“She turned the song upside down”

The author, performer and actor, Marc Lavoine, is the exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie Suigo from December 30, 2024 to January 3, 2025.

When he was little, he dreamed of the stage and the theater, of saying things out loud. It was his older brother who gave him his first guitar. Since then, he has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of his hit She has gun eyes, found in the anniversary album Revolver, composed of 18 of his hits (plus four previously unreleased tracks) with the Bulgarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He will also be on stage from April 24 until June 14, for an electro symphonic tour throughout France.

franceinfo: This anniversary album includes this whole life story, destiny depends on the choices and the encounters we make?

Marc Lavoine : I tend to write in a low voice. All the songs that I do, I sing them mostly in a low voice because there is no point in proclaiming, in asserting. When you whisper something in someone’s ear, it’s like putting a hand in another. There is something intimate. Romain Gary, when he talks about love and says: “She had eyes where life was so good that I never knew where to live since“, yelling it does no good.

But what your songs convey are encounters and choices?

Yes, it’s the choice. Before, I said yes to everything, I didn’t dare say no. I believe that one day you have to know how to say no. It is first of all by saying no that we determine the choice we make. Saying yes is easy,”Oh yes, I want to“. And today, I think I have learned to dare to say no to those close to me or to my job. There are things that I could not do and so I say no.

“I’ve never played in an ad for a bank or for something, doing an ad for a big car that’s worth a lot of money, I’d look stupid singing, ‘That’s what France’ is like, side.”

Marc Lavoine

at franceinfo

We realize that everything is based on one word, ‘trust’. Did it take you a long time to trust yourself?

Trust is a risk. I wrote a song about it. I wondered why, when I was betrayed, pushed down the stairs of contempt, I forget, people, I don’t blame them. I say thank you because I forget them and it keeps me from feeling resentful. One day my apartment burned to the ground, my daughter was in it and luckily she escaped. Suddenly, I had nothing left, but ultimately, it didn’t matter because freedom comes at a high price, but it has no price. When you go to Asia, Africa, everything is alive. It’s not the same philosophy, it’s not the same point of view on things, it’s not the same poetry. And that’s why poetry appeals to me because with it, we find life again. We can talk about death, we can talk about life, but we talk about it with lightness, with grace. I’m very interested in finding this form of grace. And to have lost everything, finally, I was possessed by what I had, to have lost everything, it made me feel good.

Among the people who gave you confidence in yourself, there is Fabrice Aboulker, but there is also Catherine Ringer. It’s true that you both met very young. You grew up together with injuries, disappearances.

She was more hurt than me. When Gainsbourg called her out, it was unbearable. It was unfair. She defended herself magnificently.

“Catherine Ringer is a fundamental woman. Suffering made her even kinder, made her more beautiful, more tolerant, to the point that she sang with me !”

Marc Lavoine

at franceinfo

She has such incredible intelligence. She has audacity, she dares things, she makes them, she builds them. She has strength of character and she has a word. And she sings the lyrics well too. I sang the new version a little off track. She turned the song upside down, she took risks, she went in incredible directions. And then she danced, she held my hand. I got on the phone with her and she really likes what the song turned out to be. She’s a truly fantastic woman.