If Jules Verne once took the hero of his famous novel around the world in 80 days, the organizers of the SuperFrancoFête 2.0 chose to take a generous tour of the world Francophonie in 40 well-chosen songs, last night at the Agora of Quebec.
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In a postcard setting that included an illuminated Château Frontenac overlooking the stage in the distance, several classics that have become timeless and beautiful discoveries rubbed shoulders during this exciting show with a rhythmic and refined staging.
One of the greatest merits of this new SuperFrancoFête will have been to remind us that the world’s French-speaking repertoire is full of musical treasures.
There were some from Quebec, delivered in particular by Louis-Jean Cormier, Salebarbes, Damien Robitaille and Corneille, from Europe also with the much appreciated participation of Michel Fugain and Patrick Bruel and also from Africa represented among others by Tiken Jah Fakoly and the deliciously festive Ivorian group Magic System.
It was an opportunity, said Angélique Kidjo, who hosted with Garou and Nolwenn Leroy, to celebrate what unites “French speakers from all over the world”.
Mission accomplished, promise fulfilled!
All generations
Even if the average age of the 5,000 people who had free access to the Agora was, to the eye, quite high, it was definitely an appointment for all generations.
Sole representative of the original 1974 SuperFrancoFête, 78-year-old Robert Charlebois thrilled the crowd with a rousing piano rendition ofOrdinary.
Moments earlier, the crystal clear voice of Belgian Mentissa, 23, wowed everyone when she delivered a skin-deep version of her hit And bam, superbly accompanied by the troupe of DM Nation dancers, judiciously used on several occasions. The discovery of the evening.
Tribute to René Lévesque
The 100e René Lévesque’s birthday has not been passed over in silence. The re-reading by Maka Kotto of a speech he had delivered in Paris in 1985, caused a strong reaction from the crowd.
With around thirty artists at his disposal, the director was able to orchestrate several artistic encounters. Some were obvious, for example the union of Zachary Richard and Salebarbes on My trip to Louisiana.
Others united the continents, as when this same Zachary Richard teamed up with the Beninese Angélique Kidjo to revisit The tree is in its leaves.
There is little to complain about this evening spared by the rain, except that the artists, when they did not use the catwalk advancing towards the floor and remained on the main stage, sometimes seemed far from the public. .
The artisans of the SuperFrancoFête, however, had a lucky hand by keeping for the final the essential, and still relevant, anthem of hope by Raymond Lévesque When men will live on lovewhich brought together all the artists on stage and created a choir of 5,000 voices.
The honor of putting an end to the show then went to Patrick Bruel, who concluded with Square of great men by “giving us an appointment in a year”.
If the organizers wondered if they should make it an annual event, they had their answer.
♦ The SuperFrancoFête will be broadcast over the next few months on TVA, TV5 Monde and TV5 Québec-Canada in more than 200 countries.
What artists think of the French language
“ The French language is the only one, with English, to be present on the five continents. […] The French-speaking world has given birth to magnificent and great songs that manage to make us live beautiful stories of fraternity. »
–Angelique Kidjo
“ The French language is vast, it is lively. It seems that when encountering new landscapes, she invents thousands of shades. […] French is a path, it’s up to us to walk it. »
– Fred Pellerin
“It is high time for the Francophonie to play its proper role, that is, to act as an environment for the emergence of this new solidarity between peoples and cultures. »
– Maka Kotto, quoting René Lévesque in Paris, in 1985
“ If we celebrate the SuperFrancoFête today, it is a nod to the great event of 1974, right here in Quebec, which would give birth to the International Organization of La Francophonie. »
– Nolwenn Leroy
“La Francophonie is this integral humanism, which is woven around the Earth: this symbiosis of the dormant energies of all continents, of all races, which awaken to their complementary warmth. »
– Kim Thúy, quoting the former president of Senegal, Léopold Sedor Senghor