He loves his Italian audience, passionately.
His fans are grateful to him by filling the Zeniths all over France for decades.
This year, because of the Covid-19, Frédéric François, 70, will have to settle for smaller venues, to celebrate his half-century of career and the release of his 38th album, "La Liberté d'aimer" available since Friday .
2021 will also seal his 50 years of marriage with Monique, “his shield” against bad weather, the pillar of his life.
In his large, bright house on the outskirts of Liège, Belgium, where the singer of Sicilian origin welcomes us, the kitchen table measures four meters, the living room accommodates four sofas around a grand piano and the terrace two dining rooms. 'summer.
It takes that to receive the four children and six grandchildren.
In the kitchen, Sophia Loren's cookbook sits on a small desk on the worktop.
Not far from the family photo album.
On the cover, Frédéric and Monique radiate on their wedding day, September 3, 1971. He is 20 years old, classy, shy dark eyes and a smile that will seduce thousands of fans.
The start of a blazing decade.
Frédéric François quickly classified in the category “singer with minettes”, leaves one success per year.
From “I never loved as I love you” in 1971 to “Viva Italia” in 1979, he became famous, subscribed to Guy Lux's broadcasts, alongside Johnny, Mike Brant, Dalida and C Jérôme.
"The disco had erased me"
Monique remembers a few unpleasant moments.
“Groupies roaming around the house for a photo, an autograph.
They rang at the door of the Italian parents.
The star shines until the disco tsunami.
“A wave that swept through an entire generation, grimaces Frédéric François.
The disco had erased me, I no longer existed.
I had anxieties, attacks of spasmophilia.
"
He owes his return to… a fan, a record seller in Luxembourg.
"She said to me, showing me the cover of a German
hit
.
You should sing that song
."
I bought the record to make him happy.
The artist analyzes the success of this title.
This is the click.
“I had to put the instruments of the disco, the rhythm boxes and the sampler, at the service of romanticism.
"He arranges the music on" Adios Amor ", sells 700,000 copies and returns to fame.
Like Dalida, he rides the disco wave, without altering his imprint of romantic ritual.
Here he was in the top 50 in 1984 with “My heart says I love you” and his first Olympia the same year.
“I embraced the zeitgeist, I play with sounds to stay in touch.
»In 50 years of career, Francesco for the Italians, Fredo for the French, composed 350 songs, sold more than 40 million records and lined up 85 gold records.
The fame has never turned the head of this immigrant kid, torn from his village of Lercara, in Sicily.
“My father worked in a sulfur mine.
At the end of the week, we could just buy a kilo of bread.
When Belgium put up posters in the village to recruit workers for its coal mines, with guaranteed housing and a living wage, he tried his luck.
The Eldorado smells more of coal than opulence.
After three years, dad certainly made more money than in Italy, but he was housed in former German prison camps.
“We joined him with my mother when I was 4 and a half years old, on a free Red Cross train.
It was hard to live in these barracks, but we were united.
»Francesco will be the 2nd in a line of 8 children.
Monique is doing better, with a sibling of 12 children.
The couple sanctified the family, cultivated a sense of hospitality.
The swing and the slide in the garden are used by toddlers, children who are now between 30 and 49 years old.
"Bring happiness"
During the first confinement, Frédéric François repatriated his recording studio to his cellar with carpeted walls.
Mugs, books and even Marilyn Monroe screens fill the room.
“I adore this woman, her story and her tragic end touch me a lot.
His granddaughter grinds her teeth when he talks too much about it at the table.
"Fortunately, this Marilyn died, eh granny?
It is in this den equipped with a treadmill to stretch the legs that the artist recorded his new album.
Who speaks of love, again and again.
“I am a singer committed to love, my personality is to bring happiness, positive lyrics.
"
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It is up to him to sing for 50 years the serenades his father hummed on the guitar, under the balconies of the brides in Sicily.
"In exchange, the fiancé paid my father and his two musicians a round of wine in a tavern," says Frédéric, still touched by evoking the patriarch.
Impossible to disappoint him, who spent his savings on music equipment for Francesco, rather than tickets for a vacation in Sicily.
“When I was 10, he would put me up on the coffee table to sing.
All the workers applauded me.
"
Frédéric François composed 350 songs, sold over 40 million records and lined up 85 gold records. / LP / Elene Usdin
Dad manages to register the prodigy for singing competitions.
At 13, he played in Les Éperviers, a group whose singer is… François Sinatra, Franck's cousin.
It is the victory in a singing competition in 1966 which offers him the recording of his 1st single in Belgium.
Francesco perseveres, enrolls in the conservatory, takes lessons in declamation, phonetics, violin, ensemble singing… “I did everything to make my dream come true.
"Four years later, in 1971, he was number 1 in sales for 13 weeks with" I never loved how I love you.
Italian romance becomes its DNA.
From his country, Frédéric François also kept the smells and flavors.
The olives and the oil come from Sicily.
Her mother taught Monique to cook pasta in all kinds of ways.
“We eat it every day, sometimes I make pizzas.
But for birthdays, it's couscous because there are so many of us!
»Monique says, peppering the spaghetti with truffles that she always gives her« cabbage »to taste.
The family, we will have understood, it is sacred.
Photos of the tribe decorate the fridges.
Her son Vincent, who lives in Thailand, orchestrated three of her albums, Victoria makes her music videos, Gloria takes pictures.
She lives 20 km away and visits her parents every day.
Anthony himself, lives in the same street.
“Before Covid-19, everyone had lunch at home.
For the past year, our four children have been taking care of us.
This crisis makes people aware of the passage of time, of the fragility of life and of taking advantage of those close to them.
Containment has brought us closer.
"
In the evening, Monique and Frédéric no longer listen to the 33 rpm record of Gun's' Roses placed on the vinyl shelf.
They watch a good series on Netflix or Amazon.
Sometimes Monique chooses an action movie or a thriller for her.
The romance, on stage and under his roof, has lasted for 50 years.
Amor, amor.
An album that speaks of universal love
Of the 10 titles of “Freedom to Love”, four combine the word love.
If the sounds of this new album are inspired by electronic sounds in vogue, they remain in the DNA of Frédéric François, like the texts, written by Frédéric Zeitoun, his lyricist for 20 years.
The music was mixed in Shanghai, the choirs in Los Angeles and Paris.
This opus opens with "Freedom to love" an ode to universal love in which we hear oriental voices.
Melancholy in "When you leave", he comforts a friend through "Tomorrow everything starts again".
"Everything is as before" evokes the strength of a left mother, forced to stand for her children.
At 70 years old, the popular artist continues to cultivate luminous love, savor each day like a chance, clings to the gaze of the beloved.
The ballad album ends with "Alive", in tribute to all these deaths of Covid-19 who remain "in our hearts like a tear of happiness".
Optimistic even in death.
EDITOR'S RATING: 4/5
"La Liberté d'aimer",
Frédéric François, MBM Records, 21.99 euros