“It’s really a breakup song”

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 from August 12 to 16, 2024. The opportunity to look back on five highlights of his life, on five songs from his repertoire taken from his four albums, including 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 retired from 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: At 2 to 3 is a beautiful summary of the place you have been able to make for yourself and also among artists with a single weapon, your convictions. In the end, haven’t your convictions always been what guided you?

Vianney: If always. Yes, there are human and musical convictions. These are still the two things, at least in my job, that matter to me. Having only good energy around me, that’s my team and that’s why it hasn’t changed, I’ve really been lucky from the beginning. Afterwards, musically, I really listen to everything. My conviction is not to hesitate to go and see elsewhere as soon as the opportunity is given to me.

Loyalty is also your strength. There is this paw and you do not forget those who were there at the beginning, those who worked with you, those with whom you also grew up.

“Musically, you should never disguise yourself, you should really listen to what you are, who you are.”

I really like other styles, I have them in me. Not all of them, necessarily, I’m not going to do classical music, but I really like rock, I really like rap and to go there occasionally, not to make a whole career out of it, it’s a pleasure. As long as it resembles us, we have to do it, but without disguising ourselves. I don’t want to disguise myself and it is indeed, adapting to the other but without betraying ourselves.

In 2016 you released your new album which was called Vianney. It was really the calling card,”This is who I am, let’s introduce ourselves“. You almost recorded it all by yourself. Is it because you’re such a perfectionist that it’s easier to trust yourself first?

I wouldn’t say that, it wouldn’t be nice. There are people who do the job too well, but obviously, you, Élodie, you have a certain way of doing your shows, you’re not going to entrust that to someone else. And it’s the same for me. The songs, I imagine a way of producing them, of putting them into shape. Little by little, I understood that I really had to produce. I sometimes had frustrations. When I started writing for others, I heard the result and I said to myself: but they missed the point, I know that we had to take this path and well, it’s not arrogance, it’s a conviction. So you have to listen to your convictions when you have an artistic vision. If no one understands it as well as we do, we have to go for it ourselves.

You have always been sensitive to singers with guitars. What is your relationship with this instrument?

Actually, it’s just a tool for the song.

“The guitar is an instrument that has provoked something crazy in me since I was little, it’s everything I love.”

I always have my guitar. I never know if I should play, so I take it and I’m always ready to do it. The guitar allows you to adapt to everyone, to all situations. It’s practical and it’s easy to learn. At my concerts, I always offer a guitar. I’ve given away dozens of them because I really believe that this instrument allows you to access music, writing, composition, more than any other instrument. So it’s practical and it’s helped me a lot and it continues to fascinate me.

Every album has always been accompanied by a tour. And this album was followed by a phenomenal tour that ended at the Accor Hotel Arena. You played alone on stage. Ultimately, isn’t the stage the biggest playground you have?

Yes, in the sense that we unplug everything and let something animal, instinctive and emotional speak that is quite incomparable. Afterwards, for me, the studio is also really a playground, but it is more productive in the sense that I make songs, I make things, it is my workshop. But without the workshop, there is no playground, there is no stage. I need both. And the stage, yes, I will surely miss it because I really like it when I am there, but I have incredible memories and that, it never dies.

The single from this album is the title I’m leaving which had a huge impact. Tell us about this song.

It’s really a breakup song, but that’s not how I see it anymore. For me, it’s the song that changed my life, more than the others before. I felt it at that moment. One day, Jean-Jacques Goldman told me: “You know, there’s a moment when you think you’re famous and then when it really works, you realize that actually no, it wasn’t as crazy as you thought.“Well, I felt that at the time of I’m leaving. I thought that indeed, there was already an interest in my songs, but with her, there were people that I had never seen before and who on paper, were not destined to listen to my songs. Yes, it is an incredible memory for me and then, I recorded a little at the last moment, so it is an important memory.