From backstage to stage | Adib Alkhalidey, under his sun exactly

“I decided that I would not take this regret with me to my grave,” says Adib Alkhalidey. Which ? That of not having followed through on his musical desires. We spent the day with him on the last date of his first real tour as a singer.

“I don’t remember Adib not singing,” whispers Maissoun Alkhalidey, his younger sister and faithful right-hand man. Leaving bars, in the street, on the bus: the young man has long enjoyed responding to special requests from his friends who asked him for Jacques Brel.

And it is precisely The song of old lovers that the comedian declaims when we arrive at the Ministry of Montreal, on the afternoon of December 14, during the soundcheck of the last show of his first real tour as a singer.

“Of course we had storms/Twenty years of love is crazy love/A thousand times you took your luggage/A thousand times I took off,” he intones under his Yankees hoodie , as if it were a childhood nursery rhyme.

Taking flight: Father Brel’s formula suits perfectly this trip of seven dates in as many relatively intimate venues, an adventure in which Adib was not able to embark on in September 2023, during the release of his third album, Dirty Arab in Therapy (or The Discreet Charms of a Class Defector). Excellent reason: his wife was then preparing to give birth to their boy.

But there was no question for him of not transposing to the stage the songs created with the director Dominique Plante, today his musical director, whom he discovered thanks to his work with the intelligent pop sensation, Ariane Roy.

All his musicians have visibly become his chums and the seriousness of several of his words which he makes resonate for the benefit of the sound recordist – “Love is a lure which benefits shame” – contrasts with the almost schoolboy lightness of the barbs the guys send to each other.

And here is Adib who raves about the socks with the Maxi supermarket logo that his saxophonist Julien Fillion is wearing: “Where did you get those? » “Well, at the Maxi! » General hilarity.

No more loneliness

“I’m in the front row of a show that I love and I’m really happy to be with friends on stage, because I’ve spent a lot of time alone,” Adib confides, exaggerating the dejection. We are in the cramped basement rooms of the Ministry. He bursts out with his big, crazy laugh. “You feel the sadness, huh? But it’s true, a comedian on tour spends a lot of time alone. »

The 36-year-old designer therefore faces this return to square one with joy, even in his most mundane tasks. No question of playing the prince. He’s even the one who will make a call to the Omnivore restaurant, a few streets away, so that everyone’s dishes are ready when they sit down.

And it was only once there that he realized that he had forgotten to note the order from the lighting engineer, who was exceptionally added to the team that evening. While apologizing, the star, not a star at all, insists that Lisandre take his own plate, then insists again, then insists again, until she finally accepts.

First period of extreme cold. That day, Adib wears a tuque on which the acronym is embroidered G.T.F.O.D.M.S.the title of the inaugural song of Dirty Arab in therapy. Meaning: Get the fuck out of my sun. A phrase borrowed from Antiquity, from Diogenes the Cynic more precisely, he explains between two mouthfuls of kofta and a quick call to his son, who was taking a bath.

Let’s summarize. The powerful Alexander the Great, who enjoyed the company of intellectuals, one day went on his horse to visit the modest Diogenes and asked him if he needed anything. Slumped on the ground, the old philosopher replies: “Yes. Take a little away from my sun. »

Our host bursts out again with his big, crazy laugh.

In a merry-go-round

“Ah my love, the world is on fire and blood,” sings Adib in one of his most strangely perky pieces (By fire and blood), but with him, even in the dark, we are there, under the sun exactly.

“When we are touching, we are touching, when we are intense, we are intense”, intimate to his colleagues, in the tone of a coach hockey player, musical director Dominique Plante, a few minutes before going on stage. An instruction that everyone will follow to the letter, starting with Adib, who exerts himself at the same time as a whirling dervish, a disjointed puppet, a dancer of La La La Human Steps and a member of Wu-Tang.

“There’s something very intimate about singing and moving in front of people,” he told us a little earlier. “It seems like you’re inviting them to see what you’re like when you’re all alone.” And I think that’s the real gift you give yourself: you let go of the barriers and you say to yourself, this is how it vibrates inside. »

“Tabarnac!” I didn’t expect there to be so many people,” he exclaims after a particularly explosive introduction. Among the almost 300 people present, there are a few surprised faces of spectators who had obviously not received the memo that their favorite comedian would be accompanied this evening by more than a stool, a microphone and a glass of water.

Each evening during the tour, 10 to 15 people seemed, according to Adib, to learn firsthand the not necessarily comical content of what they came to witness. Without wishing to deceive anyone, the main party is delighted to have inserted more experimental moments into this show, including several ardent saxophone slides.

“We are happy that there are people who, a priori, would not have gone in this direction and who are discovering our kind of hybrid of rock, jazz, French song and hip-hop. It’s like a merry-go-round: there are more poppy parts and others where it’s a little less comfortable. »

It takes courage

The only truly humorous moment arises during the presentation of You know Meloa sweet electro pop fantasy dedicated to his lover, before which Adib recounts a trip to Costa Rica that almost turned into a disaster, a number that could appear in any of his works of art. stand-up.

Two new pieces played halfway through allow us to believe that the best is ahead for Adib, the songwriter, as they were the highlight of the evening. Notably this song in which Saint-Laurent’s son, from a rather poor background, remembers his rides in a luxury car with his rich friends who, ironically, wore Che sweaters. All the vulnerability, all the insight, all the derision of Adib Alkhalidey are contained there.

Music will therefore not be a parenthesis for those who are really involved in it – are they capable of the opposite? –, even if it means stealing time from a career as a comedian that we guess is more lucrative. His most recent one-man show was, after all, presented at the Théâtre Maisonneuve, a 1,500-seat venue.

“What I concentrate on,” he continues in a long and feverish tirade of which he has the secret, “is on what makes me vibrate, even if it scares me, even if it is difficult, even if it requires a form of humility. I could have not done it out of cowardice, but I decided that I would not take that regret with me to my grave. Then, to this day, it is a decision which, for my soul, has been extraordinary. My music reflects my values, gives meaning to my life, makes me learn. Everything I give to the public, I give to myself too. »

Additional at Petit Champlain in Quebec on January 9 and September 20.

Visit the artist’s website