French music seen from abroad feb 2006

Going back to their roots

Paris 

17/02/2006 - 

When you’re a major star like Johnny Hallyday or Charles Aznavour and you’ve got nothing left to prove, you can sit back and enjoy fame and fortune. Alternatively, you can soldier on with your career in the spotlight, champion a cause – or choose to go back to your roots!

Being a star is a full-time job as French rock god Johnny Hallyday has discovered to his cost! Used to living in a constant blaze of publicity, Johnny has had little time to cultivate any kind of secret garden over the years. His private life has become a public park, free for all and sundry to wander through, peeking into the nooks and crannies. The press has had a field day in recent months, documenting the rock star’s Titanic crash with his record company. Under the rather mischievous headline “No Johnny holiday for Vivendi”, the Financial Times (5/1) reported that “although the divorce between Vivendi Universal and Johnny Hallyday was consummated a year ago, the ageing rock star’s decision to sign with Vivendi’s competitor Warner Music is still a major blow for the French group.”

Meanwhile, the French media went for Johnny’s jugular when it was discovered that the singer had lodged an application for Belgian nationality – the official story being that Johnny wants to claim his father’s origins, even though he never actually knew him. The French outcry provoked a rather sardonic response from the British daily The Independent (22/1), which asked “Why does the greatest living Frenchman alive want to become Belgian? One possible answer, suggested by the French press, is that he would like to lead a tax-free existence in Monaco.” Relations between France and Monaco being rather strained on several fronts means that it is not particularly easy for French citizens to become Monacan, so going via Belgium would facilitate things for Johnny. The singer has denied this version of events, of course.

But you can understand why the stress and strains of stardom have turned Johnny to drink – in the chic-est possible way, of course! It appears that the singer is about to turn oenologist and produce his own wine. The Canadian newspaper La Presse (25/1) reported that “After French film star Gerard Depardieu, it’s French singer Johnny Hallyday’s turn to launch himself in the wine world, giving his name to a wine from the Languedoc region. Some 50,000 bottles, marked with the stamp of approval ‘wine discovered by Johnny Hallyday’, are due to go on sale in supermarkets in March, priced 10 euros.”

Stars on the campaign trail

As for Johnny’s ex-wife Sylvie Vartan, she continues to live in Los Angeles and has, as yet, made no move to apply for Bulgarian nationality. But the singer has militated long and hard on behalf of her homeland. Last month, Sylvie flew off to Sofia to speak out on behalf of Bulgarian humanitarian workers currently held in Libya after being accused of “deliberately inoculating 426 children with the AIDS virus” (reported the press agency Focus on 23/1). Interviewed on Darik Radio by the Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ivaylo Kalfin, Sylvie decried the fact that “the media have not shown a great deal of interest in the case of these Bulgarian nurses who have been sentenced to death in Libya… The media claims that it is increasingly difficult to focus public attention on the abolition of the death penalty when the world is beset by wars and disasters.”

Sylvie’s front-line campaigning is reminiscent of the battle waged by another living French ‘chanson’ legend Charles Aznavour. Ever since the tragic earthquake that devastated his parents’ homeland, Armenia, in 1988, Aznavour has acted as an itinerant spokesman for the Caucasian state. And it comes as no surprise to find the singer associating himself with the Year of Armenia in France, “which is due to kick off in autumn, featuring a number of events in some thirty towns across France.” The website Armenia Diaspora (25/1) reported that “the inauguration of the Year of Armenia n France will be preceded by the Month of France in Armenia. One of the highlights of this month will be a concert by music star Charles Aznavour.”

Never cut yourself off from your roots appears to be the message promoted by Aznavour’s generation which, while it was never exactly as ‘black-blanc-beur’ multicultural as the present one, certainly had its fair share of stars of different nationalities. Georges Moustaki, the famous creator of Le Meteque, is an interesting case in point. And sure enough, the singer’s latest album finds him celebrating his Mediterranean origins. “The vagabond globetrotter” told The European Jewish Press (25/1), “I come from a Greek family who lived in Egypt. I prefer to be agnostic. My Judaism has been enriched through contact with other communities and cultures, among them Greek, Italian, French and Arab.”

Piaf and Brel “Alive and Well”

While Vartan, Aznavour and Moustaki have been retracing links to their roots, deceased French stars have been making their voices heard, too. Four decades after the death of Edith Piaf and the unforgettable moment when Jacques Brel announced the end of his career, the late ‘chanson’ legends have been inspiring a new generation from beyond the grave. The Bucharest Daily News (1/2) reported that “the life of the legendary French ‘chanteuse’ Edith Piaf is the subject of a show, performed in Romanian and French, which premieres Sunday 5 February at the Societa Club Unesco Foundation.” The Romanian actress and director Claudia Negroui plays the role of the Little Sparrow. Meanwhile, the American theatre magazine Playbill (11/1) announced that a classic musical about the life of Brel is due to be revived in March in New York. “’Jacques Brel is Alive and Well in Paris’ is based on the music and lyrics of the late French star,” the magazine reported, “The original show premiered at the Village Gate in New York in 1968 and ran for 1,847 performances.” Let’s only hope the new version does as well!

Gilles  Rio

Translation : Julie  Street