Imagewise, Lara Fabian did herself no favours with her wailing
"Je t’aiiiiiime" that dominated the airwaves in 1997. But on her latest album, 9, co-written with outstanding guitarist Jean-Félix Lalanne, she puts in an altogether sweeter, more melodic performance. Listeners exasperated by her over-the-top mannerisms and girly romanticism will be pleased to hear that she's moved on, and started again from zero, "
with support from the comma of liberty," she says, referred to the number nine. "
In numerology, nine symbolises the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. When I started this album that's how my life looked. I left Quebec to return to my home country. I changed my team and above all I changed musical direction." With nine million albums sold across the world, Lara could easily have stuck with her "variety pop" style that invariably fills the concert halls. But instead she opted for the adrenaline of change. "
I absolutely didn't want to be stuck with doing the same thing. Of course there's a certain security in continuing with something that's guaranteed to please, there's a temptation to stay there, but it would have made me so unhappy."
She found the perfect partner in Jean-Félix Lalanne, with whom she co-wrote all the tracks on 9 as well as a track with Melissa Mars, the new star of French pop. "I didn't really have a clear vision of how I wanted things, as I have done in the past when the stakes were higher due to the success. I was surrounded by people who thought very strategically about my career. But this time around, I let instinct and desire lead me much more than my head and reason." Lara was now writing and singing songs based on intuition. "What I wanted to do was to go where I felt things the strongest. I didn't want to be cerebral or intellectual about things, but to have an almost mystical connection with the music. When you use your instinct to make music, you rediscover the innocence of childhood and you don't have this cerebral approach." With her numerology and her mysticism, Lara reveals a sensitive and fragile personality, anchored in a strong work ethic. "I'm someone who works very hard with my voice and my playing because I know that you don't get anywhere without working at it." It is this detachment and iron discipline that has allowed her to develop, and is the driving force behind this astonishing album.
Career moves
Her childhood was bathed in the music of her father, guitarist for Petula Clark. Born in Etterbeek (Brussels) in 1970, to a Sicilian mother and Belgian father, Lara Crokaert (her real name) played piano from the age of eight. At 15 she recorded her first single,
L'Aziza est en pleurs, a homage to Daniel Balavoine. Two years later she got to fourth place in the Eurovision Song Contest, recorded a second single and crossed the Atlantic to promote it. Her father wrote the tracks of her first, eponymous album in 1991. At this time Lara decided to move to Quebec with the composer Rick Allison, whom she met in a Brussels piano bar. Together, they put on small shows and took the first steps towards success. From the age of 21 to 23, Lara Fabian promoted her talents and charmed the public with her image of the young, "tormented" Frenchwoman. After several successes, she released her second album
Carpe Diem in 1994, which subsequently went triple platinum. And the journey had only just begun, with Félix and Juno awards to follow (French and English Canadian music awards). She signed with Polydor, and in 1997 her first album got French distribution. The response in France was phenomenal. Within six months,
Pure sold over two million copies, instantly turning Lara into a torch song diva.
Her style didn't please everyone; her detractors were quick to label her a "screamer", while she was the "queen of hearts" for her fans. Such was her fame that the Musée Grévin (the Paris equivalent of Madame Tussauds) made a wax model of her. The Guignols (the French Spitting Image) caricatured her as a blonde bimbo with a wailing voice. Let those who couldn't have taken any more of her "je t'aime" be warned: Lara Fabian has moved on, although she has yet to give up her place in the charts. She is experimenting with new styles and a new conception of music, far from what she has done in the past.
In concert: from 12 September 2005
