Every day, a personality invites itself into the world of Élodie Suigo. Friday April 19, 2024: the author, composer and performer, Clarika. Today she is releasing a new album: “Danse encore”. She will be in concert at La Cigale in Paris on November 26.
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The nickname Clarika means little Claire in Hungarian. It is the heritage of a nickname given by his parents and of the blood that flows in his veins, obviously transmitted by his father, a poet and Hungarian political refugee, and his mother, a French teacher. She became the girl Joker in reference to one of his emblematic albums. In 1993, 31 years ago, his first album was released I won’t wait a hundred years with the single You sleep all the time. Today, Clarika is back with a ninth album Dance againor 12 titles that smell like a desire to fight off the gloom.
franceinfo: Dance again is an album full of hope? Is that the message?
Clara: I would say it is the energy of despair. The world is chaotic, but we still want to believe in it. And now, here we go.
With a French teacher mother and a poet father, a Hungarian political refugee, writing has always been part of you. Does it start very young? In diaries?
Yes, like many little girls, many diaries, many stories started, never finished, etc. But it’s true that initially, writing was not the driving force for being a singer. That was the scene actually. And writing was a way to get on stage at first, and I got a taste for it while writing my first songs.
What’s surprising, moreover, is that you’re going to take theater classes because, indeed, your first desire was to become an actress. And that’s when you realized that no, it was limited for you and that it didn’t correspond to what you wanted to do.
Yes, it didn’t match. I wasn’t doing theater for the right reasons. And for once, it’s true that the song has accompanied me since I was little. We are a family in which we sing all the time. There are absolutely no professionals, but it’s part of our culture. And I loved it.
“I’ve always listened to a lot of music, so this desire for the stage and the song were, at one point, obvious.”
There is a lot of sensuality in this new album. I would like us to talk about it, but then totally assume responsibility. It’s true that it’s surprising when people know you because you haven’t hidden that, but keep that to yourself for a very long time. I would like to talk aboutIsadora. A song that is sublime. Tell us about it.
Since I was little, I have had a grandmother who was terrified by what happened to Isadora Duncan, a great dancer who revolutionized dance, who created contemporary dance. She was strangled to death by her scarf one day on a road on the Côte d’Azur, by the wheels of the car. And this story was truly a family story. As soon as we had a scarf that was a little long or a headscarf, my grandmother would tell us: “Be careful, you will end up like Isadora Duncan“, so it’s true that this Isadora has always been a part of my life. And then I read her biography and I discovered an incredible woman who had 1000 lives, who therefore really freed the body of the woman in relation to dance, who danced naked so it was an incredible time and who died prematurely Feminist before her time, bisexual, finally an incredible life and it was a wonderful subject for a song.
You also agree to push yourself a little, to say some pretty profound things. There are still very strong lyrics, There are lyrics that you no longer sing, but in this new album, for example, there are Goodbye bitch where you talk about demons, about releasing these demons, those of addiction. It was important to address this when.
“When I start writing again, it’s always a bit dizzy.”
When I write an album, I don’t ask myself the question about the album as a whole, that is: what is it going to be about? Is there a particular theme? It really fits into a given moment as I don’t have any songs in advance unfortunately. So at that moment, in any case, it fit into my desires.
Tonight I’m going out also says a lot of things. Time takes time ?
This song Tonight I’m going out, it is also the energy of despair. That is to say really good, it’s hard, the world is total chaos. We have a lot of anxiety, but at some point, we could pretend it’s great and like it doesn’t exist and still believe it.
When we talk about sensuality, there is Dress me up Also. There is a huge game. Everything is very limited to cinematography, stage.
I love the song, but I’m also a big movie buff. So it’s true that often the songs are, I think, this love of cinema… I like whether they’re small scenarios or not, but it happens often. For this song, I clearly had in mind: Undress me by Juliette Gréco and it was a nod to her songs that I love, that I’ve been singing since I was little and that I find very funny. And then it was a way of saying: we are in a world where we show everything a lot, we reveal everything, we are very exhibitionists. Sometimes not showing things, not revealing them… Mystery is beautiful and it can be attractive.
How have you lived these 30 years then?
I’m already quite happy to still be there, to have a loyal audience that is growing as it pleases. I’ve never reached the heights, but what’s crazy is to say that I’m still here and I have such a professional entourage who supports me and who believes in me. And then to have visibility, to tell myself every time I’m going to go on tour, I’m going to meet the public and that’s… I always see the hyper-full side of the glass.