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Yannick Noah for a world without borders
Seventh album
Paris
27/08/2010 -
It will be a tall order for Yannick Noah to outsell his previous album, Charango (2006), which sold over 1.3 million copies. Having lived in exile for two years in New York, the singer opens his new opus with Ma pomme, a funk-like declaration of love to the big apple that he has made his home. "It’s not Douala, it’s not Paris, but it’s my home too", sings France’s favourite celebrity. He continues with a hymn to the freedom of movement, No one’s Land. If he can live in New York, he muses, why can’t others enjoy the right to circulate freely?
The tone is set: in this new CD, "singer-citizen" Yannick Noah calls for the abolition of borders, the end of visas and the emergence of a strong personal conscience – a selection of themes that don’t always find consensus, but using lyrics and tunes sure to appeal to a broad audience.
Jailhouse tour
In style and substance, Noah’s American exile seems to have inspired him. He devotes one of his songs (Dans le Rio Grande) to Mexican immigrants who try their luck in the States. He colours his French, reggae-tinged music with a US style, dipping into funk, blues and folk. The former tennis champion also pays homage to some of the great Black Americans like Angela Davis, defender of civil rights, Martin Luther King, and US president, Barack Obama.
So does that mean Yannick Noah is a militant? In fact, throughout his career, the outwardly consensual celebrity has been discreetly committed to some fairly un-media-friendly causes. He is a patron of the Fête le Mur association, which uses tennis to encourage social integration in sensitive neighbourhoods, as well as an association set up by his mother in 1988, Les Enfants de la Terre, helping children in need.
In July 2010, instead of doing the usual rounds of summer festivals, the singer chose to perform a "Carceral Tour" (jail tour), which took him to Baumettes prison in Marseilles and seven other penitentiary centres throughout France. It wasn’t the first time that Yannick Noah had played in jail, which was two years ago, in the yard of the Fleury-Mérogis prison. The experience inspired him to contact the penitentiary authorities and present his idea of a tour. An unusual and successful approach that confirms Noah’s aura, his desire to break down borders, and his personal fight to make the world a better place.
Angela
In concert on 25 September 2010 at the Stade de France, just outside Paris, and then on tour until June 2011.
Eglantine Chabasseur
Translation : Anne-Marie Harper
25/07/2005 -
05/09/2003 -
11/12/2000 -
06/10/2000 -
