The French community in Montreal is constantly growing. The immense star Grand Corps Malade, who came to settle here for a year with his wife and children, is now part of it.
“I come neither as a colonist nor as a tourist. I come to participate in life here, in the most humbly way possible.”
Since the release of his first album in 2006, the famous slam poet has maintained a special relationship with Quebec: appearances at the Francos, tours, in 2010 he even titled one of his songs In Montreal.
“I always felt like I was adopted,” he told us in his deep, beautiful voice, during a very relaxed interview on a terrace.
Grand Corps Malade and his wife, Julia, had long entertained the family project of going to live abroad. When it came to fruition, the choice of Montreal seemed “obvious,” he says, happy to have experienced his teenagers’ first return to school.
Kids put you in a real daily life. From the moment they start school, you’re a real Montrealer. But what will my year be like? I don’t know. And that’s what’s good!
Big Sick Body
Grand Corps Malade likes big cities in general, and Montreal for its energy and cultural life. But for him, who is not really bilingual – “It’s not to my credit…”, he admits with a smile – settling in a French-speaking country was reassuring. “And then it’s my job, this French language. That’s why I can work here, it’s the bridge that connects us.”
His bohemianism
Grand Corps Malade will tour Quebec in the winter and spring, and plans to work with Quebec musicians and technicians. “That’s the idea, to let myself be guided in other projects.”
The fact remains that after three or four years of “very dense” work on the other side of the Atlantic, the coming period looks a little calmer. And he only plans “two big trips back and forth” to France: one very soon for the promotion of the film Mr. Aznavourwhich he co-directed with Mehdi Idir, and another in December, to end his tour with around ten concerts on the program.
Grand Corps Malade will also launch a reissue of his album on October 11 Reflections, released last year. More reflections will feature six new songs, in which he will continue to tell the stories of others through his own. Also included is the title To each his own bohemianismhis personal version of Bohemia d’Aznavour, launched about ten days ago.
Watch the clip ofTo each his own bohemianism
“She’s not in the film,” says Grand Corps Malade, who worked for two years on this biographical work dedicated to the legendary figure of Charles Aznavour. “If you calculate the time it took, the number of people involved, the budget, there is everything to say that it is my biggest project of life.”
Since he has “eaten and slept” Aznavour during all this time, and that thanks to his ties with the family, he has “the right to have Aznavour singing” in his chorus, he wanted to do a virtual duet with him, transforming the lyrics of the song.
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
Big Sick Body
There aren’t many of us who can respond to Aznavour when he sings. Bohemia ! In addition, I am very nostalgic, and Bohemiathat’s all it talks about. I too am nostalgic for the beginnings of this artistic life. So, I am happy to tell you about my bohemian life.
Big Sick Body
Sweetness of life
After nearly 20 years of career, the 47-year-old slam poet likes the idea of changing his life for a little while. “It’s weird. For a long time, I had the impression that I had to be here all the time. I didn’t want to miss anything.” A question of wisdom, of maturity, who knows? That’s no longer the case now. “It’s good, I’ve done a lot of things, and I’m going to come back to them, in my country.”
It so happened that he left France at a time when the country was going through a tumultuous political period, with rushed elections whose impacts we have yet to see the last of. “We have a man who decided overnight to hold elections, and clearly, he doesn’t want to take the result into account.” While the Olympic Games were a wonderful interlude, the context is above all “gloomy,” judges Grand Corps Malade.
“We’ve been looking at each other a bit askance for months, and it’s not a pleasant atmosphere to live in at all. And you want children to be fulfilled, in a somewhat caring environment. That’s not why we left, but it’s rather a good thing. I’m not unhappy that we’re taking a bit of distance.”
Grand Corps Malade loves his native country, but he would like it to “progress.” If so many French people come to settle in Quebec, it is perhaps also because they come to seek the gentleness that they no longer find at home, he suggests.
I think that we have this vision in France of a more tolerant, less judgmental country, and that this impression is justified.
Big Sick Body
“Well, I know, I arrived three weeks ago, the weather is nice, we walk in the parks, but I have the impression that there is this gentleness of life, and this famous benevolence… It’s the word that comes to me most easily, and it’s not for nothing.”
Who is Grand Corps Malade?
Born in 1977 in the suburbs of Paris, Grand Corps Malade, real name Fabien Marsaud, became disabled at the age of 20, after diving into an insufficiently filled swimming pool.
He discovered slam a few years later and had instant success in 2006 with his first album entitled 12:20 noon.
He co-directed three films, including Patients in 2017, adaptation of his autobiographical novel, and Mr. Aznavourwhich will be released in November in Quebec.
Released last year, the album Reflections is his eighth in his career. Grand Corps Malade has nearly 1.5 million monthly listeners on Spotify.