“I found out the news on Wednesday at 11 p.m. I had trouble getting to sleep afterwards,” says Frédéric Vautier, from Rouen, who discovered the group in 2003 thanks to a Quebec friend. The 46-year-old is part of Cousins Fringants, a fan association which has followed the Cowboys in Europe for 20 years.
“I saw them between 15 and 20 times, in France, in Belgium, in Switzerland. » The last time was in February 2022 in a sold-out Paris-Bercy… which means 17,000 people!
From Quebec, it is difficult to measure the extent to which Les Cowboys Fringants is popular in French-speaking Europe. Without advertising, without playing on the radio, they managed to fill the big arenas each time they visited, with several thousand people per evening.
“Their albums stood on their own. Bercy, they could have filled it for three evenings,” emphasizes Frédéric Vautier.
Singer-songwriter Catherine Durand was in Bercy during the 2022 concert. The Quebec guitarist followed the group on two European tours as an accompanist for Cowboy Marie-Annick Lépine, who opened with her own songs.
“They had the great generosity of giving me a place on Shooting Stars at the end. I knew they were popular, I had seen photos of their concerts in Europe. But to see these people singing all their songs, hearing the French with their accent singing lyrics full queb like those of My boyfriend Rémi : “The big guy, give me your keys / You’re going crazy / You’re way too busy / To heat your little one” … They have completely made their repertoire their own. »
Growing popularity
From his position as director of the Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland, Daniel Rossellat has seen the Cowboys’ progress in Europe up close. He invited them to his home three times: in 2006 “when they did not have the same notoriety”, in 2011, then in 2019, during a memorable concert on the big stage in front of 40,000 people.
“We have 5,500 volunteers who work during our festival. Each time, at the end, we do a survey to find out what their favorite concert was. This year, it was the Cowboys, because they were really in the spirit of the festival. »
PHOTO LIONEL FLUSIN, PROVIDED BY THE PALÉO FESTIVAL
The Cowboys, in front of a sea of fans, in 2011, at the Paléo Festival in Nyon, Switzerland
He emphasizes that in addition to its appearances at the Paléo, the group was also able to regularly fill the Geneva Arena, which has 8,000 seats.
Quebec artists who can do that are rare. I am excluding Celine Dion here.
Daniel Rossellat, director of the Paléo Festival in Nyon
The image he retains of the group is precisely that of the audience singing in unison, the positive energy and the strong emotions that they brought to the spectators’ attention. “There was complicity. And Karl, he was accessible. We felt we could be close to him. »
Missed appointment
The Cowboys may have attracted crowds, but mourning is still more “intimate” for their European fans than for Quebecers, underlines Sophie Biger, who lives in Rennes. “Not all the people around us know them, like you do,” explains the 46-year-old teacher. She has gone to see them perform five or six times since the beginning of the 2000s. She loves them for the message, for the music that sometimes makes her “jump around” all alone at home.
“A Cowboys concert was something to be experienced. It was inconceivable to take seats! » She then tells us, her voice choked with emotion, that she herself lost her brother a year ago to brain cancer. “We miss Karl, but we also think of the human side, of our loved ones. »
The Cowboys Fringants shows planned in Europe this fall had been postponed, and everyone we spoke to on Thursday hoped to finally be able to see them again in the spring of 2024. This is the case of Isabelle Lefebvre, a recent fan, who had never heard of them before a colleague gave him tickets for the Bercy concert in 2022.
What really touched me was this osmosis between the Cowboys and the public. I’m a regular at concerts, but this was different, it was like a family, a family that had adopted me. People were singing, dancing, becoming one. It was poignant.
Isabelle Lefebvre
She therefore hoped to see them again at the Zénith in June 2024, a question of showing her affection to Karl. “It’s going to take me some time to grieve. It’s like I started a relationship with the Cowboys and suddenly everything fell apart. »
This is also what Morgane Trioreau, 17, who discovered the group last year, feels. She was going to see them for the first time in her life in Lille in April, and was counting the days until then.
“For the past year, their songs have become part of my daily life. There isn’t a day that I don’t listen to them. »
Here as in Europe, Karl Tremblay leaves a trace of his presence, his joy of living, his generosity. “The Cowboys lyrics particularly touch me and even if he didn’t write them, he brought them to life,” says Nolwell Ruello. The 39-year-old woman, who lives in Lyon, fell “with both feet into the Cowboys” 15 years ago and has seen them in concert nearly ten times. “I feel like I lost someone who matters. »