In a brief interview with The Press, Thursday morning in a suite at the Sofitel, Ginette Reno confided that she had “the taste of doing three, four crazy things before going to the other side”. Madness like what? ” Make love. His wish materialized a few hours later – so to speak – when the French Republic paid tribute to the icon by awarding him the Legion of Honor.
Posted at 5:45 p.m.
“May this decoration be a new milestone in your contribution to culture and the friendship that unites us, and proof that Paris and France will continue to smile on you forever,” said the Consul General of France in Montreal, Sophie Lagoutte. , paraphrasing the lyrics of the song Paris Quebec (1985), during a ceremony held Thursday afternoon in front of family, friends and the media.
True to her usual lack of inhibition, the essential singer, who was celebrating her 76and birthday Thursday, couldn’t refrain from prefacing his elegant speech of thanks with an admission that couldn’t be more like him: “I’m shaking all over right now… I even have the fat in my buttocks shaking. »
But because with the intense interpreter, it is possible to go from one extreme to the other of the spectrum of emotions in an instant, it was while suppressing a sob that she regretted a few seconds later that her parents did not can be by his side. “I wish they were still alive to share with them my disbelief, but also my joy and my gratitude. »
How does she intend to thank the Republic? After singing the start of Sweet France, Ginette Reno addressed the mother country in familiar terms: “Perhaps you know that I often sang the national anthem at the Bell Centre. So if you need someone to sing your Marseillaise, under the Eiffel Tower or at the Parc des Princes or anywhere else, know that you can always count on me. »
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, THE PRESS
Singer Ginette Reno during her speech.
Thanks to two admirers
It is largely thanks to the efforts of two French admirers that Ginette Reno joined Thursday with Gilles Vigneault, Michel Tremblay, Céline Dion, Claude Léveillée and Diane Dufresne, all also Knights of the Order of the Legion of Honor. , the highest French distinction.
After attending a show by her childhood idol at the Videotron Center in 2017, Chantal Lefebvre, who lives in the Dunkirk region, enlisted her friend Christyne Cardon, who lives in the Paris region, so that the artist receives this prestigious reward, hope which materialized thanks to the intervention of another admirer of the Quebecoise, the mayor of Boulogne-sur-Mer, Frederic Cuvillier.
The two friends, present Thursday, had crossed the ocean especially to attend the event. “We love Ginette’s humanity,” said Madame Cardon, using only the star’s first name, as if it were a close friend. “Ginette is very generous, very complete. »
The new Piaf
During a one-on-one with The Press a few hours before she was decorated, Ginette Reno recalled with her legendary (and often hilarious) eloquence her relationship with France, which had its high points during the 1980s, when she frequently visited the set of the ‘episode Champs-Elysees by Michael Drucker. I need to talk (1984), created by Luc Plamondon and Diane Juster for the play Tell me if I bother by Janette Bertrand, remains her biggest hit there, although her career has never had the same scope as in Quebec. “I didn’t do anything to lift it. »
Ginette Reno was 21 when she sang for the first time at the Olympia in 1967, during a recital called the Canadian Music Hall. “I had lost a lot of weight, I was beautiful as a heart, and I had bought a very sexy dress. I wanted to show off my legs. When I went on stage, Bruno Coquatrix [directeur de l’Olympia] stopped me and said: “But you shouldn’t wear a dress like that, you’re the new Piaf. “He took me shopping and made me buy one of my best dresses, a maxi dress. »
Then Ginette gets up from her armchair, pushes the first lines of My old Lucien and of It’s not much–be that. “When Piaf sang “It’s perhaps that love to go fuck yourself in the water”, I swear to you, you had the impression that she was drowning for real. That’s what she taught me: you have to know what you’re singing and sing it with intensity. »
What’s keeping Ginette Reno busy these days? The great lady still did not know if she would be invited to Guy Lafleur’s funeral, but announced Thursday the release this fall of a new album, already recorded.
Can we hear a duet with his friend Loud? ” Oh my god ! He’s quite special, huh? He does not speak a lot. I spent two days with him [lors du tournage des publicités d’Uber Eats] and I tried everything to cheer him up. I even thought about undressing naked. If he had seen how God made me, maybe I would have had a reaction. »