Francos | The inspiring goodbye to Ferland

What we expect from a tribute is emotion. Undeniably touching moments where hearts that don’t know each other vibrate in unison. It happened Tuesday during the musical goodbye to Jean-Pierre Ferland, who died in April, when Julie-Anne Saumur sang A little higher, a little further.

Until then, we had been treated to some great numbers. As You are my love, you are my mistress by Hubert Lenoir and Ariane Roy. As When we love we are always 20 years old And Sing Sing by Lou-Adriane Cassidy, Thierry Larose and again Ariane Roy. As Macadam flowers by Louis-Jean Cormier, Vincent Vallières and Patrice Michaud, who then made Send to home and incited the crowd to stick together The most beautiful slow.

Great numbers, but nothing to turn our hearts upside down. Then, Ariane Moffatt, artistic director of this show called The little kingsinvited Julie-Anne Saumur to sing A little higher, a little further. The song with which Ginette Reno lifted Mount Royal in 1975 and the Plains of Abraham decades later. With his friend Jean-Pierre. And Celine.

A little higher, a little further, it is a monument. A sure hit, too, if we can keep up the score. Julie-Anne Saumur was not only perfect. In his mouth, the song took on a whole new meaning.

Hearing Ferland’s last lover sing phrases like “a little higher, a little further, I can’t hold your hand anymore”, with her eyes shining, it was heartbreakingly moving.

The other big emotional moment of the evening came right after. Vincent Vallières said that at the end of his adolescence, he and his friends listened to rock. Radiohead, among others. And Jean-Pierre Ferland… Who had just come out don’t listen to thatthe immense album which marked his return in 1995. The record with which he ensured the affection of ears several decades younger than his own.

Vincent Vallières is not a great singer. It wasn’t the biggest voice on stage Tuesday – Marie Denise Pelletier and Marie-Pierre Athur were there… It doesn’t matter.

Ferland wasn’t a great singer either. But he was quite a performer. Vincent Vallières showed that he is capable of being one too, by offering an inhabited, no, monumental version ofDon’t listen to that.

We were about halfway through the show at that point. The job was done. Tribute there had been. All that remained was to feed the fire. What Marie-Pierre Arthur did by inviting her chosen family from Montreal (François Lafontaine, Louis-Jean Cormier and Ariane Moffatt) to sing with her I’m coming back home, a song that she still sings with her family when she returns to Gaspésie. After a version of The music by Martha Wainwright who unfortunately lacked delicacy.

Feeding the fire meant stirring the cage a little too. As Ferland liked to do. Karkwa took care of it with his foot heavy on The cat from the artists’ café And God Is an American, accompanied by several interpreters. The most beautiful and greatest delirium, however, came from Hubert Lenoir, fierce in If we got starteda song he covered on his album Darlene and that he had the opportunity to sing on TV with Jean-Pierre Ferland himself. The late poet looked like he was having dark fun on the small screen.

See Hubert Lenoir and Jean-Pierre Ferland sing If we got started

This beautiful tribute was bound to end on We’re lucky. Which, inevitably, was touching. However, Ariane Moffatt was smarter than that. After this beautiful moment, she had the idea of ​​placing another song, The sun takes you to the sun. Brilliant idea, because it was with the repetition of the line “Oh, how beautiful it is, seen from above” that this inspiring and inspired farewell to Ferland ended.

The concert The little kings will be the subject of a radio version broadcast on June 24 on ICI Musique.