After the summer and its festivals, Patrick Bruel goes back on tour. Through 34 songs performed in chorus by the public, the artist talks about his vision of the world, his sons, his return to Algeria, his mother, a teacher, the power of books and even school bullying. He will perform in Lille on October 8 and 9, 2024. The opportunity to ask him a few questions.
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Patrick Bruel has acted in 47 films, performed in numerous plays, he became a world poker champion, an entrepreneur, an olive grower, a wine grower and even an Olympic flame bearer! He has recorded 11 studio albums and 12 live albums. He is on tour throughout France and will sing in Lille on October 8 and 9, 2024, in Douai on the 15th and in Amiens on the 16th.
“This is my best tourhe says. It’s true that I say that every time, and that I didn’t think I would go higher than this incredible show in 2014 at the Pierre Mauroy stadium. But there, not only is the bar high technologically, with the screens, but at the same time in terms of meaning, in terms of depth, in terms of emotional mountains, I would say that it is the synthesis of practically everything that I have done up until now. ‘see you now.”
“There is at the same time something extremely intimate, I think of this passage where I am with my piano in the middle of the room, the people thirty centimeters from me, and then there are more removed moments in an atmosphere stadium.”
On the occasion of his appearance on the show You are greatPatrick Bruel responded with a smile to the most frequently asked questions about him by Internet users, on online search engines… Except about his partner, whose name he prefers to keep quiet. “Privacy!“, he exclaims.
My real name today is Patrick Bruel. My birth name is Patrick Benguigui. For a very long time, after starting my career, I took “Benguigui, dit Bruel” as my pseudonym.
But in 2003, before having my first child, I was granted by decree the ability to reverse my name. I kept Bruel – Benguigui, so that my children can choose one day, if they want. And so I officially became Patrick Bruel, if I dare say so.
The height, 1m82, that doesn’t move. The weight varies, eh! [Rires.] Depending on the periods, depending on the tours. Ideal weight, 86 or so. Weight at the moment, more like 90… And catastrophic weight, 95/96 but no!
Come on, let’s say I’m at 89. But I’m going to go down because at each concert, I lose between 800 grams and 1 and a half kilos, we get agitated on stage!
Born in Algeria, of Berber, French origin… There you go.
I am the record holder for Restos du coeur selections, I have never missed a year!
Patrick Bruel
Author of the 2024 anthem of Les Enfoirés, “Until the last”
I started two years after Jean-Jacques Goldman but he stopped a while ago, so I find myself the record holder for selections, because I have never missed a year. And more than that, I have never missed a concert.
Even in 2020, when I fell off the stage during rehearsals, despite the violent shock, even that evening I did the concert. And the next day, the same, with a huge knee. I am committed to never missing an edition and for the moment, I am holding on. This year, I co-wrote Until the last with Ycare.
Restaurants matter because they are a wonderful human adventure. We distribute between 170 and 200 million meals per year. It’s clear, it’s pure. The artists never received a cent for doing it, it’s good to remember that.
As for Les Enfoirés, it’s a wonderful summer camp, where artists meet and share moments that they wouldn’t have shared otherwise. It’s artistically, humanly, professionally, charitableally, a fantastic moment.
Poker took up a lot of space at one point in my life, maybe even a little too much, because it’s very time-consuming. It all started because I am a man of challenges. I had been playing poker for a while and I suggested to Canal Plus, since they were premium in many things, to also put poker on the air.
They told me: “With pleasure, if you are the one presenting it.” I objected that you had to be world champion for that. They told me that I just had to be world champion, and come back to see them. It was 1995/96.
I am proud to have democratized competitive poker in France.
Patrick Bruel
1998 World Poker Champion
So I went to tournaments, then championships, then world championships. One, then two, then three. The third world championship in 98, I won it. I went back to see them. And we did the show.
A few years later, the time to prepare everything, we ended up with the World Poker Tour on Canal, and it democratized competitive poker a little in France. It’s a source of pride.
It’s true that it made its mark, this black and white bandana that I wore in the 90s. It became a little code. Renaud wore a red and white one, and I wore a black and white one.
From time to time, I take it out, I put it back in and it reminds me of something, it’s funny.
This is the wonderful adventure of the LEOS estate, the name taken from Léon and Oscar, my children. I acquired it in 2006 to create an anchor, a family home, a landmark for my children. There were a few olive trees, not many. But the love of the tree means that I plant a few here and there.
Then I decide to make a small bottle of olive oil for us, for the family. We taste it, we find it not bad. I continue to have trees, then more trees and at some point, I have the opportunity at a nursery to acquire really many trees.
One day we decide to market and, once again, as I don’t do things by halves, I work, a lot, with very competent people and, in 2017, from the first year, we found ourselves a gold medal in AFIDOL (now France Olive) which rewards the best oils.
From there, it’s incessant work, to arrive today at 70 medals including 26 gold in all competitions around the world, H for LEOS is truly an oil acclaimed everywhere.
It’s a great human and agricultural adventure and on the ground, it’s immense satisfaction.
Right now there’s a song called I’ve done it a hundred times, which I sing to end the show and which is probably one of the most beautiful. Well, I don’t know if it’s the most beautiful… Because when I think of the most beautiful, I think of Eliethe song I wrote for my grandfather.
I can also think of I pretendthe text that the mother of my children [l’autrice Amanda Sthers] wrote about music that I composed, I can obviously think of Break your voice or to Place of great menwhich remain incredibly embodied and important songs… I don’t really have a song that I prefer. It depends on the moment, actually.
Still on tour with his show We talk about itPatrick Bruel will be in concert on October 8 and 9 in Lille, on the 10th in Brussels, on the 15th in Douai and on the 16th in Amiens.
