For baby boomers and also for many of their children, Russia looks like a big voice, a fur cap, a beard and 120 kilos – it’s Ivan Rebroff. For millions of French people and for years, he was the initiator not only of the great classics of the popular Russian repertoire, but also of a kind of archetypal russitude.
Ivan Rebroff is eternally smiling, robust, generous, folkloric, ideally Russian. It must be said that we came from afar. The iron curtain lowered by the communist dictatorship meant that, paradoxically, Russia and Russians were easily reduced to a few sketchy characteristics.
In the second episode of These songs that make the news this weekend, you hear excerpts from:
Ivan Rebroff, Katyushka1967
Ivan Rebroff, Kalinka Malinka1968
Francis Blanche and Mireille Darc in The Barbouzes by Georges Lautner, 1964
Ivan Rebroff, flower time1968
Ivan Rebroff, Lara’s Song1969
Hubert de Malet, interview of November 2, 1969
Ivan Rebroff, Oh if I were rich1969
Ivan Rebroff, interview of November 21, 1971
Ivan Rebroff, Perestroika1989
Ivan Rebroff, Plain my plain1969
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Remember: during the summer of 2019, La Playlist de Françoise Hardy was a crossing of the musical baggage of an author, composer and performer considered as the arbiter of the elegance of pop in France.
In July and August 2017, we spent A Summer in Souchon, during which Alain Souchon guided us on a tasty walk through a lifetime of love for song.
All summer 2016, in the company of Vincent Delerm, we wandered around in La Playlist Amoureuse de la Chanson, truant exploration of popular heritage. You can also extend the delicacies of this summer chronicle with the French song lovers dictionary, co-published by Plon and franceinfo.