The first decolonized state in America, the island is also one of the poorest in the world. And its constant tragedies – until recent news – can be read in the song.
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Reading time: 7 min
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We’re a little sad to hear songs like this, so approximate. We talk about Haiti, an island in the Greater Antilles, and we hear a Hawaiian guitar – an absurdity of musical geography.
And yet it is Henri Salvador, of Guadeloupean origin, who sings – but we should be able to sing that, in fact. Singing about a tropical paradise, where life is good and the air is sweet. But no, in recent weeks we have been giving you terrible news about this former French colony – the first to wrest its independence through blood and fire in 1804.
And Henri Salvador sang a fiction in 1952. Here is the reality of Haiti in 2011 with Michel Bühler and in 2008 with Raphaël…
In the first episode of These songs that make the news this weekend you hear excerpts from:
Henri Salvador, Haiti, 1952
Michel Bühler, In Haiti, 2011
Raphael, Goodbye Haiti, 2008
Bernard Lavilliers, Baron Samedi, 2013
Bernard Lavilliers, Haiti colors, 1988
Bernard Lavilliers, Live again, 2013
Josephine Baker, Haiti, 1934
Mark Antony, Haiti, 2010
Collective A gesture for Haiti, A gesture for Haiti darling, 2010
Collective Hope for Haiti, Sorry, 2010
Gilles Sala, Haiti darling, 1951
Harry Belafonte, Haiti darling, 1957
Simidor Choir, Haiti darling, 1970
Georges Moustaki, Haiti darling, 1986
Ti Coca, Haiti darling, 2000
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And you can also find the podcast on this link Behind our voices, with the writing and composition secrets of eight major artists of the French scene, Laurent Voulzy, Julien Clerc, Bénabar, Dominique A, Carla Bruni, Emily Loizeau, Juliette and Gaëtan Roussel.