HAS 51 years old, with his looks, his voice, his ten albums and his thirty films, Benjamin Biolay has built an image of a playboy in the style of a dark, handsome guy, even if he denies it. But his nonchalant demeanor hides great self-control. And you need it when your passion is a discipline as intense as car racing or karting. Because the musician and actor is a fan of engines!
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Benjamin Biolay had already provided a nice clue about his center of interest by entitling Grand Prix his concept album from 2020. On the cover, he posed as a racing driver. He had dedicated it to the memory of racing driver Jules Bianchi, who died in 2015 during the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka. He also mentioned Brazilian Formula 1 legend Ayrton Senna.
ALSO READ In Cannes, the family in the spotlight on the steps for “Marcello mio” The disc, very dark, earned him a Victoire de la Musique.
Since childhood
Recently, the singer-songwriter and actor met with the magazine Gala on the Paul-Ricard circuit in Castellet, in the Var. The Jules-Bianchi karting marathon takes place there. There, Benjamin Biolay talks about his taste “since he was little” for racing. “I pay particular attention to French drivers,” he declares, evoking the memory of the man whose name the race bears. “Jules Bianchi caught my eye. He had a personality. Handsome, shy, quick. »
With elegance, and invoking Greek mythology in passing, the lyricist puts into words what attracts and troubles him in this sport which has cost the lives of a large number of pilots, including Jules Bianchi, who died at the age of 25. “F1 is the myth of Sisyphus and Icarus combined. The eternal beginning and the proximity of the Sun,” he adds.
Alone on the track
About the difference between what he does on stage and what a driver experiences on the track, Benjamin Biolay is very clear. “These guys are alone in their car, they have everything under control. Me, on stage, I see myself as the guitarist, in the same row. I’m in a team,” he explains, taken aback that the pilots imagine that “it must be impressive to go on stage at Bercy.”
However, what motivates him, like a pilot, which is, he says, “comparable”, is “the sense of competition”. And Benjamin Biolay makes no secret of it: “I have it”.
He takes the Victoires de la Musique as an example. “It matters,” he assures. “Everyone will tell you that it’s worthless, that we don’t care, but behind the scenes, far from the cameras, I can tell you that there are those who are sulking and those who are in a state of grace », Specifies the singer, who has already received two, but did not appreciate not being nominated in 2023.
Female drivers
Benjamin Biolay, who could see himself as Saint-Exupéry (“extra hair”) for a biopic of the aviator and author of Little Princehowever, is a man of his time. To the point of accepting the idea of the youngest of his daughters becoming an F1 driver, even if she doesn’t take the path. “My youngest daughter, she is only five years old, I see her character taking shape and it would surprise me if she went on a circuit”, confides the one who “loved Michèle Mouton, a pioneer”, and “look female pilots with attention.”
No one, then, to take the wheel of an F1 with the Biolays? Benjamin Biolay’s fascination with this dangerous sport did not, it seems, push him beyond the stage of passionate spectator. Or maybe it’s his secret garden.
