Before Angèle, Hoshi, Pomme, there were Catherine, Marie-Paule and Juliette.
Catherine Lara was one of the first stars in France to come out in 1986, the year of her hit "Magic Night".
“I just didn't want to pretend to be someone else,” explains the singer on the violin.
When I mentioned it, I was clearly outside the box: it was considered a disease, contagious in addition!
But at the time, I received a lot of thank
you
messages:
Thank you, you freed me
.
It was also to serve as role models for other women that I broached the subject openly.
After that, there is necessarily the risk of the label.
Even today, nine times out of ten I'm invited to shows just because I'm gay.
It's the price to pay.
Yet you never ask someone:
How do you cope with your heterosexuality?
"
Catherine Lara wants to "give a tip of the hat to all this generation of young singers who are not in the caricature and sing love so beautifully.
Me, I was lucky that the networks did not exist.
Some openly pour their hatred into it.
They have to face it.
But this is only the beginning of a free speech movement.
These are the beginnings of a trivialization that I can only applaud.
"
"Growing homophobia"
Marie-Paule Belle also applauds Hoshi, Pomme, Aloïse Sauvage… “What I like is that they bring something new, a different language without being aggressive in their demonstration, admits the singer of“ La Parisienne ”.
I feel a resemblance to me, they are natural and do not make them a showcase.
But it is much more difficult for them because homophobia is increasing.
There is a lot of hatred, violence, on social networks, in the street… ”
Many have discovered in Marie-Paule Belle's recent book, “As if you were always there”, that she was the companion of the writer Françoise Mallet-Joris from 1970 to 1981. “I had never said it publicly so as not to shock my family, a practicing bourgeois Catholic, confides the 74-year-old musician.
Françoise and I slipped it into our songs,
Like the transvestite princes
and
Those who love them
, but we were not activists.
"
Same position for Juliette who only winked at it in a song, "Monocle et cols durs", which pays homage to famous lesbians.
“I asked Pierre Philippe, the author, to involve me in it at the end,” points out the 57-year-old musician.
But otherwise, I always wrote in a neutral way in order to address myself to everyone.
"
She also shares the same feeling about the current movement among her young sisters.
“I find it wonderful that they take on so naturally.
It is very important that homosexuality is presented without scandal.
I experienced it myself.
To a journalist who asked me who my Romeo was, I replied that my Romeo was called Juliet.
After coming out, I never met a reflection.
When we assume, it works.
"
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Juliette, Marie-Paule Belle and Catherine Lara
appear in the double compilation against homophobia “As they say” released on September 10 at Marianne Mélodie, 2 CD, € 19.90 (€ 1 donated to each sale).
