it's a question of generation. In the one to which I belong and in which I appeared musically, women, especially those who were preceded by their voice, did not aim to be songwriters, and if they did, they did not necessarily mention it, they did not put it forward."
Even though it was obvious to her that she expressed with her voice all her torments, doubts and inner questionings, she never felt like claiming the motherhood of her powerful and often so autobiographical texts. Precisely because it was an obviousness. "I have always expressed my voice through my thoughts, it has always been like that. I never thought it was necessary to say it. On the other hand, if some people saw it and wanted to make themselves messengers, they didn't do it because, on principle, a girl who sings, and sings well, it was already enough. She should not write her own songs."
Fortunately, the situation has changed a lot today for women who can now have divine voices, write their own songs, and position themselves as singer-songwriters.
Transmissions
Directress of Star Academie for a second year, after having been a coach for several years at La Voix in Quebec and in France, Lara Fabian is in the process of passing on her knowledge. She explains: "In writing, there is a liberation, but it is also a great autonomy for the artists. In addition, it is obvious that one does not sing a song in the same way if one has written it oneself. If someone gives me a song, my interpretation will be adapted to the meaning of what was written for me. Anyway, each song is incompatible in terms of interpretation with another. I don't sing Saisir le jour in the same way as Je t’aime.
She also wishes to transmit the desire to write their own songs to young artists in the making. "Last year, someone already had this role with the Academicians. I would never want to step on anyone's toes. I could do a kind of bootcamp in my own way, but it's still the same thing. It's all about knowing yourself before you tell someone in a song what you haven't dared to tell yet. For me, writing is sometimes about having the courage to ask yourself the right questions.
The Gift of Reading
Since her youth, Lara Fabian has had a passion for languages. The Italian of her birth (she spent the first five years of her life in Sicily), the French of adoption (learned when her family moved to Belgium), English and Spanish are languages she masters fluently. "When I was younger, I mostly had a love of languages. I have always loved words whether it was in French, Italian or English. I write mainly in French and English. I have only written a few songs in Italian, because it is a singular language in relation to a universal market, and it is not towards this path that my trajectory has been directed.
Reading has also been important throughout her journey, a process that was initiated by her beloved mother. "She used to say that if you read even ten pages a day, you'd go to bed less stupid, and she was right." Since the family was not rich, she would get books for parties and birthdays. At that time, the book lending between friends was in full swing. "We also went to the library often because we were not rich. The money for the books was put on the table."
After all these years, she has kept this habit, even though she says she is not a great reader. "For me, a great reader is someone who reads a book a day, or at least three or four a week. I read about two books a month depending on how much time I have. I find it a very isolating activity. You pick up a book and you're not there for anyone. You're in the story, like in a bubble. So it takes time."
She often makes her reading choices based on recommendations from family and friends, or because she wants to know more about a particular subject. "I also love to walk into a bookstore and let myself be carried away. I have two great pleasures which are going to the grocery store and to a bookstore. At the moment, I'm a lot on Gunter Pauli's books, like 'Soyons aussi intelligents que la nature'. He is an extraordinary author, someone who is finally talking about ecology in the right way. I recently reread old novels by Christiane Singer. 'Du bon usage des crises' is a magnificent book. I also very much liked 'King Kong theorie' of Virginie Despentes. I have some quite eclectic tastes.”
Lara Fabian hopes to have also transmitted this taste for reading to her daughter Lou, who is now 15 years old. "I'm not sure I have a lot of weight. She's part of a generation where there has to be instant gratification and shortened time. Let's just say she ‘tiktoks’ a lot. But I think it will come because I see that she loves words, like me. She also writes very nice things, but first she has to define herself."
Lara's Choices
Which author have you read the most?
I would most certainly say Marie Laberge with in particular 'Juillet' and the trilogy 'Le Tout du bonheur' (Gabrielle, Adelaide and Florent). I also read a lot of classics.
Your Classic of classics?
I would say 'Les Fleurs du mal' by Charles Baudelaire. I also adore 'Madame Bovary', by Gustave Flaubert.
What book have you most often given away?
'Juillet' by Marie Laberge because we all need a good slap in the face from time to time (laughs).
The book your daughter made you discover?
It is a Japanese manga series called 'Demon Slayer', drawn by Koyoharu Gotouge.
The book in a foreign language that you recommend?
'La amiga estupenda', which was translated under the title "L'Amie prodigieuse" by Elene Ferrante, but I read the original version in Italian.
Which book have you read the most?
I don't read the same books. I'm going to go back to it, leaf through it, read a few passages, but that's all.
Your latest literary discovery?
'Contrecoup', Marie Laberge's latest novel, of course!
----------------------------------
Nice interview, focusing on the literary quality of Lara’s work and interests - made more apparent by her recent book. As we all know, and discussed here, Lara's songwriting is generally overlooked, especially the lyrics. Her comment that it was not accepted in her generation is much more a 'French' (and perhaps European) thing - Joni Mitchell was writing songs, and was well-known for it, decades earlier in the States, and she was not the only woman to do so. [This would seem to relate back to the lack of respect for women noted in the article included in the last News Updates].
[Ps – after including this, I noticed that the 'Lara Fabian the Netherlands' FB site has also provided an English translation of the article, so one can find it there as well. Thanks to them for doing that…].
In other news, it turns out that Star Academie will get a new incarnation in France this coming year. It’s discussed at (https://www.lavenir.net/culture/tele/2022/05/04/star-academy-sur-tf1-voici-a-quoi-va-sans-doute-ressembler-la-nouvelle-version-SLGOQJSBSFHTHOAVALFVC5GNU4/?utm_medium=SocialALLFB&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3Ck3V1Oi1C2s2vYLet13HXV9-hx4ETSiwfH5SMWCYPDHdyz8Wvxr_Gdk8#Echobox=1651646616) (thanks to the Lara Fabian est ton autre FB site for the link):
------------------------
"Star Academy" on TF1: this is what the new version will (probably) look like
Back 22 years after its launch on TF1, the "Star Academy" should again be carried by Nikos Aliagas.
TF1 officially announced it last Tuesday evening during "Koh-Lanta": the casting for the next season of "Star Academy" is open. Fourteen years after having lowered the curtain on the French private channel, and nine years after having made an ephemeral passage on NRJ12, the reality TV show will therefore indeed make a comeback, more than twenty years after its launch.
But what do we already know about this "Star Ac'" 2.0? Attempt to answer.
Produced by Endemol France and DMLSTV (which notably produces "Les Enfoirés"), the new "Star Academy" should be broadcast at the start of the next school year.
In the wake of the ultimate castings, which will be filmed at the end of the summer in the auditorium of TF1, the program could thus be launched in October, assure several sources.
According to "Le Parisien", always very well informed about TF1 reality TV shows, the new edition of "Star Academy" will not last as long (four months) as the first seasons.
"It will certainly be around ten to twelve weeks," said an employee of the French channel on the "Parisien" site.
Shortened, the 2022 season of the "Star Ac'" will then undoubtedly give way to the Football World Cup, broadcast from the end of November.
Nikos Aliagas at the presentation
Because he is inseparable from the program, Nikos Aliagas will certainly present the next season of "Star Academy".
"It's a guarantee of security. Nikos knows the show, he has easy contact with French and international artists, he knows how to manage the unexpected", estimates one of his relatives in "Le Parisien".
Return announced at the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys
Still according to "Le Parisien", the candidates for the next "Star Academy" should once again be coached in an "emblematic place" of the program. Which means that the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys will (probably) also host the TF1 program.
Theater of the progress of Jenifer, Nolwenn Leroy or Grégory Lemarchal, the general appearance of the castle may surprise more than one viewer since the estate has undergone major renovation work.
New teachers recruited
As for the teachers, forget Armande Altaï and other Kamel Ouali, TF1 is looking for new faces.
On the management side, the production of the "Star Academy" hopes to attract an internationally renowned celebrity. An artist like Mika, for example, who has already held the role of artistic director of the same show in Quebec. Or Lara Fabian, already director of the Canadian version of "Star Academy".
Probably rarer stars
If they hope to land a world star to sponsor this new season, the producers of the future "Star Academy" should have more difficulty in attracting big names in international music. And this, in particular due to reduced budgets.
Result of the races: the show should rather rely on French and European stars.
A daily in question
One question remains: how will TF1 schedule the daily "Star Academy" without disrupting its already busy schedule?
If a broadcast exclusively on the internet seems to have been ruled out, it is difficult to know much more about the projects of the private channel. The only certainty advanced by "Le Parisien": the daily will not replace the series "Ici tout commence" et "Demain nous appartient".
-----------------------------
Including Lara’s name in the list of prospective candidates for ‘the management side’ doesn’t imply she would really take the position if offered; in fact, if the program is to premier in October, she will definitely not be involved, as she has concerts throughout France and other places that month. However, if she were only needed for November onward, it might be a way to regain the attention of the French public.
And continuing with this European theme, the Lara Fabian Lockdown Sessions FB site posted a link to the following article (https://www.sudinfo.be/id460572/article/2022-05-06/un-fame-belge-lecole-de-chant-et-de-comedie-musicale-du-coach-vocal-de-lara?utm_campaign=pushs&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fb_page_cinetelerevue&fbclid=IwAR3JM0-BTG9XphK1ROnF4x_jq5RuixlVBM1n9SIo1bOFQrOk3Wbmrvu4W20):
------------------------------
A Belgian “Fame”: the school of singing and musical comedy of the vocal coach of Lara Fabian opens a campus in Brussels of which the singer will be the godmother
By Frederic Will
Signed Ciné-Télé-Revue
The Belgian Pierre-Yves Duchesne, considered a giant in this field, is carrying out a project that has been close to his heart for a long time.
Founder in Paris of AICOM, the International Academy of Musical Comedy, which is part of the School Of Arts group, the Belgian Pierre-Yves Duchesne , who has been Lara Fabian's vocal coach for 15 years , is back in his country! AICOM will open its campus in Brussels in September 2022, more precisely in Uccle, rue Vanderkindere. A kind of Belgian “Fame”. "It's a project I had had for 10 years," says Pierre-Yves Duchesne. “We weren't welcomed directly, which upset me a bit, but things finally worked out, maybe because there was the Star Academy in Quebec with Lara.”
As the school's godmother, Lara Fabian will be present to support the artists of the first class. “When I do something, Lara is always there to support me, to give masterclasses. It's a real duo which is all the more solid in that we also plan to launch something else at an international level. This campus in Brussels is the beginning of something even bigger that we should be able to announce in September.”
Want to join these courses? Pierre-Yves Duchesne will chair on May 21 in Brussels, at the Warwick Hotel, an entrance examination to integrate the school and obtain a scholarship. Info and registration on aicombruxelles.com, by email at contact@aicomparis.com or by telephone on +33 145 23 52 69. “I will also be offering a completely free masterclass on the same day.”
AICOM has had a solid reputation for nearly 20 years. Its teams have trained performers for the most popular shows, such as "The Lion King", "Mamma Mia", "Chicago", "Grease", "Résiste". The Brussels school will offer unique multidisciplinary training in singing, dancing and theatre, with two professional courses (musical comedy and singing), several classes from its Junior Academy (dedicated to young people aged 7 to 18), as well as Leisure Courses (evening and weekend courses for adults). “Professional training will be 9 hours per week and will be preparatory to the bachelor's degree for AICOM in Paris. It's more convenient for people in Brussels to get an idea of what it's like without having to rent an apartment directly in Paris or make daily trips to the French capital. It will allow them to gauge, since it will be with the same teachers, the same pedagogy.”
And what qualities should the students have? "For children and leisure classes, you just have to want to have fun. For professional training, you have to have the combativeness and the desire to work 9 hours a week, intensively, in three disciplines as complex as singing, dancing and theatre." Himself a musical artist (“Les Misérables”, “Cats”, “The Phantom of the Opera”…) and director, Pierre-Yves Duchesne is also an internationally renowned vocal coach. Besides Lara Fabian, he works with Amir or Agustin Galiana, to name a few. It uses the PY 3.14 method. “It's a singing method that is not an imposed technique. It is a succession of tools to allow a voice to flourish naturally, with its signature, without imposing formatting. This is what allows artists like Amir or Lara Fabian to do 150 concerts a year and to sing for two hours without ever getting tired, because we don't try to divert the natural timbre of the voice.”
-----------------------
Again this implies a potential European presence for Lara in the coming year. We’ll know more when we hear about the international aspects of what they have in mind in September.
Interesting photo(s)/video(s) of the week:
From the ‘Osez lire’ article, a nice picture of Lara and Gabriel:
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=18
and a nice picture of Lara laying on her bed, reading
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=20
Finally, a beautiful picture of Lara (and her choices) (also posted by the Lara Fabian the Netherlands FB site):
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=22
So far Lara has remained in the news, post-Star Academie and pre-Quebec concerts, for both good and unfortunate reasons. More of the former and less of the latter, please!
Stay safe, everybody,
David
http://instagram.com/p/CdPKWhwro2i
with the caption, “I will always love you, ....may this last journey guide you to the eternity of love you deserve."
Although she didn’t mention the woman by name (for some reason), fans noted that she was referring to Lise Richard, who was her first manager and agent. Here’s an article about it (https://showbizz.net/stars/lara-fabian-en-deuil):
-----------------------------
Lara Fabian in mourning
She loses a precious friend.
This Friday, Lara Fabian posted a photo on Instagram that she accompanied with the following text: “ I will always love you, ….may this last journey guide you to the eternity of love you deserve.
By browsing the comments under the publication, we understand that it is about Lise Richard, a woman who was the agent of the singer and a great friend for many years.
In the pages of 7Jours magazine , Lara Fabian said that Lise Richard was the one who gave her her first chance. “Lise is first and foremost an exceptional woman. I would even say that I was very much in contact with the maternal side that she inspired. She was the mother of two young daughters whom she left for long periods to come with me around the world. So, by extension, she became my big sister”, she confided in 2021.
Several Quebec personalities and members of the public offered their deepest condolences to the director of the academy. We do the same.
---------------------------------
Lise Richard was instrumental in Lara’s first few albums in Quebec. As discussed in an article at (lara-fabian.pagesperso-orange.fr/montreal2.htm), when Lara started her record company, LES PRODUCTIONS CLANDESTINES in 1998, Lise was its president. She had started in the music business 20 years earlier at Trans Canada. You may remember the story, of her first interaction with Lara. Rick Allison had given her a tape of their songs, and she was so impressed with them, that she signed Lara to a contract without ever having seen her. She said to Rick, “I hope she looks like she sings”, imagining the worst
. When she did get to meet Lara she was greatly relieved! As noted by the publication (https://seorevo.com/lara-fabians-memorial-to-the-death-of-a-loved-one-her-heartbreaking-compliment/), these were some comments left for Lara by fans:
“Not Lise”, “Courage”, “Sorry from the bottom of my heart”, “I had a chance to get to know her for a while, but she is a very elegant woman.“Four years from Maurane’s death to almost that day … these damn dates coming back”, “Lize will watch over her daughter from there.”. These words give Lara Fabian a balm of heart. I would like to express my deepest condolences to her”.
And as indicated, her death (on May 5) comes almost four years to the day from Maurane’s death (May 7, 2018)). This time of year will henceforth be one of true sadness and memory for Lara.
On the brighter side, Lara was featured on the cover and in an interview of the publication Osez Lire, a journal devoted to reading (https://osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=1) [thanks to the Lara Fabian Lockdown Sessions FB site for the link]:
----------------------------------
The Music of Words
Samuel Pradier
Singer with a golden voice, Lara Fabian has conquered the world and sold over 20 million records worldwide. Since her debut, she is also the author of her own songs. Although she has never put forward this aspect of her work, she knows how to handle words with poetry and lyricism. She has written timeless songs that resonate in the heads of millions of people. With her usual generosity, she agreed to talk to us about writing, reading and creating.
The act of writing, of putting one's emotions or thoughts on a sheet of paper is not trivial. Like many teenagers, Lara Fabian felt this impulse at the time of the passage to adulthood. "I have this habit of writing since I was very young. I needed to tell my story in a journal. I think I needed to transmute what was hurting me. It was a way for me to transcend suffering."
The teenager then puts on paper her moods, her feelings and her daily life. "The writing was fundamental in this experience. However, I didn't only write about what hurt me, I could also write about my happier days. In the process of telling your story, you don't necessarily reveal only the darker side."
Her precious documents still exist, they sleep in a cellar, but are never reopened. "I never open them again. I'm not a nostalgic person, I'm a girl who always looks ahead, to the future."
A Natural Gesture
The songwriting came later, when the young woman was to have a career in the music business. If you don't write a song like you write your diary, the structure came naturally to Lara Fabian. "The way of writing a song has always been guided by the melody. I usually start by looking at the melody. It is the music that has always been the birth of the prosody [NB: the patterns of rhythm and sound used in poetry], the rhyme or the story. It always starts with the melody that runs through me, and then I find the message that it carries in it. The deciphering of the music is done naturally by the assembly of the words and the text.
In her recent book, 'Je passe a table', a sort of culinary autobiography, Lara Fabian tells how she wrote many of her greatest hits, while some aspects of her life seemed to be in tatters. "What makes the most beautiful songs is often the ugliest and most difficult. When it's a conscious, intellectual gesture, it's usually the music that flows through me, and then I develop the text. The music brings an intention that becomes the text."
Although it may seem easy and spontaneous, everyone knows that there is nothing easy about creation. "Sometimes things are more fluid, because they are already transformed in my head. I've already worked out in my brain how I want to tell the story, but there's nothing easy about writing. it's a real commitment."
The writing of her book, however, was different. "It wasn't the same, because they weren't songs. For a book, you listen to the voice inside you that rises to revive a memory. For me, soliciting my memory triggered the story that could be articulated with immense simplicity through my desire to tell my story. The most difficult thing was certainly to recapture the emotions of the moment when I lived them."
A Discrete Approach
After more than thirty years of career, writing is still an intimate process for Lara Fabian. "I write when there's an album in preparation, but I can also get down to the nitty gritty. It is still, for me, a way to evacuate. However, it's not a daily exercise, it's only when I need it."
Throughout her career, which has taken her from the United States to Russia, through the Belgian plains and the regions of France, Lara Fabian has never wanted to put forward her status as a singer-songwriter. A choice that she explains by several reasons as personal as circumstantial.
"I think it's a question of generation. In the one to which I belong and in which I appeared musically, women, especially those who were preceded by their voice, did not aim to be songwriters, and if they did, they did not necessarily mention it, they did not put it forward."
Even though it was obvious to her that she expressed with her voice all her torments, doubts and inner questionings, she never felt like claiming the motherhood of her powerful and often so autobiographical texts. Precisely because it was an obviousness. "I have always expressed my voice through my thoughts, it has always been like that. I never thought it was necessary to say it. On the other hand, if some people saw it and wanted to make themselves messengers, they didn't do it because, on principle, a girl who sings, and sings well, it was already enough. She should not write her own songs."
Fortunately, the situation has changed a lot today for women who can now have divine voices, write their own songs, and position themselves as singer-songwriters.
Transmissions
Directress of Star Academie for a second year, after having been a coach for several years at La Voix in Quebec and in France, Lara Fabian is in the process of passing on her knowledge. She explains: "In writing, there is a liberation, but it is also a great autonomy for the artists. In addition, it is obvious that one does not sing a song in the same way if one has written it oneself. If someone gives me a song, my interpretation will be adapted to the meaning of what was written for me. Anyway, each song is incompatible in terms of interpretation with another. I don't sing Saisir le jour in the same way as Je t’aime.
She also wishes to transmit the desire to write their own songs to young artists in the making. "Last year, someone already had this role with the Academicians. I would never want to step on anyone's toes. I could do a kind of bootcamp in my own way, but it's still the same thing. It's all about knowing yourself before you tell someone in a song what you haven't dared to tell yet. For me, writing is sometimes about having the courage to ask yourself the right questions.
The Gift of Reading
Since her youth, Lara Fabian has had a passion for languages. The Italian of her birth (she spent the first five years of her life in Sicily), the French of adoption (learned when her family moved to Belgium), English and Spanish are languages she masters fluently. "When I was younger, I mostly had a love of languages. I have always loved words whether it was in French, Italian or English. I write mainly in French and English. I have only written a few songs in Italian, because it is a singular language in relation to a universal market, and it is not towards this path that my trajectory has been directed.
Reading has also been important throughout her journey, a process that was initiated by her beloved mother. "She used to say that if you read even ten pages a day, you'd go to bed less stupid, and she was right." Since the family was not rich, she would get books for parties and birthdays. At that time, the book lending between friends was in full swing. "We also went to the library often because we were not rich. The money for the books was put on the table."
After all these years, she has kept this habit, even though she says she is not a great reader. "For me, a great reader is someone who reads a book a day, or at least three or four a week. I read about two books a month depending on how much time I have. I find it a very isolating activity. You pick up a book and you're not there for anyone. You're in the story, like in a bubble. So it takes time."
She often makes her reading choices based on recommendations from family and friends, or because she wants to know more about a particular subject. "I also love to walk into a bookstore and let myself be carried away. I have two great pleasures which are going to the grocery store and to a bookstore. At the moment, I'm a lot on Gunter Pauli's books, like 'Soyons aussi intelligents que la nature'. He is an extraordinary author, someone who is finally talking about ecology in the right way. I recently reread old novels by Christiane Singer. 'Du bon usage des crises' is a magnificent book. I also very much liked 'King Kong theorie' of Virginie Despentes. I have some quite eclectic tastes.”
Lara Fabian hopes to have also transmitted this taste for reading to her daughter Lou, who is now 15 years old. "I'm not sure I have a lot of weight. She's part of a generation where there has to be instant gratification and shortened time. Let's just say she ‘tiktoks’ a lot. But I think it will come because I see that she loves words, like me. She also writes very nice things, but first she has to define herself."
Lara's Choices
Which author have you read the most?
I would most certainly say Marie Laberge with in particular 'Juillet' and the trilogy 'Le Tout du bonheur' (Gabrielle, Adelaide and Florent). I also read a lot of classics.
Your Classic of classics?
I would say 'Les Fleurs du mal' by Charles Baudelaire. I also adore 'Madame Bovary', by Gustave Flaubert.
What book have you most often given away?
'Juillet' by Marie Laberge because we all need a good slap in the face from time to time (laughs).
The book your daughter made you discover?
It is a Japanese manga series called 'Demon Slayer', drawn by Koyoharu Gotouge.
The book in a foreign language that you recommend?
'La amiga estupenda', which was translated under the title "L'Amie prodigieuse" by Elene Ferrante, but I read the original version in Italian.
Which book have you read the most?
I don't read the same books. I'm going to go back to it, leaf through it, read a few passages, but that's all.
Your latest literary discovery?
'Contrecoup', Marie Laberge's latest novel, of course!
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Nice interview, focusing on the literary quality of Lara’s work and interests - made more apparent by her recent book. As we all know, and discussed here, Lara's songwriting is generally overlooked, especially the lyrics. Her comment that it was not accepted in her generation is much more a 'French' (and perhaps European) thing - Joni Mitchell was writing songs, and was well-known for it, decades earlier in the States, and she was not the only woman to do so. [This would seem to relate back to the lack of respect for women noted in the article included in the last News Updates].
[Ps – after including this, I noticed that the 'Lara Fabian the Netherlands' FB site has also provided an English translation of the article, so one can find it there as well. Thanks to them for doing that…].
In other news, it turns out that Star Academie will get a new incarnation in France this coming year. It’s discussed at (https://www.lavenir.net/culture/tele/2022/05/04/star-academy-sur-tf1-voici-a-quoi-va-sans-doute-ressembler-la-nouvelle-version-SLGOQJSBSFHTHOAVALFVC5GNU4/?utm_medium=SocialALLFB&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR3Ck3V1Oi1C2s2vYLet13HXV9-hx4ETSiwfH5SMWCYPDHdyz8Wvxr_Gdk8#Echobox=1651646616) (thanks to the Lara Fabian est ton autre FB site for the link):
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"Star Academy" on TF1: this is what the new version will (probably) look like
Back 22 years after its launch on TF1, the "Star Academy" should again be carried by Nikos Aliagas.
TF1 officially announced it last Tuesday evening during "Koh-Lanta": the casting for the next season of "Star Academy" is open. Fourteen years after having lowered the curtain on the French private channel, and nine years after having made an ephemeral passage on NRJ12, the reality TV show will therefore indeed make a comeback, more than twenty years after its launch.
But what do we already know about this "Star Ac'" 2.0? Attempt to answer.
Produced by Endemol France and DMLSTV (which notably produces "Les Enfoirés"), the new "Star Academy" should be broadcast at the start of the next school year.
In the wake of the ultimate castings, which will be filmed at the end of the summer in the auditorium of TF1, the program could thus be launched in October, assure several sources.
According to "Le Parisien", always very well informed about TF1 reality TV shows, the new edition of "Star Academy" will not last as long (four months) as the first seasons.
"It will certainly be around ten to twelve weeks," said an employee of the French channel on the "Parisien" site.
Shortened, the 2022 season of the "Star Ac'" will then undoubtedly give way to the Football World Cup, broadcast from the end of November.
Nikos Aliagas at the presentation
Because he is inseparable from the program, Nikos Aliagas will certainly present the next season of "Star Academy".
"It's a guarantee of security. Nikos knows the show, he has easy contact with French and international artists, he knows how to manage the unexpected", estimates one of his relatives in "Le Parisien".
Return announced at the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys
Still according to "Le Parisien", the candidates for the next "Star Academy" should once again be coached in an "emblematic place" of the program. Which means that the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys will (probably) also host the TF1 program.
Theater of the progress of Jenifer, Nolwenn Leroy or Grégory Lemarchal, the general appearance of the castle may surprise more than one viewer since the estate has undergone major renovation work.
New teachers recruited
As for the teachers, forget Armande Altaï and other Kamel Ouali, TF1 is looking for new faces.
On the management side, the production of the "Star Academy" hopes to attract an internationally renowned celebrity. An artist like Mika, for example, who has already held the role of artistic director of the same show in Quebec. Or Lara Fabian, already director of the Canadian version of "Star Academy".
Probably rarer stars
If they hope to land a world star to sponsor this new season, the producers of the future "Star Academy" should have more difficulty in attracting big names in international music. And this, in particular due to reduced budgets.
Result of the races: the show should rather rely on French and European stars.
A daily in question
One question remains: how will TF1 schedule the daily "Star Academy" without disrupting its already busy schedule?
If a broadcast exclusively on the internet seems to have been ruled out, it is difficult to know much more about the projects of the private channel. The only certainty advanced by "Le Parisien": the daily will not replace the series "Ici tout commence" et "Demain nous appartient".
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Including Lara’s name in the list of prospective candidates for ‘the management side’ doesn’t imply she would really take the position if offered; in fact, if the program is to premier in October, she will definitely not be involved, as she has concerts throughout France and other places that month. However, if she were only needed for November onward, it might be a way to regain the attention of the French public.
And continuing with this European theme, the Lara Fabian Lockdown Sessions FB site posted a link to the following article (https://www.sudinfo.be/id460572/article/2022-05-06/un-fame-belge-lecole-de-chant-et-de-comedie-musicale-du-coach-vocal-de-lara?utm_campaign=pushs&utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fb_page_cinetelerevue&fbclid=IwAR3JM0-BTG9XphK1ROnF4x_jq5RuixlVBM1n9SIo1bOFQrOk3Wbmrvu4W20):
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A Belgian “Fame”: the school of singing and musical comedy of the vocal coach of Lara Fabian opens a campus in Brussels of which the singer will be the godmother
By Frederic Will
Signed Ciné-Télé-Revue
The Belgian Pierre-Yves Duchesne, considered a giant in this field, is carrying out a project that has been close to his heart for a long time.
Founder in Paris of AICOM, the International Academy of Musical Comedy, which is part of the School Of Arts group, the Belgian Pierre-Yves Duchesne , who has been Lara Fabian's vocal coach for 15 years , is back in his country! AICOM will open its campus in Brussels in September 2022, more precisely in Uccle, rue Vanderkindere. A kind of Belgian “Fame”. "It's a project I had had for 10 years," says Pierre-Yves Duchesne. “We weren't welcomed directly, which upset me a bit, but things finally worked out, maybe because there was the Star Academy in Quebec with Lara.”
As the school's godmother, Lara Fabian will be present to support the artists of the first class. “When I do something, Lara is always there to support me, to give masterclasses. It's a real duo which is all the more solid in that we also plan to launch something else at an international level. This campus in Brussels is the beginning of something even bigger that we should be able to announce in September.”
Want to join these courses? Pierre-Yves Duchesne will chair on May 21 in Brussels, at the Warwick Hotel, an entrance examination to integrate the school and obtain a scholarship. Info and registration on aicombruxelles.com, by email at contact@aicomparis.com or by telephone on +33 145 23 52 69. “I will also be offering a completely free masterclass on the same day.”
AICOM has had a solid reputation for nearly 20 years. Its teams have trained performers for the most popular shows, such as "The Lion King", "Mamma Mia", "Chicago", "Grease", "Résiste". The Brussels school will offer unique multidisciplinary training in singing, dancing and theatre, with two professional courses (musical comedy and singing), several classes from its Junior Academy (dedicated to young people aged 7 to 18), as well as Leisure Courses (evening and weekend courses for adults). “Professional training will be 9 hours per week and will be preparatory to the bachelor's degree for AICOM in Paris. It's more convenient for people in Brussels to get an idea of what it's like without having to rent an apartment directly in Paris or make daily trips to the French capital. It will allow them to gauge, since it will be with the same teachers, the same pedagogy.”
And what qualities should the students have? "For children and leisure classes, you just have to want to have fun. For professional training, you have to have the combativeness and the desire to work 9 hours a week, intensively, in three disciplines as complex as singing, dancing and theatre." Himself a musical artist (“Les Misérables”, “Cats”, “The Phantom of the Opera”…) and director, Pierre-Yves Duchesne is also an internationally renowned vocal coach. Besides Lara Fabian, he works with Amir or Agustin Galiana, to name a few. It uses the PY 3.14 method. “It's a singing method that is not an imposed technique. It is a succession of tools to allow a voice to flourish naturally, with its signature, without imposing formatting. This is what allows artists like Amir or Lara Fabian to do 150 concerts a year and to sing for two hours without ever getting tired, because we don't try to divert the natural timbre of the voice.”
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Again this implies a potential European presence for Lara in the coming year. We’ll know more when we hear about the international aspects of what they have in mind in September.
Interesting photo(s)/video(s) of the week:
From the ‘Osez lire’ article, a nice picture of Lara and Gabriel:
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=18
and a nice picture of Lara laying on her bed, reading
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=20
Finally, a beautiful picture of Lara (and her choices) (also posted by the Lara Fabian the Netherlands FB site):
osezlire.ca/rb_monteregie_hiver_2022_vol5_no1_Osez_lire_mon_magazine/index.html#p=22
So far Lara has remained in the news, post-Star Academie and pre-Quebec concerts, for both good and unfortunate reasons. More of the former and less of the latter, please!
Stay safe, everybody,
David
