“Sad for him”, “It’s time to stop” … Michel Polnareff launches his reunion tour in Nice and disappoints his audience

Michel Polnareff launched his tour on Wednesday May 24 at the Nikaïa palace in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes). The 78-year-old singer had not given a concert since November 2016, his previous tour having ended in the conflict with his producer Gilbert Coullier, the last two dates in Paris and Nantes having been canceled for health reasons.

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“Nobody forgot a single song of mine, nobody!” he warned, not without irony, backstage before the concert. Nobody, except perhaps him, sometimes seeming lost on certain titles or certain lyrics, embarrassed by sound problems or problems with his new group, with whom he was playing his first concert there.

Behind his piano, which he does not abuse, alongside his wife Danyellah who will remain seated near him throughout the concert, Michel Polnareff finds his voice for a few delightful highs. But the concert suffers from a jerky rhythm, while musically the total piano-voice has been abandoned to appeal to a shy audience. There too, the singer had warned: “If I were a spectator, I have the impression that at some point, I would still want something a little stronger. By telling myself that I am not only in my living room, I am still an audience in a large room.”

“He did not do Polnareff”

Unsurprisingly, the audience was mixed after the concert. “I liked it a lot, brings back good memories. I expected worse”reacts a fan, more indulgent than others: “It’s time to stop”, “Sad for him”, “He didn’t really do Polnareff so we couldn’t sing”. Seven years or so after his last tour, the restart was therefore winded. If the songs are eternal, the fluidity will have to be worked on, because there are no less than 28 dates left on this reunion tour.