“It really looked like an unexpected alloy”

Author, composer, performer and lyricist Vianney is the special guest of Le Monde d’Élodie Suigo from August 12 to 16, 2024. Five days, five songs to get to know this essential artist of the French music scene better. On November 10, he released his fourth album containing duets and trios: “À 2 à 3”.

Vianney is the special guest of Le Monde d’Élodie all this week. The opportunity to look back on five highlights of his life, on five songs from his repertoire taken from his four albums, among which the latest one which contains duets and trios: At 2 to 3In less than ten years, he has established himself on the French music scene with songs that celebrate love, separation, family, nostalgia, the seasons, solitude, but all systematically with a smile.

His titles Not there, I’m leaving, Veronica, Father-in-law or his collaborations with Gims on the title The same or with Ed Sheeran on Call On Mehave already been incorporated into all the playlists. A journey marked by numerous awards such as the latest, in 2024, that of male artist of the year at the Victoires de la musique. Vianney has therefore become a voice that counts on stage, in the media, on the radio, but also on television with his role as a jury member on the show “The Voice”. Having put aside concerts for the moment, the one who likes to live in harmony with his audience and the artists who are part of his circle, reveals himself in five parts.

franceinfo: Emmanuelle Béart, when you covered her father’s song, There is no after for a tribute album, defined you as a troubadour. Do you consider yourself as such?

Vianney: I like that. There are a lot of guys I’ve listened to a lot who are troubadours like Maxime Le Forestier. I see it a bit like a minstrel. I go from home to home, from city to city. I have a guitar and stories and that’s what I have to give, it’s like that.

There is a very poetic side to the word “Troubadour”.

Yes, that’s true.

What is your relationship with poetry?

I like it a lot, but I don’t have a great poetic culture. And when it’s in song, that’s what I prefer. There are different types of poetry, there’s one extreme like for Alain Bashung and then the other, it would be Renaud. There’s something rather abstract and the other realistic and we can still make poetry, whatever the way.

A troubadour, a street performer, is someone who is totally inhabited by his passion, his desire to put his emotions on the table, to share them too. Is sharing the key?

Yes, sharing is always the key! Even in personal life. And then the gift, that’s a bit what I sometimes feared when I called people for this album. My friendships are not interested, I don’t have a relationship of interest and, I feared breaking that by proposing to make a song. But I tried to make it understood that there was a gift and that it was going to be mutual: “I do this without any interest behind it, I do this because I want to meet you, make music with you“.

“Sharing is a foundation. In music, without sharing, it doesn’t last long.”

You have finally put at the heart of your life, texts that you have also written for others. Does writing for others change your way of writing? ?

Yes, that’s for sure. I try to put myself in his story, his experience, his skin. My sensitivity is on paper. I have to adapt and that gives me a lot of freedom since I can make him say things that I would never have said.

What’s crazy is that you wrote two songs for Johnny Hallyday that he didn’t have the chance to sing, unfortunately, which are part of the album. Let’s not wait. There was also the title I tried which speaks of the moment and which ultimately becomes an extraordinary common thread in this journey. The moment, living the moment.

Yes, that’s true. And I didn’t realize it, but on this album, I said to myself: but my God, I’m still saying the same things! I say it differently because I’m growing up, but it’s sure that the moment is the most important.

There is another song that will count for a lot, we will move on Without you for Apple, My strength for Celine Dion, Today’s Girls for Joyce Jonathan and for Mentissa And Bam… This meeting was incredible for you and above all, she was born as an artist thanks to this song.

Yeah, that’s what I wanted for her. I know what she gave. She hasn’t given her all yet! I know what she showed and so I just wanted people to see that.

“Sometimes you have to find the right story to tell and often the right one is ours and here, with ‘Et bam…’ It was Mentissa’s.”

A word about The same that you wrote and performed with Gims in 2018. This song is going to be a huge tidal wave. How did you experience this dazzling success and the fact that people are saying to themselves: “Ah but he can do that too!” ?

I was especially happy to show that we didn’t have to make our own style and that it could remain coherent for each of us. It really seemed like an unexpected alloy. That was really the idea. And there, when I do that, there is a militant dimension somewhere. I really go looking for the other. When I’m at Mugi’s in Morocco, it’s not my world at all, I’m not going to pretend… There are beautiful cars, this big villa and everything, but I really respect this guy and I haven’t always liked it when everyone fell on him because he’s really complex and that’s why I love him. He’s someone who really has great qualities. Of course we were both. I may have seemed like an intruder in the landscape when we were recording except that he welcomed me with open arms and we managed to find things that resembled us and we didn’t betray ourselves. I’m not saying that it’s a win every time, but in this case, we succeeded, so it’s a satisfaction.

And then with The sameit’s also a nice way of saying that it doesn’t matter what people think in the end.

Yes, because we have in common that we are often commented on who we are, how we sing, all that, and ultimately we don’t really choose all these things. So we have to tell ourselves that unfortunately, I can’t do anything other than be me.