Friday escape with Izïa Higelin

It’s the story of a young woman whose philosophy is: “The best strategy is not to have any”.

Izïa has been on stage for more than half her life. Started at 15, she is 33 today. Yesterday we said child of the ball, now we say “daughter of”. A lineage that inspired magnificent songs from her father and her.

A life of acceleration and sudden withdrawals. Fierce and slow down.

Acceleration: microphone on point, black pants, she surveys the entire horizontal of the stage, dancing, singing, in anger, joy or dismay. All in a compact hour and a half, the time of a concert.

I arrived at her house in a moment of withdrawal or rather withdrawal, while she is on display in Juliet in spring, by Blandine Lenoir. A film adapted from an excellent comic strip by Camille Jourdy.

His parents’ house in Pantin

Izïa went back to live in her parents’ house in Pantin, where she grew up: “I always had a little trouble leaving this house, it’s really my cocoon. I sleep in the same room I slept in when I was 23. And now, at 33, I sleep there with my son next door, then my mother. Sometimes it’s a little hard to be in this house because there’s so much history. I can see my father everywhere in the house, but at the same time, when I see my son sitting behind the piano, where I used to play, it’s wonderful. The tree outside is the one from my parents’ wedding. My son loves to pee on it. Every morning he wakes up, and he pees against this tree. I tell myself that it would make my father so funny. »

Far from the excitement of the city

Izia is a real stunner, she hardly goes to Paris anymore, and she doesn’t miss the excitement of Parisian life. She prefers to be at home and she doesn’t have a huge need to show off. And yet, she does this job: “I have artistic ambition, my desire, it’s there. I want to progress in my profession, as with any job, for it to be as normal as possible, but my ambition for success, money, and notoriety, I don’t have a big one. need. Once I’ve finished my tour, I withdraw, I cut myself off from networks and I let the next album mature and experience things to have material for new songs. »

An intuitive and spontaneous artist

Izia left school at fifteen, at a time when we are vulnerable: “I was aware of very few things in my life, even my parentage, my father, his fame, the fact of being fifteen and doing rock concerts and going on tour. I never asked myself any questions. I did everything spontaneously, intuitively, telling myself that if I believed in it, it was cool, and since I was full of good intentions, that it was going to go well. But time made me understand that it was more complicated than that. At the beginning, I exposed myself a lot, today, I protect myself a lot from others. Today, all jobs are image jobs, even radio is filmed now. I didn’t give a damn when I was 16, 17 years old. In my 20s, I restricted myself quite a bit from exposing myself in such a vulnerable and naive way, and I learned this the hard way. I closed down a little. And there, from the album Speed, I feel like I’m getting back to being the punk I was. »

Her role in “Juliette in Spring”

The first time she acted in front of a camera was eleven years ago. First time, then first role in the film Bad girl and in the process, first César for the most promising actor. Next Wednesday, she will be on display at Juliet in spring : “In “Juliette in Spring”, I played a very silent role, even though I had just come out of three months of touring. And suddenly, I fell into silence, into a very restrained character who has just come out of depression, who is still a little depressed. In this game, there were a lot of looks, presence and it was pleasant. And then after a while, it almost became frustrating, I needed to get the lion out, and Sophie Guillemin, who played my sister, had a completely opposite character, very talkative and I almost envied her a little. . And then, there is also the relationship with the father who is played by Jean-Pierre Darroussin who was truly incredible. I am so happy to have met this actor. The whole first week of filming, it was just the two of us, we did all the scenes in his apartment, there is this father-daughter relationship and a kind of great modesty, which I too was able to experience even if with my father, we were extremely close. »

To find out more, listen to the show…