It was almost 9.45pm on Friday night.
And time stopped for a few minutes: Camille Lellouche at the piano, Grand Corps Malade by his side for a magnificent minimalist version of "Mais je t'aime", while restrained first, on the edge of emotion , before being carried away in a whirlwind of violins.
Magical.
We were hot.
For a bit, the song of the year awarded at the Victoires de la musique Friday would not have existed.
"But I love you" remained at the bottom of a drawer for a long time.
“I composed it on the piano, three years ago, confided the singer humorist to us a few months ago.
I wrote the lyrics after two months of dating.
But I never managed to finish the song.
Until Fabien (
Editor's note: Grand Corps Malade is called Fabien Marsaud
) called me to participate in his record.
I played it for him and he immediately liked it.
He wrote his text.
And it did me good to finish it with him.
"
The clip of the song was uploaded last June on YouTube and very quickly the views counter was racing, 1 then 2 then 5 million views.
Over 60 million today.
"My emotion is not feigned"
The video is as overwhelming as the song and dares to show Camille Lellouche's real tears.
“When I cry, it's real,” she told us again.
The day before the clip, the person I wrote the song for picked up their things from my house.
My emotion is not feigned.
Fabien's neither, because he knew this person.
Every time we sing it, something very strong happens between us.
But very healthy, eh.
(Laughs.) Like two actors who love each other for the duration of a movie scene.
"
Everything came together to make "But I love you" a phenomenon on a universal theme, faded loves, painful but inevitable ruptures.
“We never imagined that a waltz would pass in a loop on young radios, even Skyrock, recognized in September Grand Corps Malade.
But we knew she had something working.
There was an alchemy between us and the reaction was always very strong among our relatives.
"
The hit appears on “Mesdames”, the latest album in which the slammer recorded duets with different singers such as Louane, Véronique Sanson, Laura Smet.
A record sold over 200,000 copies.
One of the triumphs of the year which owes a lot to "But I love you".