“She is timeless“: the singer Barbara disappeared a quarter of a century ago but her journey and her work still make sense to artists today. “There is a renewal of generations that you don’t find on other artists: lots of young talents take over or are inspired by Barbara, it’s very surprising“, notes Bruno Haye, project manager for the release of a collector’s box. Barbara, complete 25th anniversary consists of 29 CDs, bringing together for the first time all his studio and live recordings.
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The creator of The black Eagle died on November 24, 1997 at the age of 67 but remains very present in the current landscape of French song. Pomme, crowned with the Victoires de la Musique in 2021, thus devotes a piece to Barbara, entitled Bin his third album Consolation, released in August. “Barbara, it was a shock when I was eight“, entrusted to AFP the singer, who is not yet 30 years old, at the time of the exit of her disc.
Tell me, when will you come back ?, one of the standards of the one also called “La dame en noir”, was taken up on her social networks by Zaho de Sagazan, an emerging singer who the whole music industry is talking about while her first album is in preparation. Nothing surprising for this artist between song and electro who has immersed herself in artists “inhabited” – Barbara, Jacques Brel, Janis Joplin – as she said during her visit to the Rock en Seine festival at the gates of Paris at the end of August.
“Many of his songs have returned me well, My childhood is for me one of the most beautiful“, also admits Suzane, who interweaves songs with texts/electro and has just released a second album, cameo. “She has quite a history, as an artist and as a woman, managed to speak brilliantly about a lot of subjects in her songs, like The black Eagle (on incest) or Goettingen (Franco-German reconciliation after the Second World War)“, continues Suzanne.
Beyond these titles”moving that everyone has decoded“, Bruno Haye points out that Barbara was “carrier most of the time of messages in almost all its pieces“.”If we listen carefully, we realize that she wrote strong things more than forty years ago like Neither beautiful nor good”. In this piece, Barbara plays with her image to talk about the games of love and the labels stuck to women. In a bittersweet tone, with a very advanced sense of image for a title released in the 1960s.
Suzane even has “read his biography“when she landed in Paris a few years ago from her native Avignon to work in a restaurant while dreaming of being a singer.”Barbara has emancipated herself through her art, she is timeless“, further comments the stage revelation at the Victoires de la musique 2020.
The scene was precisely Barbara’s garden. The fervor of her audience pushes her to dedicate one of her best-known titles to him, “My most beautiful love story is you“. The intensity of his performances behind his piano in Parisian halls – Bobino, Olympia, Châtelet, Mogador – or in the suburbs – Pantin – forged his legend.
“The incarnation of the songs obviously played a role in her myth, as in these videos where we see her crying on certain titles“, recalls Bruno Haye. And to conclude: “But this character from + The Lady in Black +, she also used it as a smokescreen; by talking with her musicians, we realize that she could be so funny in life, that she was going to drink shots with her friends at the bistro“.