“I try to remain worthy of the love the public gives me”

Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday October 4, 2024: author, composer and performer Gilbert Montagné. Today, he is releasing a book of nursery rhymes entitled “We sing! We dance!” at Fleurus.

Gilbert Montagné is an author, composer and performer and has never stopped accompanying us with his songs classified in the Hits category as The sunlights of the tropics, The Full, We’re going to love each other and so many others. What represents him most, on the one hand, is his voice with its quite impressive range, his piano playing and his smile. Since his birth, he has been deprived of his eyes and yet his outlook on the world and on life commands respect. Today, Gilbert Montagné a book of nursery rhymes entitled We sing! Let’s dance! At Fleurus.

franceinfo: Let’s dance! We sing! These are five timeless nursery rhymes from our childhood, five nursery rhymes written and set to music by yourself with also illustrations by Thierry Manes. How did you end up in this adventure?

Gilbert Montagné: What I really liked about it was that it took me back to my early childhood. When I was three years old, I went to the only kindergarten where they admitted us as blind people. The only one in Paris. And it was an extraordinary kindergarten. In the morning, for each student who arrived, we sang a sweet little song and it was fantastic because they understood our way of understanding things and seeing things. There is not just one kind of vision, there is the vision of the eyes. I’m sure it must be very good, I don’t know anything about it at all, so I don’t know. There is also another vision, it is the vision of spirit. This is the vision of belief in possibility. This is what has always carried me through since the incubator, in fact, the belief in the possible.

I would like to talk about this incubator. You are born on the kitchen table of the small family apartment in the 20th arrondissement of Paris. You’re low on oxygen, so the doctor who lives in the rich part of the building comes to visit you. It puts product in your eyes. He thinks you’re not going to survive and then you go to the hospital.

They did what they could, which was to say they put in a lot of oxygen, otherwise I was going to die. They put in too much, but they didn’t know at the time. It’s not their fault. I never held a grudge against them and I don’t see why I would have held a grudge against them anyway. Since I was a little baby, I have loved my world. I always wanted to communicate with people. First, it was in my nature and then I knew that it might not be them who would come to me, so it was up to me to go to them. But it doesn’t matter.

“The important thing is not who takes the first step, it’s that the first step is taken. I have always believed in the possible.”

Gilbert Montagné

at franceinfo

There was a time when it was very difficult for you. It seems like it was a fairy tale and that it still worked from the start, but it didn’t at all. You begged at one point.

Yes, well, it didn’t last long, four or five days. But to me it seemed like ages. I had an iron coffee can and then I had a few coins and I used them for percussion and I sang about my problems, in the street. And there, I realized the disdain people have when they see someone begging, they don’t even stop. Nobody speaks. As a blind person, it seems normal that you beg. At school, that’s everything we were taught not to do. Yes, I begged because I had a little baby, Eric. It was necessary to have a little money for food and diapers. But the thing with me is that I don’t hold onto the negative, it wasn’t a big deal, I knew it wasn’t going to last. I didn’t know what was going to happen, but I knew it wouldn’t last.

You have always believed in life. You always said that it was the looks of others that always bothered you.

Well, embarrassed… That is to say, I found that it was a waste of time and a lack of belief in the possibility that they had to look at me that way.

“People didn’t think I knew they were looking at me intently.”

Gilbert Montagné

at franceinfo

And you know what was funny? It’s that in the metro, from the age of three to the age of 13, my mother was with me and she said to people: “But then you didn’t see anything? Do you want his photo? “And then, for years, I gave my photos at the end of concerts.

In 1971, there was The Full and then in 1984, there is the album Freedom filled with tubes The sunlights of the tropics, We’re going to love each other. What do these songs mean to you?

What’s wonderful, really, after 53 years of career, is that for example, this summer, we did a series of extraordinary concerts. An audience not possible, more and more young people, ten years old, eight years old, 15 years old and it’s fire! And it made me so happy that I said to myself: OK, now I want to prepare an album. So, that’s not what we’re talking about today because I love my illustrated book for little babies from one to five years old. But in a few months, I will come and talk to you about my album. I did it because I wanted to, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it.

Finally, what do these 53 years spent with us represent?

For now, I have a very good life. I can’t complain. I try to remain worthy of the love the public gives me.