On this date last year, Zaho de Sagazan gave his first concert in Montreal, on a small outdoor stage of the Francos during aperitif time, barely two months after the release of his first album, The symphony of lightning. From ? Since then, she has won no less than four of the ten prizes awarded last February at the Victoires de la Musique, filled Club Soda single-handedly, serenaded filmmaker Greta Gerwig (barbie) with the Modern Love of Bowie during the opening gala of the last Cannes Film Festival – a clip that went around the world – and here she is back at the Francos, headlining at the MTelus. ” It makes no sense ! » she blurted.
“Ah yes, it’s nonsense, but anyway, everything that’s happening to me is a bit nonsense, so I don’t really realize it,” says Zaho. The only thing I realize in all this is that the concerts are getting better and better. Already, I loved concerts. I always loved it, even the opening acts in front of people who didn’t want to see me. There, a full concert, in Montreal, where I know that the welcome is always wonderful because you know how to welcome people and you have the quality of joie de vivre that we don’t have so much in France, although I I love my French audience… Now, I can’t wait to do this concert. »
This concert she is talking about was in fact that of April 19, at Club Soda. It was, that evening, the most coveted ticket in town: a packed room of fans who sang along with her every word of every song on her only album. Communion, consecration, call it what you want. A phenomenon, Zaho, who in a few months has placed herself second among the most popular musicians in France (after Aya Nakamura).
Imagine what it will be like on June 22, in an MTelus all to herself — well, not exactly alone, let’s be precise. Bibi Club will perform its first part, as Zaho had performed for Juliette Armanet at the Francos last year in this same room, a few hours after her first concert sprinkled with fine rain on the outdoor stage perched at the top of the esplanade of the Place des Arts.
“I think I still don’t realize that there are people who know me,” says the talkative musician. I can’t seem to realize it. All these people I looked at and said to myself: “They are famous!” Well, that’s me. »
“On the other hand, I have grown a lot,” she continues. I don’t have the impression of being the same Zaho as a year ago, because it was so dense, we worked so much, my team and I. It’s a special life since I spend it on the tour bus, so stuck with my fifteen best friends. Tired, always working, never at home, never in the same rhythm. There’s a weird athletic side to it all — for the brain and the body. So there, either you go crazy, you go on drugs to completely spiral, but if you don’t spiral, conversely, you grow up a lot. »
“Work all the time”
“It’s a job that always leads you to be the best version of yourself, and I love that idea,” continues Zaho without taking a breath. The better you dance, the better you sing, the better you write, the nicer and more attentive you are, the better you will do your job. It leads to reflection which will lead to I don’t know what, to make another album perhaps. In short, here I see the Zaho from before who was rather lazy. I no longer have that defect, which is already quite good: now, I just work all the time, and I love working. »
Victories don’t change the world, she says, even though winning four at once… It had only happened before to Matthieu Chedid (known as -M-, in 2005) and to the electro collective C2C ( 2013), and for the latter too, “it was for their first album,” notes Zaho. These prices have not changed “the perception I have of myself, not at all. I don’t have any more confidence in myself or the feeling of being legitimate here. What has changed is the perception that others have of me — and therefore the perception of my art. What has changed is that my theaters are full, and that’s what’s wonderful about the Victories: it’s an impossible media springboard. All of a sudden, my album, which had done well without it being crazy, all of a sudden, my album was listened to by lots of people who wouldn’t have listened to it otherwise.”
Does it make you want to do another one already? She thinks about it, and will think about it even more after the tour of around thirty festivals which awaits her in the coming weeks. Zaho checks the agenda on his phone: the first studio session is scheduled for August. Great, we could imagine it will be ready in the spring? “Ah! But what a shame! she exclaims. I took four years to do the first, I’m not going to take six months to do the second! » Forget next year, don’t bet on 2026 either. Zaho intends to live for a while longer in his tour bus.
But she still thinks about it, about this second album, which she plans to record with the same team of musicians as the first: “ The symphony of lightning talked a lot about intimacy and emotions; there, I want to talk about the importance of others,” she announces.
“I find that we live in an era where individualization takes all the place. We withdraw more and more into ourselves, only thinking about ourselves and already saving ourselves from our own misfortune. This individuality scares me a little, because humans are social animals which, without others, are absolutely nothing. I already have songs that talk about the importance of others, of love, of a good book, of a friend. After the album centered on oneself to try to understand oneself, an album which calls to the group, which invites to mix. We learn a lot about ourselves by observing others. »