“I like to sing songs a little bit like an actor or a narrator.”

The author, composer, performer and musician, Calogero, is the exceptional guest of Le Monde d’Élodie Suigo from August 26 to 30, 2024. Five days, five songs to get to know this artist better, one of the most loved and adored of the French music scene. In September 2023, he released his ninth album “AMOUR” and he will resume his AMOUR Tour in mid-November from Dijon.

Calogero is the special guest of Le Monde d’Élodie from August 26 to 30, 2024. The opportunity to look back on five highlights of his life with five songs from his repertoire. The prolific author, composer, performer and musician has been on stage and in our playlists for over 37 years. Passionate about music since his youngest age, it was at the age of 16, in 1987, that he formed the group des Charts with his brother and a friend. 12 years later, he launched a solo career with his album Among the othersgiving up his jobs as a plumber and apprentice butcher.

With this solo career, he has definitely become Calogero, an essential artist of French song, with his little pop and rock touches. An essential melodist, many artists have called on him like Florent Pagny and Zazie.

franceinfo: This fame seems to have been a heavy burden to bear. Did it make you stumble at times?

Calogero: No. When asked, Mastroianni said with his Italian accent: “What is difficult for an actor or a singer to manage is when there is no success.“. I was lucky to start early and therefore to have a bit of success with my group, the Charts, right away, but not too much. Fortunately, because big success at a young age, I think it’s more complicated to manage. And there, maybe that would have made my head spin.

In 2014 there was the title One day in the wrong place in the album Fireworks. It will be elected original song of the year at the Victoires de la Musique. This song talks about a dramatic event, the murder of two young people after a fight that got out of hand. Was it also a way of positioning yourself?

It was very delicate because I really felt a deep wound, because it happened in the town where I grew up, in Échirolles. It so happens that I was writing a lot of songs at that time with Marie Bastide, who was my partner, so she could see my emotions and she knew how to translate them into lyrics, in a very factual way. The lyrics are almost like a newspaper article. And once the song was done, of course, I said to Marie: “We have to go see the families, we have to go and make them listen to it, but will they agree? Because I won’t sing this song if the family doesn’t.”

“Kevin and Sofiane’s families told me that it was important to them too that the song ‘Un jour au mauvais endroit’ be heard.”

Unfortunately, songs don’t change much. Songs change socially because a kid or girl may want to make music and choose another path. Music can make you want to rise socially, but for this kind of subject, unfortunately, it’s a drop in the ocean since we can see for so many years everything that happened after Kevin and Sofiane, it’s getting worse and worse.

There is a song that has become indelible in light of what happened with the Nice attacks, it is: Fireworks. You performed this song at the request of the families on the anniversary date, one year later. You accepted, but it will be extremely difficult for you. The proof is that you will not be able to finish the song.

Yes, in fact, it’s very strange, these are songs that overwhelm you because at the beginning, the song doesn’t talk about the events in Nice at all. The child we have on our shoulders. We’ve all experienced that. I experienced it, not long ago on July 14 with my children. When I was asked to come and sing the song, it was a request from the victims’ family, I said to myself: “It’s like a homework assignment, you have to do it, you have to go sing the song.” In the last verse of the song of Fireworks : “We are like fireworks. Since we are not here for long. Let’s make sure that, while we exist, we shine in people’s eyes.” I see that in the front row there are the families of the victims. I couldn’t finish the song, it was impossible.

In this album there is The portrait. I would like you to tell me about this song because I believe that there is not a single French person who was not absorbed by this song. We felt that you, yourself, were touched.

Yes, in addition, The portrait is really a song that comes from a photo. The photo comes from Iran, I think, where the child draws his mother on a parquet floor with chalk. He lost his mother in the war. It is a moving photo and we showed this photo to Paul École who wrote about music. These are stories of songs that are very strong and that I like. It is not necessarily to sing the drama absolutely, no, it is that I like to sing the songs a little like an actor or like a narrator.

Calogero is back on the roads of France with his AMOUR Tour for numerous stages, including November 14 in Dijon, November 15 in Reims, November 23 in Limoges, December 30 in Caen, December 7 in Toulon and December 20 and 21 in Lille.