The hour of emancipation or almost. After the success of Since it's written , his first album released last year and sold nearly 400,000 copies, Jean-Baptiste Guégan returns with a second project called Staying the Same . The singer, made famous for his tone of voice close to that of Johnny Hallyday, confided in the columns of Paris Match on this new disc worked alongside Michel Mallory, one of the lyricists of the Taulier.
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“Me, I've never changed, it's the others who have changed. So I learn, I remain modest because I know where I come from. It is only my voice ... But I, for seventeen years, I learned the trade the hard way by singing in weddings, baptisms, balls ... ” , comments Jean-Baptiste Guégan to About choosing the name of the album.
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This long and difficult apprenticeship, followed by the victory in 2018 of the show La France has an incredible talent , was not a good business card in the eyes of Michel Mallory. “I had an unfavorable prejudice. But several people who matter to me have told me about him, the planets have aligned and it has become a modern fairy tale. If I had felt that J.-B. was only an imitator, it would not have worked ” , confesses the lyricist.
One day, Michel asked me to tell him about my mother, who died suddenly, so I went without a filter.
Jean-Baptiste Guégan.On the previous album, Jean-Baptiste Guégan sang lyrics that Michel Mallory reserved for Johnny. Today, it is on more personal subjects that the 37-year-old artist has decided to give voice. “ One day, Michel asked me to tell him about my mother, who died suddenly, so I went without a filter ... He understood that her death had been something painful, and he came with a song. , The Lady with Green Eyes, ”he says.
Talking more about him in his songs, another thing his idol inspired him. However, with some reservations: “Unlike the Grand, I am quite modest. I will never show my children on social networks, nor my partner. Johnny was born in the media, me not. "
Johnny was not to flourish in his last albums, which are not worth those of Michel Berger, Jean-Jacques Goldman or Insolitudes, that Michel wrote to him
Jean-Baptiste Guégan.Regarding the end of Johnny's career and life, the two men are on the same wavelength. “I still believe he didn't need to go to 'trendy' people , I don't think Warner helped him make the right decisions. At Universal, it was another matter, ” emphasizes Michel Mallory. Jean-Baptiste Guégan, him, does not go dead hand. " Since Marie , he had no longer had hits, he should not flourish in his latest albums, which are not worth those of Michel Berger, Jean-Jacques Goldman or Insolitudes , that Michel wrote to him" , asserts he does. Not sure that Laeticia Hallyday and her relatives, who had taken over Johnny's career in his last years, appreciate the comment.
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If he definitely wants to get out of the “hallydayesque clutches”, Jean-Baptiste Guégan admits however that he will never forget the man, and that he will continue to sing his words. "I am not changed, I am as I am and I will remain so," he concludes.
