Post by davidhr on Jan 3, 2023 8:13:07 GMT -5
Lara left a ‘happy new year’ post on her BF and Instragram sites, at
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=746358576848438&set=a.259330805551220
and
with the caption, “May the end be victorious and the beginning triumphant… thank you for being by my side this year!
I wish you all the beauty in the world….
Happy New Year 2023!”
Otherwise, Lara was continuing her book promotion, along with offering some New Year's living advice. On New year’s Day itself, Lara was on France Bleu in the “Cultural Scene”. As noted by the Lara Fabian Family FB site, “Lara will send her best wishes to all her fans and tell us about #TOUT of her superb biography in which she indulges in all the intimacy between confidences and recipes (from Éditions #Libre Expression).
With: @davidlantin
The accompanying promo videos can be seen at
www.facebook.com/100087078295806/videos/946555432993282
and another at
www.facebook.com/100087078295806/videos/2155679894618103
The Lara Fabian es ton autre FB site (in conjunction with the Lara Fabian Family FB site) posted a short video of Lara’s prescriptions to be happy (one of a number of short videos ‘Femme Actuelle’ is releasing). The prescriptions include: Love yourself, respect yourself, take care of yourself, don’t judge.
And for her, what is important:
(1) The family, which occupies first place in her life.
(2) Women – not only those from her family, but those she has met along the course of her life, have been very important to her and lifted her up.
(3) The kitchen (and food) – sharing experiences and hearty joys
(4) Well-being – so important that we don’t take this for granted, that we eat well and breathe well
(5) Our roots – even when we leave a place for somewhere else, we don’t have to lose that identity – it is possible to have multiple identities, keep various colors in our existence
(6) Peace inside – don’t get caught up in other’s view of you, or of maintaining an image - you can find peace inside by just being who you really are
(7) Time for oneself – necessary, especially when others are around. Allows us to better listen to what others are telling us, of eating until the last bite, of being in the present where one truly lives.
Lara was featured in an article in the ‘Paris Match Belgium’ (thanks to the Sublime Lara Fabian FB site for the link):
---------------------------
Lara Fabian: "When I'm in Belgium, I go to taste at an American place on the Sablon"
In her first book entitled "Tout", Lara Fabian recounts the most important events of her destiny: they have always taken place around a table or in the kitchen. She therefore chose to explain, through seventeen cooking recipes, seventeen unpublished and intimate stories of her private and professional lives.
By Christian Marchand
Paris Match. You make headlines with a gourmet autobiography (see our box). Did your mother Luisa pass on this passion for gastronomy to you?
Lara Fabian. Yes, my mother bequeathed it to me and her mother before her. I am truly the heiress of this transmission. For us, the table has always been something important and today more than ever, it is a place that unites beings. Almost anything can be solved. This is why dishes and recipes are an intimate part of the stories of happiness that I tell. The kitchen allows you to disconnect. You can let your creativity run wild. It's very liberating, very meditative.
Do you do your own shopping to prepare your meals?
LF:Always. It's what you find at the market that defines what's on your plate.
Many artists are no longer in the real world. They are often assisted. Or, for fear of crowds, they stay at home…
LF:Not me. I love people and contact too much.
Motivated to participate in “Top Chef” now?
LF:(She bursts out laughing) No. This book has no virtue in redefining me as a chef. I'm just a girl who cooks for the people she loves.
In your book, you pay homage to your parents. We learn that you were born at seven months and suffered from an eating disorder.
LF: My parents occupy a very important place in my life. Mom was a beautiful person: kindness was inscribed in her cells, she was very generous. Going back to your question, yes, I had an eating disorder for seven years. It's a bit like an addiction. Like an alcohol or drug problem. This mess has recrystallized very old things. This is why I have been doing a great job on myself for twenty years. This book has really helped me get out of these pains.
Was it difficult for you to give yourself up like this?
LF: For me, the process of authenticity is very important. This erases a lot of fears, which translates into modesty. I was not interested in telling myself in a redundant way, but through the table and the recipes, yes, because I am a girl who cooks for love.
The holiday season must be important to you.
LF: I love Christmas. I have decorating OCD. I decorate everything and everywhere. But, above all, it's the family get-together par excellence!
What was your best Christmas?
LF: It was in Italy. I was 14 years old. The whole family was reunited. They had come from everywhere. From Belgium, from the south, from the north… There was an infinite table. It was a big preparation upstream. The women cooked for four days and four nights. And we ate for two days in a row!
And for the New Year?
LF: You'll laugh, but one of my strongest memories is a night on December 31 when I didn't feel like partying. I went to bed, I simply waited for the clock to do its work… Then I fell asleep peacefully.
You have more than thirty years of career under your belt. What's your biggest thrill?
LF: Love, completely. Definitely, the love that binds me to beings and to the public.
When you come back to Belgium, what are the first things you do?
LF: The first is to go see my dad. Then, two or three of my friends. Then, I'm going to taste an American meal at the Vieux Saint Martin, place du Sablon, in Brussels.
A SACRED COUNTER-EMPLOYMENT
LF: “When I was with my family during this period when we could not get together, everything was reduced to a trickle,” she explains. “I was in my country house. And I started telling these stories. My daughter said to me, “Mom, you should make a book out of it. They really are great stories.” The convergence with the table is so strong that it couldn't just be an autobiography. Everything had to be linked to the culture that is mine.
“Lara Fabian is also embarking on a new adventure, the cinema, with the film” Arlette “… and a hell of a misuse. “I take on the role of a Minister of Commerce and I have an affair with the Minister of Culture! That evening, we end up in bed with great fanfare. This is my first cinema experience. I found this kind of exercise very nice. It was during the Covid period. We had a mask. To kiss, it was quite funny. We laughed a lot !”
------------------------------
Interesting photo(s)/video(s) of the week:
From Lara The Ring Fabian, a quick review of Lara’s 2022 in video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEiQI_Lh8k
And a creative Happy New Year picture, from Lara Fabian The Netherlands FB site, at
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=605372058262855&set=pcb.605372208262840
As her recent activities suggest, we will probably continue to see some book-related publicity for Lara into at least the first part of the new year. As to what else will arise…we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, looking back at the year just past, here’s Lara’s Year 2022 in review:
Lara’s Year in Review 2022
It was a full year for Lara, with the return of her tour, her appearance on a TV program, the wide spread release of her book, etc. Here’s a review of these and other events that marked her 2022…They’re presented in ‘order of importance’, although obviously that’s a personal opinion. Dates in brackets refer to the News Update in which the particular item was discussed in more detail (or interview presented in English).
**Number one event would have to be Lara’s return to touring. As she indicated, it was two years too late for it to be the ’50 World tour’’, so they had to come up with another name, settling on the “The Best of Lara Fabian World Tour”. It started with five shows in Quebec in June, took the summer off, then had 13 in France, Belgium and Switzerland in late Sept and October, followed by three in eastern Europe (Hungary, Serbia, Estonia). Thus some 21 shows in all, most of them in the sense of make-ups for the multiple postponements of the previous tour due to the pandemic. The setlist was dominated, as one would suspect, with her greatest hits; only a few of the newer songs made the setlist. The only real difference from the previous tour was the absence of songs associated primarily with her parents. Quebec was represented by a few songs and a medley, even in the European portion. Lara also spoke highly of Quebec throughout the promotion.
**The concerts got rave reviews in all the different venues; of particular note are the reviews for Montreal [6/21], Paris [10/11], and Budapest [10/25]. All agreed Lara was in exceptional voice, and had the audience in the palm of her hand, an audience which left completely fulfilled.
**At the European concerts, Lara sold a ‘Best of tour’ CD made from her live show in Montreal. When it turned out that people were buying it at the concerts, and then reselling it for big profits on-line, Lara decided to sell it herself from her store (larafabian.com), along with other merchandise from the shows. My (very positive) review of the CD can be found at [11/29].
**Unfortunately, not all was ‘peaches and cream’ for Lara at these concerts. She got sick – probably COVID – during the European portion of the tour, which affected to one extent or another her last 7 shows in Western Europe. At Annecy she could barely sing, and had to ask for forgiveness; other shows also suffered from a reduced set list, with her back-up singers providing the higher notes on the more demanding songs. This must rank as a big disappointment for her, though in subsequent interviews she didn’t seem to be carrying regret around. It happened; it wasn’t her fault; she didn’t miss any shows, despite the illness; one moves on.
**Number two in terms of importance was Lara’s second year as director of the Star Academie in Quebec. After a highly successful first year, earning Lara a great deal of praise, the second year got off to a more rocky start: due to COVID, the first couple of weeks were postponed, and the candidates were left isolated in the ‘castle’. When the show finally resumed, to catch up, there were some unfortunate pairings guaranteeing that a number of the more deserving candidates were eliminated too soon – Audrey Louise Beauséjour, whom many had thought would be the ultimate winner, was the most obvious example. There were numerous reports of a more ‘survivalist’ attitude among the candidates, who openly expressed some dissatisfaction with the proceedings. Nevertheless, Lara continued her good work as teacher, and tried to calm the choppy waters with her usual mix of honest evaluation and empathetic humor. The final winner, Krystal Mongeau seemed worthy, defeating a male candidate who many thought should not have lasted. This led to a searing in-depth article about gender bias in the Star Academie (and Quebec as a whole) [5/3]. Whether it was due to these difficulties, or had always been the intention, the Star Academie in Quebec will not return next season (La Voix will be back), and Lara is therefore ‘unemployed’ in Quebec on TV for 2023-2024.
**To make up for the seeming injustice, Lara promised Audrey-Louise that she would be invited to sing with her during Lara’s Quebec concerts, and true to her word, Audrey-Louise joined Lara to sing ‘Pas sans toi’ at her Montreal and Quebec City concerts. In the same vein, the Canadian singer Margau, who felt she was unfairly treated by Lara when she was on her team in the French version of The Voice, was given time to sing with Lara both in Three Rivers, Quebec (Pas sans toi) and in Paris (a sensational version of Tu t’en vas). Good for Lara, and good for them!
**The third major event this year was the release of Lara’s book, a memoir/cookbook, in Europe. Although originally released in August, 2021 with the title ‘Je passe a table’, the French release was postponed until September 2022 to coincide with her European tour. Here it appeared under the name “Tout”, not only to indicate the ‘totality’ of the story being told but also apparently to take advantage of the best selling single, Tout, Lara has had in France. Whatever the reason, it worked – the book has been a big hit, and Lara spent much of the fall and early winter in France and Belgium promoting it, on numerous TV shows, print media, etc. In fact, the book and Lara’s appearances seemed to overshadow her tour in the French media. The book has been listed as #1 in sales on amazon.fr. The French press was amazed at the honesty of Lara’s stories, and the hardships she has gone through in her life, many of which they were completely unaware; and also of the great resilience she has shown, and humor she has in laughing at herself. Not the Lara Fabian they were used to confronting. All of this seemed to raise their opinion of Lara.
**This may have further consequences next year…While there promoting her book, after her concert tour ended, Lara took the opportunity to appear on the version in France of Star Academie, both as a teacher and as a duet participant in the show’s finale. She made such a positive impression that there were calls for her to be a teacher on next year’s Star Academie, and Lara seemed interested in the prospect [11/29]. As she is not tied down professionally in Quebec next fall, it would seem possible; it wasn’t this year, when her concert schedule conflicted with the show (she was asked).
**In terms of creative ventures, the fourth most important event was Lara appearing in the movie ‘Arlette’. It opened during the summer in Quebec, and did fairly well, commercially. It is set to open in France in 2023, after having appeared in several festivals there. A review of the movie and Lara’s part in it can be found at [8/9]. While her part was small, Lara appears naked in a relationship with the movie’s star, Maripier Morin (already a controversial media figure in Quebec). Lara treated the whole thing humorously [12/6], but it did give forth some commentary about Lara’s 'sexually liberated attitude', aided by a photograph she put on her FB page being in a state of undress prior to her concert in Paris [10/11], and her more explicit costumes on the Star Academie this year [4/12].
**This was in conjunction with Lara fully embodying her appearance – yes, her costumes on the Star Academie were very worth noticing, and while in France she participated in L'Oréal show at the Paris Fashion Week [10/4]. Earlier in the year, she also did a spectacular photoshoot for the magazine Chatelaine [3/8].
**And in association with all of this physical imagery, there were numerous articles over the year on Lara’s fitness and beauty secrets – how she keeps looking so young and vibrant even at 52 years of age [8/2; 8/30; 10/11; 12/20]
**For Lara, having a positive body image has come rather later in life, as she discussed in conjunction with her food disorders (detailed in her book) in one of a series of highly personal interviews [12/13]. Other interviews of note included one on Lara’s opinion of her voice, which she thinks she has been misusing all her life in an attempt to impress [12/6]; a complementary interview on Lara’s love of words, reading and songwriting [5/10], and a ‘review of her life’ in the interview with Chatelaine [3/8].
**Some of Lara’s old boyfriends were in the news in relation to her. For one, Rick Allison indicated he had been approached about writing a song for a new album Lara was working on [8/16]; Patrick Fiori indicated that his relationship with Lara was undermined by the “over mediatization of their relationship” [9/6] (this was after Lara referred to him, obliquely, in her book); and Lara indicated that “it was her choice not to marry Gerard Pullicino (Lou’s father) – that she had always said she’d only get married once. She knew it was not a ‘yes’ for life with him for the woman that she was – she couldn’t be his wife – but it was a yes for life with him as a father.”[7/12].
**Lara’s has found new fame in non-French speaking countries due to the numerous ‘reaction videos’ to her singing that have appeared on Youtube this past year (more than 16 million views [4/12]. This has also been accompanied by the vast number of views of Lara singing the songs themselves, with hundreds of millions of views [4/12].
**As to what the future may entail: Lara spent the summer with her daughter and father in Sicily, and then the following months in Europe. In addition, Lara is selling her house in Quebec (pictures of the gorgeous house can be found at [7/26]). However, as said by her publicity people, “But don’t worry, the former director of the Star Académie has no intention of leaving Quebec…Lara Fabian plans to find a new home, closer to Montreal, by the end of the year. Furthermore, her daughter Lou is still educated in Quebec. She will give her Zoom lessons at the beginning of the school year, before resuming the regular course once the young family returns.” The house sale has not been going so well – Lara’s had to reduce the price, probably due to its location outside the Montreal metropolitan area [11/15].
**Lara is still intent on opening a school, and several new elements arose this last year. First, A Belgian “Fame”: the school of singing and musical comedy of Pierre-Yves Duchesne, Lara’s vocal coach and the head of AICOM in France, opened a campus in Brussels for which Lara will be the godmother. And Lara herself talked about a new vision for her own school: “Yes, at my age, some priorities change. I would like to take advantage of this incredible gift that was offered to me in the transmission. I would like to do it for more people than just in my job. I would like to offer a place where people could become a "human in danger" rather than a "candidate in danger"...(laughs) I would like to create a different school, a studio that would allow me to contribute to the lives of people who are not necessarily in show business.” [2/22]
At the end of last year’s Year in Review [1/4/22], there was this paragraph:
“As to what may happen in 2022: at the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again the full trajectory of Lara’s year depends on the course of the pandemic. It would be a travesty if Lara had to cancel her concert tour for the third time, although there is less of a tendency now for countries to close down to the extent they had previously. If the tour does take place, Lara will do a lot of singing, so hopefully her voice will remain in good stead – and it will put back, for a year at least, the transition to her main focus being on transmission. Otherwise, health-concerns aside, one can expect her to be involved with the Star Academicians once again, seemingly enjoying herself greatly, for the first quarter of the year. And maybe a new album will surface, going back to her old, more intense ballads, perhaps even with symphonic accompaniment. One can always dream.”
In retrospect, we can see this was pretty much correct, both in its expectations and its cautions. There was even a ‘new album’, although the word ‘new’ only means its release date, being composed of her greatest hits. In contrast, we have little in the way of explicit goal posts for 2023 – no new tour, no guaranteed Star Academie directorship (although appearing on the show in France seems like a possibility), not likely that there will be a new album (though Lara has referred to it, indirectly, from time to time). As for her school, the broader it gets in its ideals, the less likely it probably is to be fully formed in the near future. Lara has hinted there may be a second memoir/cookbook ‘when the time is right’. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait and see – and Lara will probably have to work harder to remain relevant to her audience. Good luck/health to her, and to all of you…
David
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=746358576848438&set=a.259330805551220
and
http://instagram.com/p/Cm1Pa_Yrhxy
with the caption, “May the end be victorious and the beginning triumphant… thank you for being by my side this year!
I wish you all the beauty in the world….
Happy New Year 2023!”
Otherwise, Lara was continuing her book promotion, along with offering some New Year's living advice. On New year’s Day itself, Lara was on France Bleu in the “Cultural Scene”. As noted by the Lara Fabian Family FB site, “Lara will send her best wishes to all her fans and tell us about #TOUT of her superb biography in which she indulges in all the intimacy between confidences and recipes (from Éditions #Libre Expression).
With: @davidlantin
The accompanying promo videos can be seen at
www.facebook.com/100087078295806/videos/946555432993282
and another at
www.facebook.com/100087078295806/videos/2155679894618103
The Lara Fabian es ton autre FB site (in conjunction with the Lara Fabian Family FB site) posted a short video of Lara’s prescriptions to be happy (one of a number of short videos ‘Femme Actuelle’ is releasing). The prescriptions include: Love yourself, respect yourself, take care of yourself, don’t judge.
And for her, what is important:
(1) The family, which occupies first place in her life.
(2) Women – not only those from her family, but those she has met along the course of her life, have been very important to her and lifted her up.
(3) The kitchen (and food) – sharing experiences and hearty joys
(4) Well-being – so important that we don’t take this for granted, that we eat well and breathe well
(5) Our roots – even when we leave a place for somewhere else, we don’t have to lose that identity – it is possible to have multiple identities, keep various colors in our existence
(6) Peace inside – don’t get caught up in other’s view of you, or of maintaining an image - you can find peace inside by just being who you really are
(7) Time for oneself – necessary, especially when others are around. Allows us to better listen to what others are telling us, of eating until the last bite, of being in the present where one truly lives.
Lara was featured in an article in the ‘Paris Match Belgium’ (thanks to the Sublime Lara Fabian FB site for the link):
---------------------------
Lara Fabian: "When I'm in Belgium, I go to taste at an American place on the Sablon"
In her first book entitled "Tout", Lara Fabian recounts the most important events of her destiny: they have always taken place around a table or in the kitchen. She therefore chose to explain, through seventeen cooking recipes, seventeen unpublished and intimate stories of her private and professional lives.
By Christian Marchand
Paris Match. You make headlines with a gourmet autobiography (see our box). Did your mother Luisa pass on this passion for gastronomy to you?
Lara Fabian. Yes, my mother bequeathed it to me and her mother before her. I am truly the heiress of this transmission. For us, the table has always been something important and today more than ever, it is a place that unites beings. Almost anything can be solved. This is why dishes and recipes are an intimate part of the stories of happiness that I tell. The kitchen allows you to disconnect. You can let your creativity run wild. It's very liberating, very meditative.
Do you do your own shopping to prepare your meals?
LF:Always. It's what you find at the market that defines what's on your plate.
Many artists are no longer in the real world. They are often assisted. Or, for fear of crowds, they stay at home…
LF:Not me. I love people and contact too much.
Motivated to participate in “Top Chef” now?
LF:(She bursts out laughing) No. This book has no virtue in redefining me as a chef. I'm just a girl who cooks for the people she loves.
In your book, you pay homage to your parents. We learn that you were born at seven months and suffered from an eating disorder.
LF: My parents occupy a very important place in my life. Mom was a beautiful person: kindness was inscribed in her cells, she was very generous. Going back to your question, yes, I had an eating disorder for seven years. It's a bit like an addiction. Like an alcohol or drug problem. This mess has recrystallized very old things. This is why I have been doing a great job on myself for twenty years. This book has really helped me get out of these pains.
Was it difficult for you to give yourself up like this?
LF: For me, the process of authenticity is very important. This erases a lot of fears, which translates into modesty. I was not interested in telling myself in a redundant way, but through the table and the recipes, yes, because I am a girl who cooks for love.
The holiday season must be important to you.
LF: I love Christmas. I have decorating OCD. I decorate everything and everywhere. But, above all, it's the family get-together par excellence!
What was your best Christmas?
LF: It was in Italy. I was 14 years old. The whole family was reunited. They had come from everywhere. From Belgium, from the south, from the north… There was an infinite table. It was a big preparation upstream. The women cooked for four days and four nights. And we ate for two days in a row!
And for the New Year?
LF: You'll laugh, but one of my strongest memories is a night on December 31 when I didn't feel like partying. I went to bed, I simply waited for the clock to do its work… Then I fell asleep peacefully.
You have more than thirty years of career under your belt. What's your biggest thrill?
LF: Love, completely. Definitely, the love that binds me to beings and to the public.
When you come back to Belgium, what are the first things you do?
LF: The first is to go see my dad. Then, two or three of my friends. Then, I'm going to taste an American meal at the Vieux Saint Martin, place du Sablon, in Brussels.
A SACRED COUNTER-EMPLOYMENT
LF: “When I was with my family during this period when we could not get together, everything was reduced to a trickle,” she explains. “I was in my country house. And I started telling these stories. My daughter said to me, “Mom, you should make a book out of it. They really are great stories.” The convergence with the table is so strong that it couldn't just be an autobiography. Everything had to be linked to the culture that is mine.
“Lara Fabian is also embarking on a new adventure, the cinema, with the film” Arlette “… and a hell of a misuse. “I take on the role of a Minister of Commerce and I have an affair with the Minister of Culture! That evening, we end up in bed with great fanfare. This is my first cinema experience. I found this kind of exercise very nice. It was during the Covid period. We had a mask. To kiss, it was quite funny. We laughed a lot !”
------------------------------
Interesting photo(s)/video(s) of the week:
From Lara The Ring Fabian, a quick review of Lara’s 2022 in video
www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEiQI_Lh8k
And a creative Happy New Year picture, from Lara Fabian The Netherlands FB site, at
www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=605372058262855&set=pcb.605372208262840
As her recent activities suggest, we will probably continue to see some book-related publicity for Lara into at least the first part of the new year. As to what else will arise…we’ll have to wait and see. Meanwhile, looking back at the year just past, here’s Lara’s Year 2022 in review:
Lara’s Year in Review 2022
It was a full year for Lara, with the return of her tour, her appearance on a TV program, the wide spread release of her book, etc. Here’s a review of these and other events that marked her 2022…They’re presented in ‘order of importance’, although obviously that’s a personal opinion. Dates in brackets refer to the News Update in which the particular item was discussed in more detail (or interview presented in English).
**Number one event would have to be Lara’s return to touring. As she indicated, it was two years too late for it to be the ’50 World tour’’, so they had to come up with another name, settling on the “The Best of Lara Fabian World Tour”. It started with five shows in Quebec in June, took the summer off, then had 13 in France, Belgium and Switzerland in late Sept and October, followed by three in eastern Europe (Hungary, Serbia, Estonia). Thus some 21 shows in all, most of them in the sense of make-ups for the multiple postponements of the previous tour due to the pandemic. The setlist was dominated, as one would suspect, with her greatest hits; only a few of the newer songs made the setlist. The only real difference from the previous tour was the absence of songs associated primarily with her parents. Quebec was represented by a few songs and a medley, even in the European portion. Lara also spoke highly of Quebec throughout the promotion.
**The concerts got rave reviews in all the different venues; of particular note are the reviews for Montreal [6/21], Paris [10/11], and Budapest [10/25]. All agreed Lara was in exceptional voice, and had the audience in the palm of her hand, an audience which left completely fulfilled.
**At the European concerts, Lara sold a ‘Best of tour’ CD made from her live show in Montreal. When it turned out that people were buying it at the concerts, and then reselling it for big profits on-line, Lara decided to sell it herself from her store (larafabian.com), along with other merchandise from the shows. My (very positive) review of the CD can be found at [11/29].
**Unfortunately, not all was ‘peaches and cream’ for Lara at these concerts. She got sick – probably COVID – during the European portion of the tour, which affected to one extent or another her last 7 shows in Western Europe. At Annecy she could barely sing, and had to ask for forgiveness; other shows also suffered from a reduced set list, with her back-up singers providing the higher notes on the more demanding songs. This must rank as a big disappointment for her, though in subsequent interviews she didn’t seem to be carrying regret around. It happened; it wasn’t her fault; she didn’t miss any shows, despite the illness; one moves on.
**Number two in terms of importance was Lara’s second year as director of the Star Academie in Quebec. After a highly successful first year, earning Lara a great deal of praise, the second year got off to a more rocky start: due to COVID, the first couple of weeks were postponed, and the candidates were left isolated in the ‘castle’. When the show finally resumed, to catch up, there were some unfortunate pairings guaranteeing that a number of the more deserving candidates were eliminated too soon – Audrey Louise Beauséjour, whom many had thought would be the ultimate winner, was the most obvious example. There were numerous reports of a more ‘survivalist’ attitude among the candidates, who openly expressed some dissatisfaction with the proceedings. Nevertheless, Lara continued her good work as teacher, and tried to calm the choppy waters with her usual mix of honest evaluation and empathetic humor. The final winner, Krystal Mongeau seemed worthy, defeating a male candidate who many thought should not have lasted. This led to a searing in-depth article about gender bias in the Star Academie (and Quebec as a whole) [5/3]. Whether it was due to these difficulties, or had always been the intention, the Star Academie in Quebec will not return next season (La Voix will be back), and Lara is therefore ‘unemployed’ in Quebec on TV for 2023-2024.
**To make up for the seeming injustice, Lara promised Audrey-Louise that she would be invited to sing with her during Lara’s Quebec concerts, and true to her word, Audrey-Louise joined Lara to sing ‘Pas sans toi’ at her Montreal and Quebec City concerts. In the same vein, the Canadian singer Margau, who felt she was unfairly treated by Lara when she was on her team in the French version of The Voice, was given time to sing with Lara both in Three Rivers, Quebec (Pas sans toi) and in Paris (a sensational version of Tu t’en vas). Good for Lara, and good for them!
**The third major event this year was the release of Lara’s book, a memoir/cookbook, in Europe. Although originally released in August, 2021 with the title ‘Je passe a table’, the French release was postponed until September 2022 to coincide with her European tour. Here it appeared under the name “Tout”, not only to indicate the ‘totality’ of the story being told but also apparently to take advantage of the best selling single, Tout, Lara has had in France. Whatever the reason, it worked – the book has been a big hit, and Lara spent much of the fall and early winter in France and Belgium promoting it, on numerous TV shows, print media, etc. In fact, the book and Lara’s appearances seemed to overshadow her tour in the French media. The book has been listed as #1 in sales on amazon.fr. The French press was amazed at the honesty of Lara’s stories, and the hardships she has gone through in her life, many of which they were completely unaware; and also of the great resilience she has shown, and humor she has in laughing at herself. Not the Lara Fabian they were used to confronting. All of this seemed to raise their opinion of Lara.
**This may have further consequences next year…While there promoting her book, after her concert tour ended, Lara took the opportunity to appear on the version in France of Star Academie, both as a teacher and as a duet participant in the show’s finale. She made such a positive impression that there were calls for her to be a teacher on next year’s Star Academie, and Lara seemed interested in the prospect [11/29]. As she is not tied down professionally in Quebec next fall, it would seem possible; it wasn’t this year, when her concert schedule conflicted with the show (she was asked).
**In terms of creative ventures, the fourth most important event was Lara appearing in the movie ‘Arlette’. It opened during the summer in Quebec, and did fairly well, commercially. It is set to open in France in 2023, after having appeared in several festivals there. A review of the movie and Lara’s part in it can be found at [8/9]. While her part was small, Lara appears naked in a relationship with the movie’s star, Maripier Morin (already a controversial media figure in Quebec). Lara treated the whole thing humorously [12/6], but it did give forth some commentary about Lara’s 'sexually liberated attitude', aided by a photograph she put on her FB page being in a state of undress prior to her concert in Paris [10/11], and her more explicit costumes on the Star Academie this year [4/12].
**This was in conjunction with Lara fully embodying her appearance – yes, her costumes on the Star Academie were very worth noticing, and while in France she participated in L'Oréal show at the Paris Fashion Week [10/4]. Earlier in the year, she also did a spectacular photoshoot for the magazine Chatelaine [3/8].
**And in association with all of this physical imagery, there were numerous articles over the year on Lara’s fitness and beauty secrets – how she keeps looking so young and vibrant even at 52 years of age [8/2; 8/30; 10/11; 12/20]
**For Lara, having a positive body image has come rather later in life, as she discussed in conjunction with her food disorders (detailed in her book) in one of a series of highly personal interviews [12/13]. Other interviews of note included one on Lara’s opinion of her voice, which she thinks she has been misusing all her life in an attempt to impress [12/6]; a complementary interview on Lara’s love of words, reading and songwriting [5/10], and a ‘review of her life’ in the interview with Chatelaine [3/8].
**Some of Lara’s old boyfriends were in the news in relation to her. For one, Rick Allison indicated he had been approached about writing a song for a new album Lara was working on [8/16]; Patrick Fiori indicated that his relationship with Lara was undermined by the “over mediatization of their relationship” [9/6] (this was after Lara referred to him, obliquely, in her book); and Lara indicated that “it was her choice not to marry Gerard Pullicino (Lou’s father) – that she had always said she’d only get married once. She knew it was not a ‘yes’ for life with him for the woman that she was – she couldn’t be his wife – but it was a yes for life with him as a father.”[7/12].
**Lara’s has found new fame in non-French speaking countries due to the numerous ‘reaction videos’ to her singing that have appeared on Youtube this past year (more than 16 million views [4/12]. This has also been accompanied by the vast number of views of Lara singing the songs themselves, with hundreds of millions of views [4/12].
**As to what the future may entail: Lara spent the summer with her daughter and father in Sicily, and then the following months in Europe. In addition, Lara is selling her house in Quebec (pictures of the gorgeous house can be found at [7/26]). However, as said by her publicity people, “But don’t worry, the former director of the Star Académie has no intention of leaving Quebec…Lara Fabian plans to find a new home, closer to Montreal, by the end of the year. Furthermore, her daughter Lou is still educated in Quebec. She will give her Zoom lessons at the beginning of the school year, before resuming the regular course once the young family returns.” The house sale has not been going so well – Lara’s had to reduce the price, probably due to its location outside the Montreal metropolitan area [11/15].
**Lara is still intent on opening a school, and several new elements arose this last year. First, A Belgian “Fame”: the school of singing and musical comedy of Pierre-Yves Duchesne, Lara’s vocal coach and the head of AICOM in France, opened a campus in Brussels for which Lara will be the godmother. And Lara herself talked about a new vision for her own school: “Yes, at my age, some priorities change. I would like to take advantage of this incredible gift that was offered to me in the transmission. I would like to do it for more people than just in my job. I would like to offer a place where people could become a "human in danger" rather than a "candidate in danger"...(laughs) I would like to create a different school, a studio that would allow me to contribute to the lives of people who are not necessarily in show business.” [2/22]
At the end of last year’s Year in Review [1/4/22], there was this paragraph:
“As to what may happen in 2022: at the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again the full trajectory of Lara’s year depends on the course of the pandemic. It would be a travesty if Lara had to cancel her concert tour for the third time, although there is less of a tendency now for countries to close down to the extent they had previously. If the tour does take place, Lara will do a lot of singing, so hopefully her voice will remain in good stead – and it will put back, for a year at least, the transition to her main focus being on transmission. Otherwise, health-concerns aside, one can expect her to be involved with the Star Academicians once again, seemingly enjoying herself greatly, for the first quarter of the year. And maybe a new album will surface, going back to her old, more intense ballads, perhaps even with symphonic accompaniment. One can always dream.”
In retrospect, we can see this was pretty much correct, both in its expectations and its cautions. There was even a ‘new album’, although the word ‘new’ only means its release date, being composed of her greatest hits. In contrast, we have little in the way of explicit goal posts for 2023 – no new tour, no guaranteed Star Academie directorship (although appearing on the show in France seems like a possibility), not likely that there will be a new album (though Lara has referred to it, indirectly, from time to time). As for her school, the broader it gets in its ideals, the less likely it probably is to be fully formed in the near future. Lara has hinted there may be a second memoir/cookbook ‘when the time is right’. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait and see – and Lara will probably have to work harder to remain relevant to her audience. Good luck/health to her, and to all of you…
David
