Le Bataclan, a small venue in the heart of Paris (with standing room for a mere 1,100 fans) manages to exude authentic old world charm and rock'n'roll spirit – which makes it the ideal venue for Zazie, the French music scene's ultimate rock-chick-next-door! Following a three-year absence from the live scene after her album La Zizanie (which notched up sales of 500,000 within a year of its release), and then a much-publicised pregnancy, Zazie gave her stage comeback this month a homely touch. Transforming Le Bataclan into an arty squat, the singer surrounded the stage with bar tables covered in old-fashioned wax cloths and lit by mix'n'match lampshades hanging from giant fishing-rods. In fact, the only thing that marred the cosy bistro atmosphere at Zazie's gig was the freezing sub-zero January temperature outside!

After a fun-packed, charm-filled set from Zazie's support act (male artist Donzella), the curtain went up on a masterpiece of zany décor which found guitars and drum-kit sharing the stage with an old gas cooker. The audience grinned as Zazie, voted Best Female Singer at last year's "Victoires de la Musique" Awards, threw off her duvet and sprang out of bed, dressed in jeans and trainers. Playing up her "if I wasn't a pop star I'd be your best mate" image to the max, the singer went on to introduce her five musicians, noting that "It's like a party – you've got to introduce yourself at the start of the evening not the end!"

Zazie's two-hour show went on to veer between soft, tender moments and zany off-the-wall numbers as France's favourite pop princess drew songs from all her old albums (except her very first offering Je tu ils). Performing some twenty songs – and freely changing the running order to suit her mood each night – the singer proved she has a solid repertoire that appears to have embedded itself in the French collective unconscious (although we have to say Zazie still lacks an absolutely immortal classic!) No matter, fans swayed happily along to favourite hits like Larsen, Zen, La Zizanie, Rue de la Paix and Un point c'est toi and greeted "militant" numbers such as Aux Armes citoyennes, Tout le monde and Adam et Yves with rapturous applause. The singer also played up a hitherto secret romantic side, crooning a number of sweet love songs including a wonderful version of Sur toi.

While it was a pity that for a large part of the show Zazie's lyrics were drowned out by her musicians' instruments, no-one could fault the imaginative décor colourfully lit by up-and-coming lighting star Dimitri Vassiliu. The singer gave her set an added arty touch by inviting a painter to work away on a giant canvas at the back of the stage, his brush conjuring up gigantic poppies and palm trees as he lit his work with a miner's lamp strapped to his forehead.

Musically, there were few surprises – apart from a deliberately "awful" version of Plastic Bertrand's punk classic Ça plane pour moi and two songs accompanied on the Chinese hurdy-gurdy (played by bassist Marcello B). And, although the show started off at the lukewarm end of the scale, we have to admit it gained in depth and soul as it went along. Indeed, by the time Zazie left the stage and skipped through the bar tables behind the spotlights, the audience had sprung to their feet and erupted in loud cheers. (Incidentally, we noted the crowd included a delegation of Zazie's music industry friends Jean-Jacques Goldman, Maurane and Alain Souchon, all visibly thrilled by the show!)

Our conclusion after a night at the squat with Zazie? Well, she's undeniably touching and incredibly good fun – and yes, if she wasn't a popstar she might well be your best mate! But we have to say Zazie lacks that little extra something. Perhaps the singer's insistence on revealing herself exactly as she is, as a trainer-wearing, fun-loving, shoot-her-mouth-off kind of gal means she ultimately loses a little of her mystery and human frailty in the process.

Catherine Pouplain

Zazie performs at Le Bataclan (in Paris) until 22 February and then sets off on a national tour.

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We hooked up with Zazie a few weeks ago and asked her how she felt about returning to the concert circuit after such a busy year in 2002:

RFI/Musique: Why choose to perform at a small venue like Le Bataclan when you could easily pack out much bigger venues these days?
Zazie: Well, the original idea was to do an acoustic show because I was pregnant at the time – but we ended up having to put the dates back all the same! I wanted to do something totally different this time round. I don't like playing at Bercy (stadium) because the acoustics are so awful and although I like the general buzz and energy at Le Zénith, I'd already done that in the past… I wanted to try something new this time round so I decided to go back to doing what my forefathers in this profession – Claude Nougaro, Gilbert Bécaud and Jacques Brel - used to do, that's to say perform in one venue for several weeks at a stretch. I think it's good to learn something new in this profession, something other than how to get a show up and running, take it down, move on and do the same thing again night after night while getting slowly bored in the process...
Another reason for performing at Le Bataclan is that as a new mother I won't have to miss out on my baby daughter growing up! I don't think I could bring myself to send her off to be looked after by someone else when she's only four months old... The other great thing about performing in Paris is that there are quite a few musicians who live nearby and others who are always passing through - so fans can look forward to a few special guest stars at my shows!

Since the very start of your career, ten years ago, you've always been with Universal. Do you ever feel you've signed yourself away to a big multi-national company?
Yes, I'm obviously part of a big multi-national company, but at the same time I feel I have a special place within that structure. And I think Universal know exactly who they've got involved with, too. I mean, I don't exactly keep the label going or anything. It's not like I sell two million copies of each album, but I do sell enough records to count for something. And Universal have understood that I'm a lot stronger when I'm allowed to be 100% myself rather than be squeezed into some nice little commercial format. They did make a few attempts to change me in the early days. When the second album came out they booked me an appointment with a personal stylist who immediately turned up and said, "OK, I'm going to completely relook you!"Well, I wasn't aware that my look was so bad before, but I played the game and went along with it – but at the end of the afternoon I very politely said I wouldn't be needing the services of a stylist any more…
And I think Universal understood that – I mean, they're not stupid or anything! Besides, I think it must be fun for a major label that revolves around the idea of hits and profits to work a bit differently every now and then. Having said that, however, I've been lucky enough to be with Universal for ten years now, but who knows whether the next Zazie or the next Axel Bauer album will be released on the same label? I'd love to say yes, it definitely will, but I've just got to wait and see.

Do you really feel that you've been in the music business ten whole years?
No. I never feel I've got to the stage where I'm one of the big girls now or, for that matter, that I've recorded the song of all time – so no, it doesn't feel like it's been ten years! But I am happy that I've got to the stage where I don't have to worry about whether I can come up with the next album or not and I can refuse to go on TV programmes I don't like. So from that point of view I guess it does feel like I've been in the business ten years. I don't have to go round repeating the same thing over and over again before anyone will listen. People have understood certain things about me now once and for all – well, my record label has in any case! The thing I feel really proud about is that, while I've been through my shares of ups and downs, I'm still here, I still want to work in the music industry and people have accepted me as I am at last!

Were there every moments when you dreamt of becoming an underground star rather than a mainstream success?
Well, behind the secret reasons that motivated me to take up this profession, I guess there was always the question: "Do people like me? Am I loveable?" 'Underground' necessarily means more elitist and, while I admit to having my misanthropic moments every now and then, I do love getting out there and rubbing up against the rest of humanity. That's why I prefer to be labelled as a 'popular' or 'mainstream' singer. I don't want to choose who my music reaches, I don't want to stand there and say I want this sort of public but not that one. And I have to say I've been lucky in that respect – I generally like the faces I see in the crowd at my gigs!

Interview: Bertrand Dicale