No, despite the provocative title of her new album (her sixth in ten years), Lara Fabian is not about to shock fans with an integral strip-tease or plumb the murky depths of exhibitionism. In fact, Lara's latest album, recorded in her studio in a chic uptown district of Montreal, contains little to provoke or disturb. Which actually leaves you wondering why Lara chose the title Nue in the first place!

Perhaps, given that she wrote the lyrics for 11 out of 13 songs on the new album (set to music by her long-term songwriting partner Rick Allison), Lara felt like she was baring her soul in some way. Whatever the case, Nue has certainly proved a big hit with Fabian fans, who sent the album shooting to the no.2 spot in the Top 50 album charts within a few days of its release. Nue got an altogether frostier reception from music critics in France and Quebec, however, who did not neglect to dredge up Lara's recent failure in the U.S.

God Bless America!

When Lara set out to conquer the American charts with an album recorded in English a couple of years back, Sony pulled out all the stops, pitting their French Canadian star against the likes of Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston and Toni Braxton. Hoping that Lara would follow in the footsteps of Céline Dion – who had conveniently taken time off to have a baby – Sony launched Lara's English album (Lara Fabian) amidst much pomp and ceremony. And last year Lara did the rounds of all the major chat shows in the U.S., appearing on the legendary Entertainment Tonight and The Today Show (the biggest audience-puller on morning TV in the States).

Lara certainly had an impressive track record behind her, her successive albums having gone gold and even platinum around the world. The only problem was, while gold and platinum discs continued flooding in from Portugal, Germany, Switzerland, Norway and Brazil, Lara's music left the "Yanks" completely cold. True, Lara's single I Will Love Again enjoyed a certain success on the U.S. airwaves, but most of the 2 million copies of Lara's English album were actually sold in French-speaking territory! Indeed, Lara Fabian the album proved an unmitigated flop in the States.

"I live my life out of a suitcase!"

The singer appears to have taken her U.S. failure in her stride, however. Indeed, Lara now claims she never had any aspirations to the "American dream" and maintains that her promotional tours of the States were simply motivated by a desire to find out what was happening in the "big kids' playground" Whatever the case, it's a safe bet that most of those who picked up on Lara's music over in the States probably never entertained the idea she was French Canadian, imagining her to be from some place like Dakota instead. After all, French music fans have always believed Lara is French while Belgian music fans remain utterly convinced that Ms. Fabian is from their neck of the woods.

But then the question of Lara Fabian's origins is, in fact, a tricky one. The singer is actually Italian/Belgian by birth, however, after having spent a large part of the last decade living in Quebec, she has also acquired Canadian nationality. As Lara says herself, "My blood's Italian, my flesh is Belgian and my heart's Quebecois. I'm a real chameleon. I live my life out of a suitcase!"

This claim to multiple nationality has certain advantages when it comes to Lara's international career. When Europe threw spanners in her wheels, Lara turned her attention to Quebec, when she made it big in Quebec, she dreamt of making it even bigger in France – and when that dream became a reality she set her sights on the U.S. Now, after disappointing sales in the U.S., Lara has turned back to the French-speaking world once again.

In fact, Lara appears to have played this globe-trotting game for most of her life. She launched her career performing on the Belgian cabaret circuit, then after things failed to take off there she switched her allegiance, representing Luxembourg at the Eurovision Song Contest in 1988. Shortly afterwards, she upped sticks once again, re-making her home in Quebec. "I acquired a certain professionalism thanks to Quebec," Lara declares, "Quebec's a place where you're allowed to make mistakes. It's not like France, where everything's so conservative all the time. To be successful in France you've got to be 35 with 20 years' experience behind you – it's impossible!"
Lara boldly took up the challenge anyway. And, while Céline Dion enlisted the aid of French songwriter Jean-Jacques Goldman to launch her attack on the French market, Lara chose to rely on her own songwriting skills. She made her debut with Pure, an album that the singer admitted in an interview published in France-Soir had been "meticulously calibrated" for the French public. The secret of transposing Lara's Quebecois success to France? Why, it was "simply a matter of refining things a bit!" While French Canadian audiences like singers to "emphasise particular words", the French, according to Lara, prefer "literary lyrics set to much purer melodies."

There's nothing new about the idea of singers adapting their style to suit fans on both sides of the Atlantic – after all, Robert Charlebois has been doing exactly that for the past 20 years! Charlebois's formula certainly paid off for Lara too. Within seven months of the release of Pure, Ms. Fabian had racked up sales of 700,000 albums and 1.5 million singles! And, thanks to a little string-pulling from French producer Jean-Claude Camus, Lara even managed to make a guest appearance at Johnny Hallyday's show at the "Stade de France" where she performed a duet with the French demi-god himself.

Nothing left to chance

Whether you're a fan or a critic, you have to admit that live performance is what Lara Fabian excels at. The 31-year-old singer has proved her ability to win over live audiences time and time again. And even when she makes an appearance on a TV show, Lara is renowned for arriving with a back-up crew of 8 (including her own personal make-up artist and sound technician!) Whereas most French TV shows rely on play-back, artists happily miming to their own songs, Lara insists on maintaining Quebecois tradition and performing live anyway.

Meanwhile, Quebec has proved to be a useful calling-card for Lara as far as the French press are concerned. Let's face it, Paris-based journalists are always more than happy to jump on a plane to Canada and enjoy an all-expenses-paid press trip to Lara's cosy log "cabin". Such generous hospitality has occasionally led to certain lapses in fact-checking, however. Indeed, several French newspapers have referred to Lara's "triumphant tour of Canada" (whereas the singer's tour circuit has never stretched beyond Ottawa) and others have hailed her as a "North American star" (whereas Lara remains a complete unknown across 9/10ths of the continent!)

The singer likes to claim that "there's no secret formula or fundamental strategy" behind her success, that "things have just fallen into place." But at the same time Lara Fabian is not a woman to leave anything to chance. Lara readily admits that she is "a very organised kind of person who likes to have an impeccably-run business structure." In fact, at times the singer sounds like a company chairman as she talks of "always having envisaged an international career (…) For me, the U.S. was just one step in the process. Europe represents 65% of the market!"

Business plans aside, Lara declares that the "worst thing you could possibly wish for is to become rich and famous. That would be a really bad game plan!" So for the time being, the singer is happy to adjust her own game plan and get back to winning over Francophone audiences. And no-one should rule out the possibility that the enterprising Ms. Fabian may one day set her sights on conquering America again!

Christian Rioux