Concert review

Experimental / Contemporary / Groove / Hip Hop / Soul/R&B

SUONI | Kalmunity: STARS SHINE DARKLY in a night of powerful words, words of love and raging roars, healing grooves and dissent manners

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Active since 2003, the oldest and largest improv collective in Canada, Kalmunity, presents us STARS SHINE DARLKY – a full night of powerful words, words of love and raging roars, healing grooves and dissent manners. Soul of the project Jahsun, curated a special evening of solos, duos and trios of musicians, poets and creatives to come together and improvise the night away. A night that felt like community, that echoed gratitude and resistance.

In a world where “leaders” and governments keep failing us, genocide is live streamed, racism and deportation cracks the land open, separates and traumatises families, the poet D-na reminds us of the age of this collective wound – “Are you done now?”, she asks repeatedly accompanied by the swirling saxophone of Aaron Leaney, while Stella Adjokê reminds us the power of poetry, confessing why she decided to become a poet – “poetry is a way to viscerally explain the explosion”, – followed by a healing preach-like poem about love and fear, to the sound of Aaron Leaney’s and Eric Hove’s saxophones.

The loquacious pianist Zach Frampton and the inspired, and inspiring, poet and improviser Zibz BlacKurrent slammed the piano and the words together into a conversation on nostalgia, gratitude, who you are and where you go, – BlacKurrent doesn’t let us part without demanding to “STOP it in Gaza, Sudan and Congo”.

Jahsun and Fred Bazil unite for an explosive set, with a grounded but frantic at times drumming and a roaring saxophone; Engone Endong embarks us into the rich and tasty journey of texture, sampling and sound design and Jason “Blackbird” Selman shares with us his feelings of Caribbean manhood, alongside his poem “8 things that make a black man cry”, a very heartfelt exchange accompanied by the grooviest bass lines by the legend Mark Alan Haynes.

Closer to an end but not quite, Skin Tone, Jairus Sharif and Mustafa Rafiq come together not only in a musical journey but a spiritual one in all its beautiful encounters and twisted turns where noise fusions with drone, free jazz and electronic – the sounds of hope, freedom and vision.

On a third and last set, Brussels based self taught bassist Farida Amadou, who played  her solo show on the same stage the day after, joins Jahsun and Engone Endong in an unbridled performance, making the way to the iconic group Dark Maatr’ and a final all-together improvisation moment that leaves Casa flooding in electrifying sound waves and a holy-like energy.

Improvisation is not just a moment of play, but an intentional and rather emotional, intimate, empowering space for community, nourishment and care; challenging structures and systems and not just musical ones; listening, giving and taking space, liberating one self and one another – Kalmunity is the project that brings the very musical and the very political sounding unison on the stage and outside of it; that brings the realness of life and struggle into hope, celebration, love, gratitude and resistance.

Avant-Garde / Contemporary / expérimental / contemporain / Free Jazz

Suoni 2025 | Farida Amadou ++: an apotheosis of adrenaline discharge

by Frédéric Cardin

I didn’t go to all the concerts at Suoni 2025 (I’d need the gift of ubiquity for that), but my respectable experience of shows of all kinds leads me to think that last night was probably one of the most memorable of this edition of the avant-garde and experimental music festival.

The Alberta-based duo of Jairus Sharif and Mustafa Rafiq, the Montreal quartet Egyptian Cotton Arkestra and Brussels bassist Farida Amadou followed each other on stage. The intensity of the different musics on offer brought a broad smile to the faces of the many music lovers at the Casa del Popolo.

Jairus Sharif et Mustafa Rafiq Suoni 2025 cr.: Pierre Langlois

Sharif and Rafiq (sax and guitar + electronic) kicked off the evening with their waves of molecular abstraction, building to an enveloping tide of timbral saturation. This was followed by the four members of the Egyptian Cotton Arkestra (James Goddard, saxophone, Lucas Huang, percussion, Markus Lake, bass, and Ari Swan, violin) and their slow but irremediable, and above all irresistibly exciting, constructions, like an imposing crescendo from almost nothing to an unleashing of free power. This band is to jazz what Godspeed is to rock.

Farida Amadou, alone with her bass, did not let herself be imposed upon. She extracted a remarkable sonic punch from her instrument, which she plays both traditionally and as a percussion instrument (laid flat on her knees, and struck in all sorts of ways and with all sorts of sticks). Her musical architectures are made up of rhythmic drones through which a few thematic motifs thread their way. Pulsating noise that’s both inspiring and addictive!

LISTEN TO THE ALBUM WHEN IT RAINS IT POURS BY FARIDA AMADOU, ON BANDCAMP

And then, as a big bonus for the attentive and participative audience, Jairus, Mustafa and the four acolytes of the Egyptian Cotton Arkestra hopped on stage with Farida and jammed together two thrilling adrenalin discharges, veritable sonic tsunamis of musical freedom and creative incandescence. We would have taken another hour of this, easily. I’d even go so far as to suggest that Jairus, Mustafa and Farida move to Montreal just to hear them regularly offer us this kind of holistic and liberating catharsis. It wouldn’t be kind to Alberta or Brussels, but when it’s as good as this, being selfish is justifiable.

More! More!

Avant-Garde / expérimental / contemporain / Post-Minimalist

Suoni 2025 | Bozzini + Sarah Hennies: contrasts in post-minimalism

by Frédéric Cardin

Sarah Hennies is an American percussionist and composer who currently teaches at Bard College in New York State. Suoni per il popolo welcomed her last night in a two-part performance strongly marked by contrasting post-minimalisms.

In the first part, she was accompanied by her colleague Tristan Kasten-Krause on double bass, in a piece that unfolded slowly and built like a dynamic arch. Frictional drones on both double bass and vibraphone (Hennies rubs the keys of the instrument with the bow) open the piece, which is eventually disrupted by the use of objects such as a metal bar, cowbells and other resonant instruments. Then it’s back to the high-pitched rubbing, plunging the Sala Rossa into a bath of intense tinnitus. If Kitty and Puppy had been there, they would have had epileptic fits. That said, I really enjoyed this offering, a kind of study of timbres that are as much fusional as they are clashing.

In the second half, Hennies made way for the Quatuor Bozzini, who performed her score Borrowed Light, a Canadian premiere. A substantial and demanding work lasting an hour, it requires sustained concentration to grasp the subtleties of the transformations created in the endlessly repeated motifs.

To me, the first half seemed to lack breath and discursive purpose. Seduction too. I would have cut a good part of it. In this genre, Morton Feldman does it better, and more poetically. I was just about to give up when the second half-hour gathered momentum and became more interesting, with more dynamic architectural constructions that held the attention better. A friend present at the venue, who is used to the avant-garde and has seasoned ears, thought the opposite: she enjoyed the first half more, the second much less. Of course, I make no claim to the truth.

All in all, an evening of music of mixed quality and pleasure, but of impressive quality nonetheless.

Classical

Montreal Chamber Music Festival | But it was a nice concert…

by Frédéric Cardin

The next-to-last concert of the Montreal Chamber Music Festival, last Saturday, marked two days associated with June 21: the 40th anniversary of the Ordre national du Québec and National Aboriginal Peoples’ Day. After a blessing by spiritual leader Kevin Deer, the “official” theme of the Order, a neo-romantic miniature composed by Steve Barakatt, was played by a string quartet, followed by a number of arias sung by Elisabeth St-Gelais, in exquisite form. Two melodies by Métis-born composer Ian Cusson, bathed in post-French melodie writing, were logically followed by two (melodically superior) examples by Cécile Chaminade, Villanelle and Infini, which the Innu soprano recorded on her album released last year (a gem, which you can READ THE REVIEW of here). A short but lovely piece for violin and piano by Andrew Balfour followed (Karakett Nitotem), before moving on to the evening’s “classical” repertoire: Debussy’s Sonata for violin and piano in G minor, L. 140 and Dvorak’s Serenade for strings. Mohawk violinist Tara-Louise Montour gave a distinctive performance of Debussy, and the Festival strings played Dvorak with élan.

It was a lovely concert, even if the coherence of the program left one dubious. Your humble servant had the impression that the “native” had been artificially “glued on”, as if to check the item off a “to-do list”. But above all, this concert was bathed in a feeling of infinite sadness, as the Bourgie Hall audience was famishing, and I weigh the word. About 50 people were there (and how many of them had received free tickets?). Bourgie can accommodate 450. That’s 10% of the hall. 10%. I asked around: the 2025 season was “difficult”, attendance-wise. Not as bad as this 10%, which was the worst performance, but averaging around 50%, which is disappointing. The following day’s final concert at the Maison symphonique did better, with violinist Kerson Leong exerting his strong pull, of course, but in a special, reduced gauge (audience on stage and in the back bleachers).

What’s happening with the Montreal Chamber Music Festival? Marketing? Event branding? Personality? Programming? Compared with the Montreal Baroque Festival, which took place (and ended, as it was much shorter) on the same weekend, the difference is striking: the latter gives an impression of dynamism, youth and community involvement. Several concerts are sold out (albeit in smaller venues), and most are filled to appreciable levels (READ MY REVIEWS OF TWO MONTREAL BAROQUE FEST CONCERTS HERE and HERE). One has energy, the other seems out of fuel.

In short, it’s time to think about the future of the Chamber Music Festival. A city like Montreal can’t afford not to have a large-scale, unifying chamber music event – it would be a disgrace. But right now, we’re wondering how long it can last like this.

Baroque

Montréal Baroque 2025 | 4 seasons: welcome to the 21st century and the climate crisis, Mr. Vivaldi

by Frédéric Cardin

From Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, it seems that all manner of expressive concepts and contemporary symbolism can be drawn. It is indeed the mark of a living masterpiece that so many artists draw on it for multiple meanings, constipated purists be damned.

The final concert of the Festival Montréal Baroque 2025 presented a Climatic Crisis-linked modern version of the famous Four Seasons. On stage, in addition to the Pallade Musica ensemble, were characters evoking Nature and the humans who foul it. Between each of the seasons, a composition by Mathias Maute recalled the themes of the Four Seasons, but reworked to underline the current disruption of nature. The four solo recorder scores, often of formidable virtuosity, were impeccably rendered by Vincent Lauzer.

The choreography/staging had the good idea of not abusing the presence of the characters. Indeed, the problem I sometimes see with “collages” of choreography to existing classical music is the lack of ideas to accompany the music all concert-long. Here, the appearances were occasional, though numerous, leaving enough pauses to return to the music alone. The character of Mother Nature was continually present, but often in the background or hidden, like an observer. In short, the balance was right.

As for the music, Pallade Musica’s rough, even violent playing is to be underlined, as they built Seasons characterized by a rare emotional and physical intensity, often deviating from the principle of “beautiful sound” to get to the heart of their incendiary vision. On some notes, accuracy was sometimes lost, and this should not be overlooked completely, but transcending this fact, we were treated to a 21st-century post-punk vision, and an approach that, in truth, is not at all out of keeping with the current climate crisis.

Of course, this kind of attitude can be highly displeasing to self-proclaimed professors of good taste, such as those in a well-known Montreal daily. That’s to be expected. A recent review of the journalist in question drew a comparison with the same Four Seasons presented the same day by the Montreal Chamber Music Festival at the Maison symphonique, with the brilliant Kerson Leong as soloist (link to the article at bottom of the page). There’s no need to put the two versions back to back: their nature is totally different.

Leong is sovereign as soloist throughout (at Pallade Musica, a different soloist was featured in each season). He is one of the most dazzling violinists of his generation. He and his ensemble have indeed built a luminous and perfectly balanced edifice, tonally ideal and technically flawless. Pure, inspiring seasons.

But the underlying argument of this well-known critic is that this is the only way to conceive this masterpiece. Once again, I underline the mediocrity of his argument, as I did previously on another subject (READ THE COMMENT Diversity and inclusion are not punching-bags).

A masterpiece that couldn’t stimulate a variety of interpretations, and precisely the most extreme ones, would be condemned to gather dust. Everyone is free to appreciate or not, of course, but the insinuation that one way is justified and the other not is ridiculous.

Ultimately, these Four Seasons of Climate Crisis offer an original and distinctive commentary on the Vivaldi monument, trading “plastic perfection” for a provocative and memorable symbolic embodiment.

Link to the article mentioned above :

https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/musique/894091/critique-concert-deux-fois-quatre-saisons-cloture-festivals

Baroque

Montréal Baroque 2025 | Zarzuela, my love

by Frédéric Cardin

This was my very first concert in the atrium of Les Grands Ballets canadiens. As I settled in, a doubt assailed me: concrete, a brick wall, what kind of acoustics would result? Well, like an exhilarating little miracle, the result was thrilling. Perfect acoustics for low-resonance instruments such as a harpsichord and gut strings, but above all for voices, in this case a superb duo of soprano and mezzo.

The Spanish ensemble Harmonia del Parnàs, reduced in size to two Baroque violins and cello, and a harpsichord, offered a program devoted to the early lyric art of the Iberian peninsula. On the menu, then, were excerpts from zarzuelas (Spanish operettas), operas and cantatas by composers as little-known as Castro, Corradini, Duron, de Nebra, Hernández y Llana and Castel, but so commendable for their mastery of catchy melodies and lively rhythms. Nothing to envy from Vivaldi, Corelli or Handel, these gentlemen!

It would have been a pleasant moment even with a decent set of music. But fortunately, it was much more than that. A lesson in precision, participatory energy and tonal quality was offered by the Spaniards (and Argentinians, we were told), who supported outstanding vocal performances by soprano Ruth Rosique and mezzo Marta Infante. These two were clearly relishing this repertoire, at times sparkling, at others steeped in poignant melancholy. Committed, even truculent embodiments of the characters evoked (jealous wife, grieving lover, etc.) completed an experience that will remain imprinted in the memory of the spectators present.

We can only hope that these singers and this instrumental ensemble will return someday very soon.

Ruth Rosique, soprano

Marta Infante, mezzo-soprano

Hiro Kurosaki and Lucía Luque, Baroque violins

Hermann Schreiner, Baroque cello

Marian Rosa Montagut, harpsichord and direction

expérimental / contemporain

Suoni | Contemporary Improvisation, Latin American Discovery

by Alain Brunet

For the main course on this Suoni Sunday evening, June 22, 2025, clarinetist, composer and improviser François Houle brought back a substantial piece from his adopted west (British Columbia): The Secret Lives of Color is a suite inspired by author Kassia St.Clair on the subject of color.

The links with music are explored here, and the research team includes only musicians of the highest repute, from Canada, France and the USA: Gordon Grdina (oud), Myra Melford (piano), Joëlle Léandre (double bass) and Gerry Hemingway (drums). The delicate strings (oud and double bass), the subtleties of the piano and the free-flowing percussion are beautifully balanced, not to mention François Houle’s impressionistic playing in this context.

Before which, a female tandem suggested a rich and sustained dialogue between piano and trumpet. Manitoba pianist Marilyn Lerner is a fixture on the Canadian jazz scene, and the same can now be said of trumpeter Nicole Rampersaud. These experienced musicians have mastered the latest codes of improvisation, both free and structured through an elaborate lexicon.

From Melbourne, Australia, the Open Thread quartet, previously comprising Canadian cellist Peggy Lee, saxophonist Julien Wilson, guitarist Theo Carbo and drummer Dylan van der Schyff, offered a very chamber jazz set. The rhythms were solidly executed, with a binary-ternary feel and composed measures. The guitar was more contemporary than modern jazz would suggest, and played a colorist role in this context, while the themes were often served up in sax-cello tandem, unison or counterpoint, tonal, atonal or finely noisy improvisations, to form a cohesive whole.

At the end of the evening, it was time to head down to the basement of the building, to the Soterrenea, where the Mestizx tandem was performing, made up of Bolivian singer and multi-instrumentalist Guardia Ferragutti and drummer Frank Rosaly. Reinforced by local musicians (bass, trumpet, electronics), Mestizx infuse their teapot with Latin and indigenous roots (Bolivia, Brazil, Puerto-Rico) in a folk-jazz-rock-latino-experimental style that’s not to be sneezed at. From now on, you’ll have to follow the trajectory of these highly creative artists. A real discovery!

Chanson francophone / Pop

Francos | The Candor and Kindness of Aliosha Schneider

by Marilyn Bouchard

On the last night of the Francos, the MTelus was packed to welcome Franco-Quebec darling Aliocha Schneider.

To thunderous applause and shouts, he smiled, a little shy of the warm welcome, and offered his first song alone on acoustic guitar. He then skilfully went through his repertoire, including such staples as Ensemble, Feu de paille, Avant elle, Paradis and L’océan des amoureux, with candor and kindness, punctuating the show with little Montreal anecdotes and short jokes that were always apropos.

A charming, intimate, unpretentious concert, in which the artist brought out her simplicity and sensitivity, drawing us into a musical universe in her image: full of sweetness.

Billie du Page had kicked off the evening with an energetic medley of songs from her debut EP, mixed with a few surprise new releases, including Not Your Princess, Et si and Sorry, against a backdrop of a projection of her name that unfortunately worked half the time. This first part effectively got the audience revved up for the arrival of Aliocha Schneider.

The Francos 2025 indoor final was well worth the detour!

Photo: Émanuel Novak-Bélanger

Hip Hop / rap / Rap français

Francos | Back in Time With Saïan Supa Celebration

by Sandra Gasana

Although the Fête de la Musique is not officially celebrated on June 21 in Montreal, as it is in France, the timing for Saïan Supa Celebration was just on point. Although they weren’t complete, two of the collective’s members having left the group, they still managed to recreate the festive atmosphere to which they had accustomed us 20 years ago.

A drummer and a keyboard was all they needed in terms of musicians, since the rest was done through singing, rapping and beat boxing. Recordings of vocals could be heard at times, as at the very start of the concert, but that’s all it took for the crowd to start screaming. They opened with Raz de marée, one of their biggest hits from their debut album KLR, released in 1999, a classic of French rap.

Their on-stage energy was unchanged, with some of them looking a little older, while others remained in top shape. In fact, they wanted to see if their fans were just as fit by making them dance, but above all by asking them to get up and down on one of their songs. The average age in the room was around 45-50, but I was surprised to see so many young people in their twenties and thirties.

Short choreographies, breakdancing, jerky dance steps, and total mastery of the stage. With four members, it’s not always easy to find your place and occupy it without it looking too chaotic. Sometimes, one of them was alone on stage, then in a duo, then in a trio, then back to the full band. In short, we were treated to every possible scenario, but each time, the complicity between the artists was palpable, especially in Soldat, when one sings, the other continues with rap.

They challenged the crowd to “see if we have a voice in Montreal”, a challenge they took on proudly. They had fun on stage, teasing each other, interacting with humor, but it was clearly Sly Johnson who stole the show that night. With his chilling soul voice, he performed a short cover of Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing, which left no one indifferent. He also masters the art of beatboxing and uses humor on stage.

Of course, they didn’t just play their biggest hits, but also some lesser-known tracks, as well as the previously unreleased Étranger, which they wanted to test on the Montreal audience. We were even treated to a dialogue between beat box and drums, while on À demi-nue, from the album x raisons, they received a very warm welcome from the audience.

We had to wait until the encore to hear THE song I’d been waiting for all evening: Angela, which made this band legendary. Why was Crew replaced by Celebration? It’s a question we’d have liked to ask the band, but the interview request didn’t go through. Perhaps next time? In the meantime, we’ll be content to take a musical trip back in time to our youth.

Photo: Frédérique Ménard-Aubin

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Americana / Chamber Folk / chanson keb franco

Francos | Cardinal at The Foufs

by Florence Cantin

From the outset, I must confess my bias. I never miss an opportunity to praise Avec pas d’casque. I’ve already seen them three times since their big comeback on stage, marked by the release of Cardinal, but it has to be said that on Friday night at Les Foufounes, something singular happened. The audience – dense and attentive – seemed suspended by an intoxicating quiet force.

Stéphane Lafleur arrived with confidence from the very first chord. Never had the music and his voice seemed so perfectly matched; the world of Avec pas d’casque blazed in its fullness. The sobriety of the riffs and the purity of the embellishments reflected an economy of means, with every sound choice designed to serve the text. It was just bare enough to be clothed in a deep, universal benevolence. What is striking is the intention that runs through each of the songs. Disarmingly precise: not a word too many, not a note too many.

Then I heard lyrics that had always eluded me when listening at home. This kind of realization rarely happens in concert. Antoine Goulet’s work at the console undoubtedly had a lot to do with it. Stéphane Lafleur’s voice was rendered with striking clarity, carried in all its nuances, down to its most minute fluctuations. He sang with the quietude of someone who humbly knows it’s right.

After a few songs, Stéphane Lafleur proudly slipped in that he would follow the advice of Mathieu Charbonneau – keyboardist, baritone player, all-round noisemaker of sorts – who is said to have told him, “We’re at Les Foufounes, we just play bangers!” Those who have been listening since the early days have been in for a treat. As for Avec pas d’casque’s repertoire, bad songs are hard to find, testifying to a remarkable law, principle and constant.

To see languorous slows being danced at Foufounes is both rare and welcome. The crowd hummed along. It sounded like a single, warm, unified breath carrying that of the performer. They concluded with Nos corps (in D flat), from Effets Spéciaux. A song that’s more beautiful than ever: “Et ce soir dans tes bras / C’est la paix dans le monde”.

Well, it’s not the kind of thing you want to read in a show report, but you had to be there.

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Ambient / Arabic Classical / Electro-Arabic / expérimental / contemporain / Post-Rock

Suoni | Sanam, Beirut’s Eloquence on The Brink of Danger

by Alain Brunet

On the doorstep of the Sala Rossa, we learned that the USA had just bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities. What would become of this region? In addition to the Iranian and Israeli populations, could all the countries bordering Iran with Shiite communities, such as Iraq and Lebanon, suffer as a result? Would their inhabitants be the mostly innocent victims, whatever their position on these conflicts and their ability to influence their destiny? This is the profound anxiety in which the artists of the Beirut-based group Sanan live and create on a daily basis.

And it’s just gone up a notch.

On Saturday, however, these artists received a lot of love and passed on just as much, before returning home to face this immense adversity once again.

Sandy Chamoun, the lead singer of Sanam, is an authentic frontwoman, racy, eloquent, theatrical, deeply rooted in rock (post-rock, in fact) and in a resolutely contemporary Arabian style. Incantations, declamations, rock vocals, among other avenues of vocal expression. The singer’s performance oscillates constantly between the dramatic expression of these great melodies, tributary to the sacred and classical Arab chants appropriated by the Arab super divas of previous generations.

Behind Sandy Chamoun, there are rocking, often highly saturated guitars (Anthony Sayoun, Marwan Tohme), acoustic bouzouk (Farah Kaddour) that also keep us glued to Middle Eastern and North African traditions (in addition to the soloist’s voice), there’s solidly executed drumming, drawing on traditional rhythms and Western rock, and there are rich electronic complements, including those of a modular synth contributing the drones needed to express the Levant in an experimental context of rock attitude.

It’s just about impossible not to be captivated by such an atmosphere. It’s also impossible not to applaud this new signing to Montreal’s Constellation label: Sanam’s third album, Sametou Sawtan, will be released in September.

Thanks to our friend Radwan Ghazi Moumneh, co-owner of the Hotel2Tango studio, master of the Jerusalem in my Heart project and instigator of this meeting between Sanam and his Montreal audience in the context of the Suoni. From the outset, he delivered a sermon of drone, chanted and sung words, extreme saturation, tradition and tragic passion.

There we were, in the heart of Arab expression on June 21, 2025, the night things got seriously worse where you know.

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Poetry / Slam

Francos | Honoring Slam With Grand Corps Malade

by Sandra Gasana

Who said slam had no place on THE biggest outdoor stage at the Francos? Grand Corps Malade proved on Friday night that it’s possible to do slam, poetry, even singing at times, and still deliver a concert worthy of a rock star.

On the same stage as Tiken Jah Fakoly a few days earlier, the man who made his home in our metropolis last year charmed his audience with his words, bringing together tens of thousands of lovers of the French language. Accompanied for the occasion by several instruments: trombone, trumpet, cello, guitar, piano and drums, the 2-meter-tall man towered over the Place des Arts, appearing under a variety of lighting effects. He opened his concert with “J’ai vu la lumière”, followed by “La sagesse” and “Saint-Denis”.

At times, nothing could be heard in the crowd, a dead silence, with only GCM’s voice resounding. The audience was hanging on his every word.

Each track was unique and the orchestration impeccable: on some, the trumpet served as an introduction, while on others, all the musicians started at the same time, giving a festive atmosphere to what was to follow. The lighting effects were in their element, enveloping each song in an original way.

I particularly liked “Roméo Kiff Juliette”, where we can clearly see the artist’s storytelling talent. He knows how to tell stories, and depending on the verse, the music follows fluidly, more intense when the action is in the foreground, and softer at the beginning and end of the piece.

He takes the time to speak to the audience, without hurrying, especially when he talks about his children and their reaction after listening to his latest album.

After “2083”, which is a little intense in terms of rhythm, he returns to gentleness with “Retiens tes rêves”, where slam and song cohabit, against a cello background. Shadows of dancers can even be glimpsed during the track, adding another dimension to the show. These shadows were also used for the Aznavour tribute song “A chacun sa Bohème”, which he covered in his own way.

But the highlight for me was during her duet with Camille Lellouche, who only appeared on screen, “Mais je t’aime”. I discovered her recently thanks to my son. In fact, a French festival-goer standing right next to me and my sons knew all the lyrics by heart, and seemed delighted to see her compatriot perform.

There were two surprises: the first came when Emma Peters took to the stage to sing “Sauf quand je pense à toi”, having just finished her own concert at Club Soda. Another surprise was MCO, the youngest of the rappers, who took to the stage for “C’est moi qui écris mes textes”, and who bears a striking resemblance to Grand Corps Malade. Is he his son? We suspect so, but he won’t confirm it.

The audience appreciated “Montréal”, as everyone around me had a smile on their face during this song written in 2009, in a café in Montreal.

He couldn’t have finished without playing “Mesdames”, a song in which he pays tribute to women. But it was with “Deauville” that the Francos 2025 special events concert came to an end, leaving us with a glimmer of hope in this crazy world, where poetry and slam still have their place.

Photo Credit: Victor Diaz Lamich

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