(Paris) “It’s a song that speaks of energy and resilience”: singer Gala is “happy” to see her success in 1996 Freed from desire taken over by the Blues at the World Cup in Qatar and far beyond.
We saw on social networks Kylian Mbappé and his band sing the chorus in the locker room after the victory in 8e final against Poland (they face England on Saturday in the quarter-finals).
Something to bring back good memories, when their predecessors in the France team resumed I will surviveGloria Gaynor’s 1978 success, during their victorious run at the 1998 World Cup.
As I will survivethe story of a woman who frees herself from a toxic relationship, Freed from desire reads like a feminist anthem.
“Everyone says that, but at first it’s not feminist,” said AFP Gala, a singer born in Italy, who has lived in the United States and now spends time in Paris.
It’s a little-known story. At the age of 13, a doctor in Italy diagnoses her with a back problem and assures her that she will never be able to be a dancer, the dream of her life. But later in the United States, as she studies the photo, another doctor tells her that nothing can stop her from dancing.
Football, boxing, padel
“Two things came together, I was in love with a Senegalese artist who lived on little in the United States (that is, freed from material desire, editor’s note) and I had this energy returned”, develops the forties. ” Freed from desire, it’s a piece that speaks of energy and resilience, I understand that it is associated with the desire to score a goal. »
“I’m happy that the French players sing it, because France has always received me well, I’ve been a diamond here and I’m there right now, but this song has had many other lives, has united so many different people, that’s what makes me happy,” she continues.
To speak only of sport, his success has been adopted by supporters of the Northern Ireland football team at Euro-2016, by those of the English club of Wigan, AC Milan. It also served as a soundtrack to English boxer Tyson Fury, among others.
“It’s not just the song of the victors, it’s that of the underdogs also, I even saw it taken over by supporters of Paquito Navarro, who had just lost in padel (racket sport), ”recalls the singer. “And sung at the same time by supporters of two Australian rugby teams who are supposed to hate each other. »
Independence
The text, a hymn to liberation, has also been endorsed as she says by “feminists, the LGBTQIA + community or even environmental defenders, because the race for consumption is leading the planet to its loss”.
Freed from desire, it’s also an independence song and Gala paid a high price for hers. When she realized at the end of the 1990s that her contract with her record company “wasn’t the most favorable, to be politically correct”, she broke it. Which is not done at the time.
“People tell me: ‘Where have you been all these years, on a paradise island drinking Martini?’ I was finished, that I was the past,” she confides.
“I didn’t stop making music, but my label was just me and an email address, I was independent before my time, whereas it’s the rule today”, describes -she, ensuring that she has “ongoing projects”.
And to return to football? “Yes, I always respond to those who love me and if the French are world champions and invite me, I want to sing for them to celebrate. »