Alice Dona: "I am an antistar who likes to sing for the public"

Alice Dona is perhaps the most modest star of French song.

And yet her career as a composer and performer is one of the richest in the repertoire.

Serge Lama's accomplice, who has set to music small masterpieces such as

I am sick

and

The singer is twenty years old

, has just released an anthology (a 6 CD box set at Marianne Mélodie) of all the titles that she performed between 1963 and 1987.

Watch the video: Alice Dona: “My tribute to Gilbert Bécaud”

This

gifted

“

antistar

” (one of his best creations) accepted by telephone, covid obliges, to answer the

Figaro's

questions

.

With her, the crème de la crème of the song is immediately summoned: from the Petit Conservatoire de Mireille, where she took her first steps, to Pierre Delanoë, Claude Lemesle, passing, of course, by Serge Lama, "

without whom nothing n 'would have been possible

'.

To read also: Claude Lemesle: the greatest successes of the author of

Indian Summer

LE FIGARO.

- You are a singer much loved by the public and yet you do not seem to seek the light.

Do you sound like

the Antistar

of your song?

ALICE DONA.

-

I was going to take it out of your mouth.

In part, I refused the light by hiding behind others.

I may have also hid behind myself.

Then, afterwards, I understood that I took great pleasure in composing and being sung by others.

From this point of view, my meeting with Serge Lama will have been a kind of revelation.

He made my ideas come to life as I had dreamed them.

In the anthology that has just been released, we see that when you started in 1963, however, you especially wanted to interpret your texts and your music ...

At the dawn of the sixties, I was inspired by Ray Charles, Claude Nougaro and Gilbert Bécaud and also by the musical trends of the time, rock and twist, among others.

As I was a pianist and that I immediately had the taste to compose, I made songs in tune with the times, light, like

The boys

,

Tomorrow I am seventeen years old

,

Folle de t to love

... All that is recklessness.

We say to ourselves:

“hop”

, and we go.

I was not a knife but rather a sponge at the time.

You composed

Serge Lama's

La chanteuse a.20 ans,

which tells the story of an artist who is transfigured on stage.

It's a bit like you ...

It is all the more me that today I am seventy-five years old!

(to laugh).

But here again it is Serge's words who express an incredible sensitivity.

It's a joy to put notes on words as true as "

Then she comes home, spreading her arms, as if she was coming home for the first time."

Then she sings with that voice, as the newspapers say that we do not replace.

"

From the 1970s on, you began to compose lyrics by Serge Lama, of course, but also by Claude Lemesle and Pierre Delanoë.

Do they write custom songs for you?

It is not worth repeating that these three will have been three great men of French song. Without Serge Lama, it's simple, nothing would have been possible. He is my Aquarius-in-law. Claude Lemesle, it was as a new kid from the Petit Conservatoire de Mireille that we met on the liner

France

for a tour. On this boat, I remember, there was a small living room with a grand piano. I sat down to play the two songs he spontaneously wrote for me. Our friendship was born there on this gigantic ship and it is still as strong today. As for Pierre Delanoë, he was

“my grumpy uncle”

, and at the same time, our common word teacher.

And with his lyricists, you ended up singing songs like

La salope

which could today be criticized by the movements of the "

cancel culture

" ...

Claude Lemesle wanted to write a feminist song before its time.

He did it with his sensitivity.

It was not a question of speaking ill of women but precisely of pointing fingers at those who allow themselves to insult them.

And all this, it seems to me, was thought out with great sensitivity.

How do you design your songs?

I put the notes down in notebooks.

I had a fight with Serge Lama at the beginning who wrote on loose sheets.

I can use partitions but it's rarer.

I can do it but I prefer to write the notes by hand as one would write a letter.

I have even used a dictaphone when I have an idea in the car.

Afterwards with my piano, I put it all in order.

The Covid epidemic prohibits you from performing on stage.

When do you plan to tour again?

Not to meet your audience, it's really sad.

You say to me:

“When?”

.

I do not know.

I miss all of that a lot.

I have titles like

Low Calorie Song

that people know are waiting for.

A heat then invades the room.

You know two things matter to me: compose melodies and meet my audience on stage.

This is the happiness of a singer.

In order to give an overview of Alice Dona's talent,

Le Figaro

has chosen to present, below in videos, three of her songs which are dear to her heart and that of the public.

Low-calorie song

, lyrics by Claude Lemesle, music by Alice Dona, in 1978

I am woman and music

, lyrics by Claude Lemesle, music by Alice Dona, in 1978

La salope

, lyrics by Claude Lemesle, music by Alice Dona, in 1976