Mylène Farmer delights her fans at the Stade de France in a Gothic-Hitchcockian show

A year after the postponement of his Parisian dates, the enigmatic star concludes his “Nevermore” tour. Friday evening, there was a deluge of hits in an impressive self-referenced scenography, placed under the sign of the crow. Regressive!

Nevermore (“never again”)Really ? Mylène Farmer’s stadium tour almost honored the title in red letters which appears this Friday, September 27 on the screen of the legendary Stade de France. The Ile-de-France concert series was postponed from summer 2023 to fall 2024, due to riots linked to the death of young Nahel. A blessing in disguise: the grayness better suits the sepulchral universe of the star. The rain dried up, as did the line of worshipers who camped in front of the entrance and left survival blankets and bottles in their wake. In the stadium, almost full, the atmosphere is good-natured. So my seatmate, who will turn out to be endowed with vocal cords that would make the singing redhead pale, prides himself on being his “biggest fan, obviously”.

Like those, no doubt, massed in the pit, around a stage projection cut in the shape of a cross. At the end, two giant crows deflate without anyone seeing it coming. The screen broadcasts the black and white clip of Regrets (1997), which Mylène Farmer recorded with the late Jean-Louis Murat, who died in May 2023. The homage gives way to a flock of Hitchcockian black birds, swirling until they draw a hollow silhouette. Finally, the singer emerges from the ground on a stripped-down version of Time (2011). On both sides appear scarecrows with avian skulls. A true icon of the show, the crow will appear for two hours in various forms. For the most subtle: a guttural voice-over declaiming The Raven by the American romantic poet Edgar Allan Poe. For the most spectacular: a giant sculpture from the belly of which Mylène Farmer, in a golden costume, interprets Tristana (1986), which she had not done since Tour 89.

Tombstones and luminous crosses

A tour on which Nevermore keeps referring to it, my neighbor informs me, who attended it – unfortunately I was not born. The return to favor of the eighties did not escape the singer’s stylistic team: copper hair styled in a ponytail, peplum jackets and frilled shirts from the era Libertine (1986). No need to track down the inspiration for the painting Without counterfeiting (1987), which uses the choreography and black and white checkered costumes of this famous Tour 89. Tombstones topped with luminous crosses grow like flowers on the stage – again, it seems like déjà vu.

As always with Mylène Farmer, the scenography multiplies the mystical-religious elements in an expected but excessive manner. Hence visually remarkable sequences, mainly around songs from the album The Hold (2022): a gigantic inflatable reaper and a parade of hooded figures holding lanterns to That I become… ; the luminous conflagration of a section of a Gothic cathedral on How beautiful the dawn is. Without forgetting the superb reminder of Rekindle the stars : screen shimmering in bluish tones, rays sweeping the room, Mylène Farmer followed by her sixteen dancers… The latter also infuse the dynamic of the most lively titles, such as It’s a beautiful day (2001) or Yes but… no (2010). Without them, the singer sometimes seems to stick to a (too) well-oiled mechanism between two fades to black. As when she performs perched on a mechanical arm from the second title of the concert (Maybe you, 2005): the effect would have been stronger at the end.

Fortunately, halfway through, the bass gives way to Yvan Cassar’s piano and the musicians (guitarists, bassist, drummer), until now drowned in the decor. In a silver-colored lamé dress, Mylène Farmer deploys her ethereal voice more frontally, which we are delighted to find more intelligible. Smartphone lights light up like so many stars from the first notes of Dream (1995). The crowd communes with its “Mylene.” So the mysterious redhead lets him have the last word (” to like “) and holds out the microphone for an a cappella chorus. She will do the same, much later in the evening, with Disenchanted (1991), “a song that unites”she said. Not very talkative, the reserved Mylène Farmer offers her most frank smiles to her surprise guests: AaRON and Seal, respective and respected interpreters of Rayon vert (2022) et The Words (2001). In the stands, we sigh with contentment.

After a final thank you, the singer bows out by flying into the air, locked in a cage of screens which darken to become clouds then birds. Here she becomes an enigma again. It is clear that two hours passed in the blink of an eye. What living French musician can boast, over such a period, of performing (almost) only hits? If Mylène Farmer is no longer the transgressive artist of the beginning, her apparent immutability has something comforting. And made of Nevermore a regressive pleasure, which we swallow like a packet of candy.