Francis Cabrel talks about his hit “I love her to death” covered by Shakira

The author, composer, lyricist, musician and singer, Francis Cabrel is the exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie Suigo from July 1 to 5, 2024. Through five of his most emblematic songs, this discreet artist, with a rare voice, opens up about his almost 50-year career.

Francis Cabrel, it’s more than 45 years of career, 14 studio albums, eight in public, five compilations and hundreds of concerts. Author, composer, lyricist and musician, he has become an artist who counts in the landscape of French song. With his claimed southern accent, Francis Cabrel has known how to impose himself with this musicality that has seduced millions of ears. He has also known how to take us by the hand, to dress our memories with songs like: Little Marie (1977), The ink of your eyes (1980), The lady of Haute-Savoie (1980), We will have to tell them (1987), Blowpipe (1989) or again Bullfighting (1994), which are now no longer his alone, but also ours. This artisan tube maker received franceinfo at his home in Astaffort, a founding place that has always been part of him and his creations, in particular that Astaffort Meetings a link with young artists, authors, composers, performers like his daughter Aurélie, who lives there and created the Baboo Music label under which her latest single was released, A piece of Sicre .

franceinfo: Is it essential for you to transmit?

Francis Cabrel : Yes, it has always been on my mind. What to do with this success? At the time, since we are talking about Voix du Sud, I was on the Municipal Council, I was looking for an idea for my village. The idea is this, we are far from everything. So, let’s bring culture to us, since we always have to travel 100 kilometers to see the beautiful things in Bordeaux or Toulouse.

“My initial idea for the Astaffort Meetings was for something to happen in a very rural environment.”

Francis Cabrel

to franceinfo

What does the word “artist” mean to you?

It’s a word that I think about from time to time, and it’s still quite vague. I don’t really like it, because I think my father had an artist’s soul. My mother is the same, so everyone is a bit of an artist deep down. Why do we officially become one? I think I’m not an artist all the time. Artist is an ephemeral condition. It’s like a cloud that settles on you, goes away, and comes back some time later, but it’s not a long road to being an artist. First of all, I’m very wary of people who call themselves “artists”.

For what ?

Because I think that we are not all the time, we can be from time to time. There you go, we can have an artistic temperament. I think that’s the reality.

You had a lot of questions at the beginning. What made you doubt?

I doubted at first, I still doubt today. I think you should never be sure.

“It’s not a job where you can be sure of anything.”

Francis Cabrel

to franceinfo

Every time I write half a song, I ask myself questions. When I finish it, I make it listen to, I tremble like a leaf. I think that’s how it’s supposed to be. Sitting on certainties is not my advice at all. Already, for people who are starting this job, you must never be sure, never happy. You have to constantly correct, polish, refine.

With your first single and your first album, you will be the opening act for Dave at the Olympia, a very strong moment for you. You will experience success with the title I love him to deathtaken from your second album The back roadsin 1979. More than 600  000 copies sold. You will go from the slightly illuminated shadow, to the light, flashing and almost blinding. How did you experience this notoriety?

As far as I remember, she scared me right away. However, that’s what I wanted, so it’s still a big question mark.

“The fame paralyzed me a little. I also felt that it was going to complicate my life, but that it was the downside that I wanted.”

Francis Cabrel

to franceinfo

I wanted the medal, I wanted to create songs and I wanted people to listen to them, to stop and listen to me. It was still very ambitious, I was demanding attention. When it came, I found myself a bit like two custard apples. I said to myself: Ouch! I’m going to have to narrow my scope, all this clutter, the fame that falls on your shoulders. I was very happy because I heard my song on the radio, it was very nice.

How was born I love him to death ?

She arrived in a few hours. It was an afternoon. I was already living in Paris because I had been made to understand that I lived too far from the heart of the action. I was in a Parisian apartment and I had friends from the provinces who arrived, guitarists and I was working on the guitar on Marcel Dadi’s method. He had released a guitar for people who couldn’t read music, it was called a tablature. And I was playing, I was doing my Marcel Dadi beginner and I was going down a chord on a certain arpeggio and my guitarist friend said to me: “But you know you can also reverse this arpeggio” and I tried and the song came, it was 3pm. My friends left. At 7pm I was finished because I already had a text that was just waiting for music. I had already written some important sentences of the song and then in the afternoon the song was written.

You sang it in Spanish, it was covered a lot, especially by the singer Shakira. How did you receive this version?

I received this as a wonderful gift. I was notified the day before, so it was really a real surprise. It kind of fell from the sky. It’s true that I had sung in South America in the 80s and my reasoning, me who had never met Shakira, is that her parents must have liked this song, that they had made her listen to it. She must have been bored by it, she grew up with it and one day she decided to sing it to please the French public, which is very touching. Magnificent!