Zaho de Sagazan, a stunning talent who has been awarded four times at the Victoires de la Musique (female revelation and stage revelation, prize for best album and song of the year), was for the first time on Saturday November 16 at the Zénith sud in Montpellier. A concert of rare beauty and intensity!
The most vigilant had spotted her in the summer of 2022 as the opening act for personalities (strong personalities, obviously) like Hervé, Mansfield. TYA or Juliette Armanet. Since then, in the region, we have been able to appreciate it at the Voix de femmes festival in Maury, at Printival in Pézenas, at the Victoire 2 room in Saint-Jean-de-Védas, at Paloma in Nîmes or even at Quand je pense à Fernande in Sète, at the top of an increasingly large bill but always sold out. But on Saturday November 16, with a full house at the Zénith Sud in Montpellier, Zaho de Sagazan clearly entered another dimension… but without losing sight of the essential, the very one which contributed to making it also essential for us: the human dimension.
Whatever the sophistication of her lyrics and music, the Nazairian singer presents herself with such naturalness, passion, joy and a sense of derision that we are quick to declare her our best friend! She opens her set as her album opens, with this Blood Fountain with a Gothic-Baudelairian atmosphere, from the proscenium, but behind a piano whose triangular nose reminds us of a “soulbreaker”. She is alone in a well of light, and her song is unique in its well of meaning….
Four great electronic musicians
The stage arrangement is revealed to us with the following song, more obvious, heady, Aspiration : in addition to this proscenium, which she will pace without rest or fatigue, the stage is inhabited on two levels by four young musicians (a drummer-percussionist, two keyboardists with analog synthesizers and digital machines, and a multi- instrumentalist juggling synths on guitar) and fringed with multiple robotic lighting, which will soon dazzle. Without saying anything about its distant plain on which primary colors are projected and the quintet is divided into Chinese shadows.
Pour The last of the journeysshe loses the sleeves of her frock coat. It's already very hot in the Zénith Sud, and for good reason: Zaho de Sagazan's live performance accentuates the electronic nature of his music, which regularly hits the Berlin techno night scene. It hits, it persists, it hits, it steals, it reveals. The 24-year-old singer admits to having never known love but to having dreamed of it so many times, crushed, let go, before falling for [son] Unknown. There is a lot of talk about love during her concert, the very word is repeated over and over in the following song which, she warns, is nevertheless devoid of it, since The sleepers talk about the toxic people who abuse their job for sad ends. Phew! The following song, minimalist, almost piano-voice, still only talks about that, Tell me you love me, but this time, this reciprocal: from the pit as from the stands, the declarations flourish and rain at the same time!
Phenomenal “Sadness”
After I dreamand its magnificent lights, Sadness is a piece of bravura that synthesizes the best of Zaho de Sagazan, worked text, elegant articulation, feverish interpretation, exponential narration. The techno beat is becoming more and more aggressive. “The sadness is there” but pushed by pushing it to its limits, the singer sublimates it, it becomes rage, it turns into catharsis. The public exults!
After inviting us to accept our faults in O throughit recalls the intimate origin, yes, its lachrymophilic hypersensitivity, of “A little [son] tube”as she calls it, The symphony of lightning. The version is magnificent, which stretches without exhausting itself, of which the audience repeats the poetic refrain in a loop while Zaho de Sagazan comes to him, circulating at the foot of the stage to smile at him as closely as possible and with him, to sing again and again that“It’s always nice above the clouds.” She continues Old friend without Tom Odell and My body without arguing. The work of light is remarkable at this moment which sees a technician lighting the group from the edge of the stage while moving forward, projecting gigantic moving shadows in the process.
Almost half an hour of clubbing
After Talk about lovewho is already clearly squinting towards the dancefloor, Zaho de Sagazan warns: “Songs of love and self-confidence are finished! Now it’s electronic!” And to urge: “Don’t look at you, let go!” While the singer and her musician friends put their actions in line with their words, and send heavy things both to the microphone (vocoded with mischief) and to the machines (in Blitzkrieg mode), before letting go, we look at each other, yes, we , the public.
Damn, we still find ourselves much older than our hostess, not far from being twice as old as her on average but at this moment, through the combined effect of the flashing of the lights and the widening of the smiles, he doesn't Nothing seems to be there anymore. We'll count the aches tomorrow, for now, it's crazy on every floor for almost half an hour!
Don't look at you, Hab Sex, Dance. The moment is fabulous, warm, happy… Zaho de Sagazan who leads by example, dances like a marvelous devil, without ever abandoning her microphone as an ecstatic mistress of ceremonies. She will end up leaving the stage carried by her four musicians!
The reminders are two last opportunities to confirm that Zaho de Sagazan is close to the summits: she resumes with simplicity and sincerity, Modern love by David Bowie and Ah, life is beautiful by Brigitte Fontaine. Yes, that says something, but the fact that she invites her whole team, really all of them, to come dance and wave at the front of the stage, says just as much. Yes, it's a big one, but a big one at the right size, human size.
