Patrick Fiori was the guest on Friday September 9 of the show It’s up to you presented by Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine on France 5. The singer had come to promote his new album Corzu Mezu Mezu 2 in homage to Corsica where he spent part of his childhood.
During the show, the singer – who will turn 53 on September 23 – was surprised to see one of his first TV appearances. It was on the show 40 degrees in the shade in 1993. The very hairy singer at the time interpreted his title there Mama Corsican. A song written by François Valéry and which made him known during Eurovision 1993 where he represented France. He finished fourth.
A very jealous, really ill-mannered gentleman decided to pin me against the wall
But behind the scenes, Patrick Fiori, only 23 years old at the time, experienced a terrible misadventure as he recounted on the set of the show: “I got confused with a country whose name I will not name. A very jealous gentleman, really badly brought up who decided to tackle me against the wall. He was aggressive. Nobody knows that”, he confided. However, the singer and coach of The Voice Kids on TF1 wanted to keep only the positive of this experience: “Anyway, there was at the time 290 million people watching Eurovision. It was something exceptional (…) But me, what seduced me to go to Eurovision, it was to sing half French, half Corsican.“
For Patrick Fiori (who is actually called Patrick Chouchayan), this song Mama Corsican is also a declaration of love to his mother, as he explained in front of Anne-Elisabeth Lemoine and Patrick Cohen: “Mama Corsica is like a kid who sings a song for his mother, in fact. I had no pressure in fact. When I sing at this time with this awful shirt and this long hair of footballers, I really think of the mama what! It’s sincere. I have 52 brooms. I say, I have no problem with that. And I sing for her.“