Soprano, singer, rapper and composer, has become in a few years a staple of the urban scene and French variety. The symbol that everything is possible if you keep passion and desire as the only engines.
He is spending this week on franceinfo and talks about his childhood in the northern districts of Marseille, his group Psy 4 de la rime, his meeting with Akhenaton from IAM or his solo career without ever losing his smile and his benevolent gaze on the world around him.
More than three million records sold, more than a million spectators during his last tour. A series has even been dedicated to him on Disney + since June 15. Six episodes to better understand who Soprano is, how he grew up and perceive his unfailing link with the city of Marseille, which played a major role in his creative and writing process.
His last album, star huntercame out increased by three new titles.
franceinfo: You support many causes. You are an ambassador for Unicef France. You participate in the construction of schools in the Comoros, you have also created a Foundation. There is also Marseille! What does this city represent in this journey?
Soprano: I love Marseille, I love the people, I love the mentality, I love the way people support each other. I love Marseille rants. I like Marseille jokes. I even remember a concert in the depths of Canada. Half the room had OM jerseys on, I was dying of laughter, I said to myself: so far! It’s true that it follows me, but I’m proud of it.
“Marseille is my spine. I was born there, I hope to be buried there.”
There are things that hurt you, including school bullying. You dedicated a song to it called: Brittle. This song allowed many young people to realize that it should no longer be a taboo to say that we were harassed at school. Does this song stick with you?
She is a part of me. I wrote it because my daughter was going to college. And as we often say with my friends, we remember the indirect violence that college can have on you if you are not solid. And I was really scared because my children are also ‘of’ children. I didn’t want to put them in private school, I wanted them to live in a public school, to have a normal life.
At the time, when I was on social networks, now I’m not there too much, I was trying to take a step back, to be able to live a more real life than virtual, to protect myself and mine. I saw many young people who were harassed. Just a photo and presto, a flurry of stupid comments. There were plenty of stories, of young people who suffered from this, who committed suicide. And when we wrote this song, I saw the impact it had on a lot of people and I saw a lot of covers on the Internet of people singing this song for them. It wasn’t my song anymore, it was their song and I was happy.
In the songs that you have also written for others, there are: We make the show that you performed especially for the Enfoirés. Very proud since your family has indeed benefited from the Restos du Coeur. Today, you are one of the pillars of Les Enfoirés. Is that part of passing on what your parents gave you?
Yes Yes Yes. My mom just adopts people back home. Last time I went and there was someone there so I asked who it was. She answered me : “He was there and I saw him struggling. And I tell him stay there, we have an extra room“. I think it’s something that she passed on to my brothers and me. At first when I was younger I didn’t understand, but today I find that she has a heart. amazing, it’s crazy.
“To be able to contribute to Les Enfoirés is to give back a little bit of everything I’m given, the love I’m given because every day I’m told: ‘Yeah, Sopra, the music you make, the messages what you give, it touches us.
And when I was called to write the song, I said: yes, I will try to make a song that is as open as possible, hoping that it works as much as possible with a chorus that we can sing in concert. I know it will never be at the level of Jean-Jacques Goldman’s song which is so strong, but if it can bring money to restaurants, we are happy.
That’s what you did with To our everyday heroes. You have totally dedicated this song to caregivers and all those who have taken care of others. It’s a song that brought brotherhood at a time when many lost hope. Many have also lost their lives to illness, and unfortunately your father is one of them. This song is also a symbol of the importance of caring for others?
But yes. Basically, I had written it before the Covid because I had seen demonstrations. It was the period of the yellow vests. I had heard a dad, a nurse who had touched me. It touched me so much that I said to myself: they are our heroes! They are the ones who sacrifice themselves, in silence, every day so that we have a better daily life. So I wanted to dedicate this song to them.
The Covid arrived and that’s when we realized how lucky we were to have these everyday heroes, who fight in the hospital to try to help us against this disease that has confined us. I had made a post to thank them during confinement and suddenly it had grown. All the radios started playing the song at 8 p.m., everyone was on the balcony with this song to applaud them. It was really sincere when I did it, I said to myself: people listen to my texts, so I was happy that these nurses could hear that they were heroes.
Soprano will be in concert in 2023: 13 February 2023 in Epernay, 24 in Toulon, 25 in Montpellier, 4 March in Amnéville, 11 and 12 in Nantes, 17 in Châteauroux, 18 and 19 in Dijon or even May 6 at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis.