He finally comes out of the shadows and finds the stage.
Nearly six years after his last concert, Renaud proved on Tuesday evening in Avignon that the stage was still
"in his strings"
, with the first date of a tour
"in complete privacy"
which will count around forty until July, including several in Paris.
"I have more love, more pleasure, more hate, more desires, more nothing"
, attacks the 70-year-old singer, red sailor top, black jacket and brown cowboy boots, to the cheers of joy from a full house.
For an hour and a half, the popular singer, who had not returned to the stage since 2017, performed some of his greatest classics, from
Morgane de toi
to
As soon as the wind blows
through the inevitable
Mistral winner
or
Knocked up
.
Love songs for many, others more political but which remain timeless.
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"You prefer the old ones, always,"
he says, a shy little smile on his lips, after having intoned
C'est quand qu'on va là là?
in front of the 600 spectators who face him in this old historic cinema in the city center of Avignon, rehabilitated since July in a theater.
Accompanied on the piano by his friend Alain Lanty, an accordionist and a set of string instruments played only by women, Renaud delighted his fans by diving back into a repertoire rarely performed live in recent years, at the Like
Adieu Minette
, a song from her second album,
Laisse Béton
(1977), or even
Son bleu
, which dates from 1994.
Today, he's a little broken but he still speaks true and he still has a hard-on.
Christian Jacques, Renaud fan
"I am moved. I saw him twenty years ago in Grenoble. He was singing just in key, rhythm, lyrics. Today, he is a little broken but he still speaks correctly and he is still hard, ”
comments Christian Jacques, 64, who made the trip from Uzès, in the Gard.
"It's a more intimate show, really different from what we've seen before
," said Manon Prigent, 32, who came especially from Brest.
"He interpreted songs that are rarely heard, we feel that he wants to have fun"
, she continues, quoting
As long as there will be shadows
or even
In your bag
, taken from the album
Marchand de cailloux
(1991).
The amazing rock
In an elegant and sober scenography giving pride of place to the play of light, the singer delivered a show all in nostalgia, carried by a benevolent public from which regularly burst out
"Renaud, we love you"
or
"it's no big deal”
, when he seemed to apologize with a tone of voice that was sometimes unsteady.
"Renaud, we love him above all for his texts"
, sweeps Emilie Joulain, 40, delighted that her two children aged 8 and 10 were able to discover the singer on stage.
“We all looked at each other at the start of the concert, reassured because we were all amazed by his voice, it was better than during his last tour”
, estimates for his part Kévin Nabet, 32, a fan of Renaud came down from Paris.
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From the front row, “
we could see him very closely.
He couldn't hide, it was incredible
, ”adds the young man, who did not expect to see his idol on stage again.
After the release in May of
Métèque
, an album of covers in which he revisits standards by Yves Montand, Georges Moustaki, Higelin and even Jean Ferrat, Renaud had indeed ruled out going on tour again, saying on RTL that he had
"too much trouble"
with his
“hoarse”
and
“rocky”
voice
on his previous 2016 tour, “Phoenix Tour”.
What we saw tonight, "
it promises a great tour, we didn't want to leave
," continues Kévin, who has already planned to see the singer's six concerts scheduled in Paris in May.
"But I'm like the plane tree, A little rain, I'm alive, that's enough for me, I'm fine"
, concludes the first verse of
Cent ans
, which opened the concert.
“I think he would like to be 100 one day
,” analyzes Manon.