Usually, Santa travels in groups.
"At the head of a pack of wolves", as she likes to present Hyphen Hyphen, author of two excellent albums, two pretty hits "Just need your love" and "Like boys" and winner of a Victoire de la Musique in the revelation category in 2016. But this time, the singer of the Nice trio appears alone, naked, for the time of a disc that she wrote, composed, recorded and produced without the help of anyone.
It will be released in September, but two songs already set the tone for what it will be, including “Pop-corn salé”, an intense, intimate piano ballad that ends in a crescendo of vocal fireworks.
A piece of which Santa offers us a splendid new version filmed outdoors on the Nice pier (Alpes-Maritimes).
A video to discover in preview.
This solitary project began with "Salty popcorn" a few months ago.
And by the first sentence balanced on the piano
: “I could play the false hero.
“
Except that at 28 years old, Santa, Samanta Cotta of her real name, does not cheat.
Tornado that nothing stops with Hyphen Hyphen, this time she dares to show her flaws.
“With HH
(the nickname of Hyphen Hyphen),
I am invincible, nothing can happen to me.
Outside the group, my fragility is still there.
The ghosts of the past too.
I felt the need to make my biggest fears, my neuroses, a vivifying fire.
This disc allowed me to understand myself.
It was vital, indispensable.
And Adam and Line
(the other two members of his band)
pushed me to record those songs and release them.
»
"Starting from the personal to go towards the universal"
Among the ghosts evoked, there are his parents: father architect and painter, mother singer in Daisy Duck, a trendy rock band.
“I grew up in an environment where there was a lot of love, a lot of freedom, a lot of parties too.
There was always music at home, directors, sculptors, novelists.
And I managed to find my place because they didn't talk to me like a child.
It was easy to exist next to them.
“His father died ten years ago, his mother at the end of 2019. “Suddenly, it was an earthquake for me.
She does not want to say more.
It will be necessary to read between the lines of his album, “999”, expected on September 9, the reverse of “666”, the numbers of Evil.
“
999
is to switch to the good side of his neuroses, while
666
would have been to sink.
"Come on, I'll take you away, watch the world fall apart."
There will be salted popcorn.
There will be a new world at our feet”, she sings in her first single.
“It was my world that was collapsing at that time, but also that of everyone with this pandemic, she deciphers.
I wanted to start from the personal to go towards the universal.
»
"To take up the codes of the great French variety"
“Salted Popcorn” will remain as one of the most beautiful compositions of 2022, with this way of modernizing a certain tradition of French variety, coming from an artist who has always sung in English.
“It was English protection.
And this is the domain of HH.
This solo disc, I present it as neo-variety, because I wanted to take up the codes of the great French variety, like Balavoine, Berger, Sanson, by modernizing them.
Because in the end, I discovered them very late.
My mother was American and we listened to a lot of Anglo-Saxon music at home.
»
While Hyphen's next album Hyphen is also expected in September, Santa's will be one of the back-to-school events.
And to celebrate her release, the singer will give her first solo concert as part of the Parisian festival, Paris Paradis, which will take place from September 16 to 18 in the Parc de la Villette.
