"I love performing live and the whole experience of sharing things with fans up on stage," Patricia Kaas declares, explaining "That's where the people who really know me, love me!" The stage is certainly where the singer's army of fans have followed her over the past two decades and more, turning out in force at thousands of concerts around the world. Interestingly enough, Patricia chose to première her new show in Russia, a country where the woman who immortalised Mon mec à moi is a major star. The singer kicked off a highly successful run of Kabaret in Russia in November last year, performing some twenty dates across the country before heading back to France for a tour that includes a stint at the Casino de Paris (20 - 31 January 2009).

RFI Musique caught up with Patricia a few days before she opened at Le Casino de Paris, when she was doing a Kabaret warm-up at a venue in the Paris suburbs. And we were impressed by the uniqueness of her new show. It was impossible not to be wowed by the décor, which revolves around a huge black-and-white chessboard, a giant backdrop screen, a trompe-l'œil staircase and a stunning Art Deco chandelier. Patricia, who was joined on stage by five brilliant musicians including her loyal pianist Fred Helbert, launched into her Kabaret performance by belting out a song that has become her signature tune: Mon mec à moi.

Following this, her first bit hit specially rearranged for the occasion, the singer went on to assure an hour-and-a-half's worth of show, effortlessly mixing up new numbers and old favourites. A classic format, one might be forgiven for thinking, but the cabaret influences made all the difference, creeping into everything from Ms. Kaas's own performance to the music, the décor and the lights. The singer recruited an expert production team in the making of her new show including Christophe Martin (a man renowned for his eye-catching set designs in the theatre world). She also collaborated with the contemporary choreographer Régis Obadia and had her glamorous stage costumes made by the prestigious Parisian fashion house Lanvin.

Ms. Kaas slipped easily into her costumes as well as the general cabaret ambience, alternating naturally between dark and light, little black dresses and glitzier numbers, sensuality and showmanship. For the singer, her new stage show is the logical follow-on to a career that began with her performing in local working men's clubs in eastern France, crooning cabaret classics such as Lily Marleen, which, in turn, was followed by her 1999 hit Elle voulait jouer Cabaret! Growing up in Forbach, a mining town in the Lorraine region, Patricia's first language was actually German and her white-blonde hair and striking blue eyes once inspired Jean-Jacques Goldman to write Fille de l'Est (literally, a Girl from the East).

Chatting freely about the genesis of her new stage show and the accompanying album, Patricia claims that "We were just casting around for songs for the new album and it just so happened that the first song we chose was "Das Glück Kennt Nur Minuten" - a German song that became "La chance jamais ne dure" in French. It was while we were looking around for songs that the album naturally started moving in the direction of "Kabaret." I suppose this is my way of revisiting that very particular atmosphere of the 1930s with all that black and white - a decor I love - and those headstrong women of the time who were part 'femmes fatales', part strong-minded independent creatures who knew their own minds." Kabaret is, in many ways, a personal homage to the singer's own idols who range from Marlene Dietrich and Coco Chanel to Alfred Hitchcock's film heroine Rebecca.

It is as if, after more than two decades in show business, the different facets of Patricia Kaas have finally slotted neatly together. New songs fit in snugly alongside the old and the recording of an album inspired by the 1930s was instantly made available as a paying download on the internet. Patricia Kaas manages to come across as both the "chanteuse populaire" of yesteryear and a woman of the modern digital age! Meanwhile, industry rumour has it that Ms. Kaas is to represent France at Eurovision this year. As the annual song contest is due to be held in Moscow, where Patrica Kaas has an enormous fanbase, this could be an excellent move, if only as a tactical vote-winning strategy.