Those who loved Annie Cordy took the train.
Or the plane.
Neither for Brussels, where she was born, nor for Paris, where she has so often triumphed, but for Cannes, where she has lived the last thirty years of her long and beautiful life and where hundreds of anonymous people have come to her this week. pay a last tribute.
A few kilometers from her house in Vallauris, where she suddenly died on September 4 at the age of 92, her friends and fans met this Saturday at 3 p.m. at the top of the Butte de Saint-Cassien.
A place in its image, beautiful and simple, welcoming and sweet, steeped in history - it is the cradle of Cannes - but not bling-bling for a penny.
The gauge is limited to 500 people.
Under the obligatory masks, the lips quiver when his voice rises among the cypress trees.
“Three musical notes and Annie takes you.
Three notes and a few words and Annie will make you forget the sorrows and sobs ”.
His coffin advances in the middle of a popular flowerbed, coming from all over the region.
“Annie was like a member of my family”, moved singer Dave (right) ./ LP / Frédéric Dugit
In the first rows, we recognize Christian Morin, Charlotte Julian, comedian Roland Magdane, producer Gérard Louvin, chef Laurent Mariotte.
Dave says goodbye to “fifty years of loyalty”.
“Annie was like a member of my family.
We called each other every week, I had it ten days ago… ”“ She was an exceptional woman and artist, adds Michèle Torr.
She was the only one who knew how to do everything, sing, dance, conduct a review, act, make people cry.
An example to follow for all artists.
"
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Last thumbs up, the priest's maid falters at the chapel which sits on the hill.
She prefers the scene in front of her.
The coffin is placed between two large smiling portraits and a multitude of wreaths of white flowers.
Sent by the Minister of Culture, the former King of the Belgians Albert II, his daughter Princess Astrid, Line Renaud, the Luis Mariano family, Patrick Sébastien, Annette, his dresser for thirty years, the penguins ...
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That makes Sylviane smile, red nose on a blue mask.
"I had written her a song and she replied by sending me a nice letter and a beautiful drawing," says the septuagenarian.
The last time I saw her on stage, she was 85 and brought me back to life.
"
Annie Cordy's niece, Michèle Lebon, paid a very moving tribute to her “dear little mother” ./ LP / Frédéric Dugit
At the microphone, Annie's niece, "Mimi", speaks first.
They had lived together for thirty years, since the death of François-Henri Bruno, known as “Bruno”, the love of his life.
She addresses her “dear little mother” and recalls her motto, “passion is strength”.
“I remember you sharing pasta with your dog, crossing out a text, trembling and livid before going on stage.
You often amazed me by your lucidity, but you were wrong when you said that your songs will stay but not you.
You see, there are many of us and we will not forget you.
"
We listen to the other Annie Cordy
No “Tata Yoyo” or “Chaud Ka Ka O” or “it will be better tomorrow” today.
We listen to the other Annie Cordy, that of "If I were the sun" and "If God exists".
“My soul which panics and takes flight.
I don't know if I'm afraid, ”she sings between a piano and an accordion.
She also had a dark side, recalls her friend Emmanuelle Guilcher, deputy director of programs for France 2. “It is not by chance that when you were ennobled by the King of the Belgians, you made a coat of arms with two masks of the commedia dell arte, one who laughs, the other who cries.
"
“Annie's repertoire is a kaleidoscope of colors,” adds author Claude Lemesle.
She was a juggler of emotions.
He wrote to her "Ah bravo", a moving song about the Vel d'Hiv roundup.
"She sang it with such intensity that many believed she had been deported."
For the kaleidoscope to be complete, a voice of musicals and operettas was needed.
David Alexis, who burned the boards in “Priscilla folle du Desert” paid a flamboyant tribute to “French Liza Minelli”.
"Send the music ladies the stars.
I hear your fingers snapping.
Come on Annie, sing, sing ”.
"I don't know if you realize the wave of emotion in Belgium"
Finally, we needed comedians and Belgians, Virginie Hocq and the Taloche brothers.
“I don't know if you realize in France the wave of emotion in Belgium since the departure of Annie.
His portrait is projected on the Grand-Place.
His songs are played throughout Brussels, ”said Virginie Hocq in tears.
“But why is she not buried in Belgium?
"Christian, a 50-year-old researcher from Nice, who came to greet" Nini la chance ", named after his first 33 rpm, bought at the age of six.
The answer can be found a few kilometers from this hill, in the Abadie cemetery.
This is where Annie Cordy built the Cooreman family vault in the 1980s, between cypress and palm trees.
Her mother Marie has been living there since 1980, her father Jean since 1983 and her sister Janet since 2010. She wanted them near her.
She joined them this afternoon in privacy.
After a final round of applause.
VIDEO. Annie Cordy: Parisians sing "Tata Yoyo" to pay tribute to her