French | Perfect reunion with M

M gave Thursday evening the first of two shows at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to open the Francos. We attended her performance of rare generosity, in addition to meeting the French superstar a few hours before the performance. Report of a luminous evening of reunion, which took place under the sign of joy and love.

“It’s like a love story, finding someone you haven’t seen for nine years. It’s going to be beautiful tonight,” Matthieu Chedid told us in his dressing room, after a fairly intense sound test during which he sorted out a host of details. Arrived the day before and still under the effect of jet lag, the incandescent performer likes this slightly feverish state. “It’s an interesting second state,” he says, smiling.

The last time we saw M in Montreal was on the Place des Festivals in 2014, in front of a sea of ​​people. He had returned the following year surrounded by his family – his father, his brother, his sister – in a more intimate spectacle. The pandemic will then have forced this long involuntary hiatus for the singer who has been performing in Quebec since the beginning of the 2000s.

“I had almost more success here than in France at the start. We do not forget these things. We are a little in ecstasy here, the energy of the people, the love of the French language. It’s very enjoyable. And I find my great friends, Ariane Moffatt, Pierre Lapointe, Jim Corcoran, Marc Labrèche, Pascale Bussières. It will be an express trip, more in intensity than duration. »

M is back in Montreal as part of his tour revalitywhich is hugely successful: it was Thursday its 123^e date, and he estimates that when he ends it in September in London, after 150 performances, around a million spectators will have come to see it.

“It’s a real epic, this tour. » How to explain it? “Every evening, I ask who is coming for the first time, and it’s always half the room. My audience is getting younger, there are children, people in their twenties…”

In short, M has been a unifier for more than 25 years, because he practices his profession “selflessly, in the love of poetry, art, creativity, family, with the heart”, lists he.

“It’s like the song my grandmother wrote to me: ‘I say M and I sow it on my planet.’ They are seeds of love. It’s the right fertilizer, it grows well. »

The singer believes that the secret of his duration is to have remained outside the fashions and “beside the plate”, while remaining “of an implacable coherence” with himself.

The color of this tour is purple, a mix between the blue of dreams and the red of reality. “That’s what we experienced during this tour. »

He was preparing Thursday, after a short nap and with real excitement, to once again put on M’s clothes: never, after all these years, has his stage character weighed on him.

“My biggest hit is having created M. That’s why I don’t let go. Not that I feel like a prisoner to him, but thanks to this mask, I have even more fun. »

pure joy

M had promised us in an interview that he would get the spectators in the comfortable Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to get up from their seats. “It’s a story of energy, what. We admit that we doubted, but we had to prove him right from the first notes of the first song, revalitywhich lifted the entire floor of the huge room with nearly 3,000 seats.

More than two hours later, at the end of the show, people were still standing between the rows and in the aisles, singing, jumping and dancing, not tired for two pennies – and even those seated in the heights had ended up get up too.

More than a singer, M is a entertainer who takes the audience with him into his fantastic and joyful world, without letting go of them for a second. From the second song, the riff of Which of us hooked us. Right after, sensual wave had already given us the impression that the show had reached its climax.

But the atmosphere remained at the same level throughout, from The Seine To Mama Sam.

The singer often took the time to get people singing with the lights on, stretched out guitar solos (still amazing Machistador), showed us the lyrics of a new piece, choreography included (Mogodo). Even during the fully acoustic version of Face to faceno one thought to sit down.

There was also generosity in the air. For his bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, Bowie’s collaborator for 20 years, who sang alone Life on Mars and with whom he performs a cover of Joe Dassin (Yours), for Ariane Moffatt who comes to sing with him their now classic The lucky starfor the spectator who came to sing her version of Navelas he does during each show of this tour, for the public to whom he sends kisses and a ton of love, in pure joy.

When he started the encore with Mojo, the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, which is often so cold, vibrated with happiness and pleasure. It’s exactly what he was looking for, and he kept us like this until the end with That day And I say love, as he wandered from one end of the hall to the other in the audience, from one third balcony to another, taking his time well, before returning to the stage and ending with Radio.

his new song Mogodo speaks of the inner child in each of us, and one thing is clear: not only that of Matthieu Chedid is not very far when he goes on stage, but he knows how to bring out that of each spectator for a well placed riff. Whether he wears his M headdress or not, under the luminous eye that overlooks the stage, there is such a desire to share in him that we have no choice but to adhere to it.

“You set the bar very high for the Francos, thank you, Matthieu”, launched Ariane Moffatt leaving the stage after her performance, visibly moved. We can only agree with her: master of the riff and the rhyme, M delivered an opening show worthy of the name, colorful and truly touching in its generosity. The sower of love has succeeded again.