Every day, a personality invites herself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Today, the producer and eldest son of Claude François, Claude François Jr. Friday February 24 releases a double white vinyl collector, “French Disco Icon” to mark the 45 years of the disc “Magnolias for ever”.
Claude François Jr. is a producer and the eldest son of singer, dancer, musician and producer Claude François, who died almost 45 years ago. He was 10 years old when he disappeared and has been running his business ever since.
Friday, February 24, 2023 releases a collector’s double white vinyl printed in 2,000 copies, French Disco Icon to mark the 45th anniversary of the record Magnolias for ever. Next March 11 will mark the 45th anniversary of the disappearance of Claude François.
franceinfo: 45 years already and its status as an idol has never weakened. Is there still as much enthusiasm around the artist as he was?
Claude Francois Jr.: Yes, the more time passes, the more impressive it is. He has been ranked in club 40 for six weeks, which is the official club ranking in France with Magnolias, with lots of names that I don’t know, apart from Gims and David Guetta, which makes me laugh enough. What is fascinating is that it allows him to have a topicality where he does not always have one and a new listening with a new target that are young people.
45 years already… How did you live these 45 years without him?
It’s a progressive lack, the absence of the father, especially in adolescence, then afterwards in the life of a man, I had very young children. I don’t know if I would have gotten involved with their mom if my dad had been there.
“My journey as a man has been that of a son ‘alone’, without the experienced gaze of the father who, with hindsight, I missed.”
Claude Francois Jr.at franceinfo
What do you keep from him?
A loving father. That, for once, I never had the slightest doubt. Today, I can say that apart from a musical ear and a taste for gardening, I don’t get much from him. It is more my brother, in reality, who resembles him in character.
You physically resemble him in a rather incredible way. How do you live it?
What becomes complicated today is that I look like him by actually aging him, that is to say that I become the child older than he was since we are ‘forever young ‘ when unfortunately we leave at 39. And suddenly, I know it’s a danger, but we even talked about it twenty years ago, saying to ourselves: “One day we will have to stop“. Even his collaborators, the Claudettes had said: “But at some point, we will have to stop making TVs. We’re all gonna get a lot older than him and it’s gonna age him“.
I wondered why you didn’t make music, why you didn’t sing.
I spent a few years as a teenager really making music. It’s a period that lasted five, seven years. I tried to put the voice on my songs, except that it was not that. So I didn’t have the voice and then, I didn’t have the guts to go on stage, to go and defend this music and at some point, to do this job, you need that. My children, with new technologies, want to make compositions on the computer with Logic Pro and so suddenly they will perhaps put their fingers on a keyboard for the first time. It enchants me because creation is the most magical thing with love that we can give and receive on earth.
You are the guardian of the temple. I imagine that it is not always easy to make the right choices. There, you made the one to celebrate the 45 years of Magnolias with this double vinyl release. On the one hand there are remixes and on the other there is your father’s work with the original titles. Is it important for you to bring something very current and to show, finally, how much his music remains?
In fact, it’s beyond his music! It’s constantly reaching out to new generations, that’s what keeps an artist alive. Why do we celebrate song anniversaries? it’s because in the end, it’s his songs that carry him, 45 years later. And it’s still more fun than celebrating the 45ᵉ anniversary of his death. I prefer to celebrate the birthdays of songs, since it is with them that we live today.
When your father died, it was March 11, 1978 and it was expected that Alexandria Alexandra released on the 15th. Does this song particularly resonate with you?
Yes, because indeed, she talks about her childhood on a beautiful formula of a famous official biographer. On March 15, a first career ends, another begins. Alexandria Alexandra will bring him into this new career in which he will register thanks to the clubs. In reality, what distinguishes the phenomenon of my father today is the specificity of his repertoire, which is dancing. On July 14, on the village square or at family celebrations, it’s the same enthusiasm every time. Everyone loves it because, in addition, it cements memories. It’s a Proust madeleine.
Did you manage to find your place? Are you happy today?
“In the filiation of the ‘son of’, I gradually ceased to be my father’s son by becoming the father of my children. That is the meaning of life.”
Claude Francois Jr.at franceinfo
No. In fact, what I miss the most over time is the music. And I say to my children: in adolescence, if you see a passion dawning in you, something that really drives you, on which you will not count your time, do not let life take it away from you because you regret, at some point. I still missed the music, but I haven’t said its last word and then, I can do it all alone in my cellar, it will allow me to flourish anyway.