It was the atmosphere of big nights Saturday at the MTelus for the Zaho de Sagazan concert, probably the most anticipated of these 35are Francos. And the French sensation of the hour did not disappoint, offering a performance as captivating as it was exultant.
It was not the first time that the singer-songwriter from Saint-Nazaire sang in Montreal. Last year at the Francos, when she had just released her first album The symphony of lightning, she gave a free outdoor concert on a small stage at 6 p.m., in addition to opening for Juliette Armanet. She returned less than a year later, last April to Club Soda, this time with four Victoires de la musique.
His rise is so meteoric that Zaho de Sagazan sang Modern Love by Davie Bowie at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival this year… for the director of barbieGreta Gerwig, who chaired the jury.
This shows the extent to which this return to Montreal is what we call an event, and it was considered as such by the public who was impatiently awaiting it.
After a first part provided by the duo Bibi Club, Zaho de Sagazan arrived on stage around 9:15 p.m., greeted with noise. But it was in total silence that she performed alone on the keyboard Fountain of blood.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Zaho de Sagazan performed alone on keyboard Blood Fountain.
On the second song, Suction, she will be joined by two musicians, a drummer and a keyboardist who is also a master of all electronic sounds. Installed on small platforms in an industrial setting – Zaho de Sagazan likes Kratfwerk and it shows – it is these two who will ensure the different atmospheres established by the 24-year-old singer, who walks between pure techno and French song… often in the same room, which sometimes gave the first part of the show a bit of a choppy feel.
Zaho de Sagazan performed almost all the songs from his one and only album. With a kind of feverish intensity and her voice always fair and sincere, she sang her dream love songs, she chased away sadness, warded off anguish and death, sometimes on the keyboard (Tell me that You Love Meonce again in attentive silence), most of the time at the microphone, sometimes even going down to the first row of the audience gathered on the floor.
PHOTO DOMINICK GRAVEL, THE PRESS
Zaho de Sagazan
No more walks
The concert moved quickly until the expected song, The symphony of lightningwhich earned him the Victory for Song of the Year.
The audience sang with her in chorus, that’s all they were asking for, in fact, this communion, which took a little while to come.
“Now we’re dancing in the storms, that’s the end of the ballads! », Launched the singer. At the end of Don’t look at you, so the time had come to let off some steam. “Don’t look at yourself, let go,” she repeated like a mantra. The strobes turned on, the crowd – like the singer-performer, who only said one word: “Dance, dance” – let themselves go to purely techno music. A moment of release and total exultation that lasted a long time, which Zaho de Sagazan ended… lying on the stage.
As an encore, the singer returned for a rendition, in German please, of 99 Luftballonsthen Ah, life is beautiful by Brigitte Fontaine.
“I chose it because it’s the most beautiful chorus in the world, and because it’s a song that reminds us that life is beautiful! Thanks for all the love…and keep loving. » After the usual photo, Hurricane Zaho de Sagazan re-emerged from the scene, and the storm suddenly subsided. We already miss her.