For 35 years, she has always been discreet. Daughter of Daniel Balavoine, born five months after the death of a father she has never known, Joana has only rarely accepted to tell herself in the media, to evoke her life or that of the singer. We hardly knew that she also made music and gave voice in the group Gentle Republic. Today, she unveils, without false modesty, another reality, in a comic strip which comes out on September 1st. “The Sleeping Lions”, signed by Sylvie Gaillard and Fanny Montgermont, describes the pain of a young woman who was built on the absence of a father adored by all, always on the edge of an abyss she 'manages to fill only with drugs. An addiction, fifteen years of life, from which she only emerged for three years. A testimony which, for her,goes well beyond her condition of "Daughter of ..." and wants to be a cry of alarm as much as a message of hope.
How was this comic book project born?
JOANA BALAVOINE.
Sylvie, the screenwriter, has been a friend for several years.
She knows me so well.
I was confident with her… We wanted to show the ugliness of drugs, building on part of my story.
Because, ultimately, it's intimacy that touches people ...
We imagine that indulging was not an easy decision
There were two clicks.
First, one of Sylvie's sons, who must have been 13-14 years old, was offered drugs.
We said to ourselves that something had to be done against this scourge.
The second is my rehab.
The people that I met there, the things that I saw.
As I am lucky to have come out of it, I felt it was my duty to bear witness.
This comic is an opportunity to reach as many people as possible, through the story of what I experienced.
Invite people into a dialogue with themselves.
The problem is not drugs, but figuring out why people use drugs.
A page taken from the comic strip "Les Lions endormis", signed Sylvie Gaillard and Fanny Montgermont.
Big angle
It is not only a testimony on drugs, it is that of the daughter of Daniel Balavoine ...
I expect comments… Yes, I have a name, and it was not easy to expose it, but it is my story.
Frankly, I would have preferred to have something else to say.
But addictions, and not just cocaine, but alcohol as well, affect a lot of people and it's wreaking havoc.
We must get out of the silence that surrounds this scourge.
If the name Balavoine can be used for that, so much the better.
To read also Daniel Balavoine, the image of a rebel engraved in the memories
Was it also therapeutic for you?
I wouldn't put it that way… What is important is being able to make useful these horrible things that I have experienced.
How did you get started using drugs?
Unfortunately, it is very simple.
I was 16 years old.
I took a little summer job in the restaurant business and there, I was offered ecstasy, cocaine… Then, I continued thinking “to have fun”.
I was a completely unbalanced young woman.
But I didn't realize and took cocaine to tell myself that everything was fine.
The origin of this discomfort is the absence of your father?
Yes, being a posthumous child is the first seed.
I am built on this trauma.
I couldn't understand why I wasn't allowed to have a daddy.
Because of this absence, I had no limit… And as my father was Daniel Balavoine, I was also given a lot of things.
People love dad, they have tenderness for him… It was complicated to live with this myth, of the order of legend.
This leaves no room for the man or the father.
I like this sentence from Romain Gary who said: "I would have preferred to have a father than not to have a hero".
Is it complicated to be called Balavoine?
I am proud to carry this name!
I am very lucky.
It's great to get up and say to yourself: “My daddy was a good guy”.
Thanks to his heritage, I also have the chance to live comfortably.
But there is a flip side to the coin: this great duality in all my history, that of having had a father as absent as he is present.
In the eyes of the people there is a terrible projection.
It is heavy sometimes.
But my name is no excuse.
Trauma is found in all families.
Does this image of your father carry you too?
Yes, it also helped me out.
I told myself that I couldn't continue to lie like this, to live in this illusion.
That I couldn't destroy his legacy.
I wish he was proud of me.
As at the time, I no longer have this ambition to "live up to" his talent.
But I didn't want to be a rotten person.
Do you still wear her earring?
Yes, for 21 years.
The songs are good but… There, it's a bit of his intimacy, a physical contact with him.
I never had a hug, never had intimacy with him.
We cling to what we can ...
Is this comic also a way of getting involved, of leading a fight, as he was leading?
I do not know….
I did it because it's important to me.
Today I am myself.
At least that's what I gained along the painful road.
Do you want to get more involved in the fight against drugs?
I think it's happening naturally.
You know, when I was at my worst, people reached out to me.
And especially my singing teacher, who has become a father figure.
If it hadn't been the case, I don't know where I would be today, maybe died of an overdose.
So, if someone, tomorrow, needs me to reach out to them, I can't refuse.
How are you today ?
I'm fine.
I live in the countryside, I cultivate my vegetable gardens.
I want to travel.
I still make music and work on a duet with an artist called Simone.
I also think of children, I would like to do workshops for them ...
Would you like to be a mother?
Yes I would like that a lot.
EDITOR'S RATING: 4/5
“The Sleeping Lions”
by Sylvie Gaillard and Fanny Montgermont, with Joana Balavoine. Ed. Wide Angle, 96 pages, 18.90 euros.