French Music seen from abroad Sept 2005

On the Road This Summer

Paris 

05/09/2005 - 

Francophone artists maintained a global presence throughout August, taking to the stage in the four corners of the world. Reggae star Alpha Blondy brought the house down in Mexico City, Patricia Kaas wowed the crowd in Carthage and Mireille Mathieu stopped off in Istanbul. Meanwhile, Charles Aznavour visited Uzbekistan and Shirel returned to her roots in Israel.

August, as we all know, is the month for packing bags and skipping out, leaving daily worries, city stress and unpaid bills behind. While the rest of us embark on annual vacation, however, singers and musicians are hard at work, touring the concert circuit and putting in appearances at foreign music festivals, often organised far from home. Ivorian reggae star Alpha Blondy certainly did his fair share of travelling this season, flying off to Mexico City with his multiracial backing band Solar System. Blondy, who is not actually that well known in Mexico, managed to make an impact on the journalist from Mexico's national daily La Jornada (13/8) who described him as "a charismatic singer" (...), one of the greatest figures to have surfaced from the African reggae scene.” Blondy, the article went on, is “a pioneer of the 70s” in the same league as “South Africa's Lucky Dube, Ghana's Rocky Dawuni and Ethiopia's Isaac Haile Selassie.” The singer, renowned for scoring a hit with Sweet Fanta Diallo, told the journalist from la Jornada that he preferred to describe himself as "a universal Rasta" rather than “an African Rasta.” In the course of his summer travels, the universal Rasta made sure he reserved plenty of time for “meeting Mexican reggae musicians who left him feeling moved by their 'good vibes' and 'tremendous spirituality.''”

Patricia Kaas also headed out to warmer climes, jetting off to play in Tunisia. On 4 August, the globe-trotting diva took to the stage in a particularly prestigious setting, performing in the ancient amphitheatre at Carthage. Adel Latrech, the correspondent from La Presse de Tunisie (5/8), was on hand to witness the "enormous turn-out, principally made up of young fans." Latrech, who raved about La Kaas's performance, reported that "the crowd was so compact and dense that it spilled out into the space surrounding the amphitheatre to follow the concert from outside ... The concert was so exceptional that it might more properly be described as an 'event' worthy of being inscribed in gold lettering in the festival annals. In short, the show was simply phenomenal." La Kaas displayed exceptional stamina, too, truly "giving her all ... Patricia, looking totally exhilarated, had to take a break for a change of clothes at one point as she was absolutely soaked through." Given the warmth of this Tunisian welcome, Mademoiselle certainly didn't feel like having the blues! Besides, she would barely have had time to, anyway. A few days after the concert in Carthage, Ms. Kaas was already installed at a resort on the Black Sea, joining a host of international stars at the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of Artek (Ukraine's oldest holiday camp inaugurated a year after the death of Lenin who had advocated the Crimea as an ideal leisure base for Soviet workers).

Mireille Mathieu, who achieved popular French diva status long before Ms. Kaas arrived on the scene, spent the summer preparing a comeback. Yes, the famous “demoiselle d’Avignon” is set to resurface on the French music scene, rewarding loyal fans' long years of patience - while M.M. detractors mutter that the holiday break from Mireille was only just beginning! Whichever camp you fall into, a new studio album is officially due out on 21 September and Mireille will be kicking off a tour of France in December following a stint at the legendary Olympia in Paris (18 - 27 November). In the meantime, Mademoiselle Mathieu enjoyed a summer trip to Turkey. On 4 August, the Turkish Daily News reported that "the French singer Mireille Mathieu arrived in Istanbul to perform at the 100th anniversary celebrations of the Galatasaray football club." She was "accompanied by her sister and mother" (doubtless die-hard football fans both!)

Meanwhile, the Russian press agency ITAR-Tass (29/8) reported in its inimitable brief and to the point style that "the famous French singer Charles Aznavour visited Bukhara, then returned to Samarkand” following an invitation from the Uzbek president Islam Karimov. In Samarkand, the French chanson star appeared at Sharq Taronalari, "a festival which brought together musicians from over fifty different countries." “Speaking at the opening ceremony, Aznavour declared that he had been involved with countless music festivals over the years, but Samarkand's had truly amazed him.”

Summer is also an opportune time for heading home to find one's roots. In August, the young singing star Shirel (daughter of Jeane Manson) flew back to Israel and her visit sparked a lengthy article in the country's major daily newspaper Haaretz (18/8). Shirel, who currently divides her time between France and Tel Aviv, where the paper reports that she recently bought a house, was not in a carefree frame of mind, however. She bemoaned the fact that in France anti-Semitism has now become a banal reality of everyday life. Two years ago at a concert she was publicly insulted when a member of the audience called her a “dirty Jew.“ The French media was outraged and gave much coverage to the event and the then prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin and President Chirac's wife Bernadette came out in public support of the singer. But Shirel remembers the event as being "just another anti-Semitic incident amongst thousands of others in France." "'Sadly, I haven't witnessed any change in matters since,' she continued, 'It's extremely difficult being a Jewish child in a French school today.” It appears summer holidays are not always effective in effacing day-to-day problems – and as September dawns, it's time for us all to come back to life, back to reality!

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Julie  Street