“
Music still saves me by preserving my state of mind
,” Arno said a few days before his death on April 23.
Dedicated to the art of song, the rocker-poet once again wanted to astonish his admirers by singing a duet with Mireille Mathieu, a title with sadly premonitory accents,
La Paloma adieu
.
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Mireille Mathieu, who was rehearsing this immortal love song in a studio in the south of France, on a new arrangement inspired by Arno, was devastated by her disappearance.
She immediately paid tribute to the talent of this man who had managed in his career to reconcile blues, rock and realistic song.
“I learned the terrible news at the end of the session, his departure touches me deep inside me.
His almost testamentary desire was to record a duet with me.
Two weeks ago in Brussels, he recorded his voice with great courage.
Arno was a true poet, with a very particular way of telling his story through his songs.
»
Mireille Mathieu wanted to sing
La Paloma farewell
with Arno
Many other personalities expressed their emotion at the death of Arno.
His Belgian agent Filip de Groote wrote, “
Damn, damn it was really good.
He will be missed by all of us, but he will always be there thanks to the music that made him last until the end
", a tribute that takes up the words of one of Arno's most famous titles
Putain, putain, C' is really good, we are still all Europeans
, recently taken up in duet with another great Belgian artist, Stromae.
Ostend and the North Sea for eternity
Boris Vedel, director of the Printemps de Bourges festival, also used an artistic metaphor for all the good he thought of Arno: “
He is an immense singer and poet, the Belgian national monument.
And a monument of Europe with
Putain, Putain
... It leaves when we need Europe the most.
»
Read alsoBelgian singer Arno suffered from pancreatic cancer
On February 21, in his usual black stage costume, Arno was received at the royal palace in Brussels by King Philippe, who called him an “
icon of the Belgian stage
”.
The singer, who assured "
not to have borders in the head
", "
embodied a certain Belgianness, the European soul and of course so much poetry
", abounded the Walloon Minister Céline Tellier.
“
Rust zacht (rest in peace) Arno.
It was wonderful!
“, reacted the Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in bilingual.
“
We will no longer see his silhouette in the Sainte-Catherine district.
Damn damn, we already miss him
, ”said Philippe Close, the mayor of Brussels, of whom Arno was an honorary citizen.
Finally Ostend, the place of his childhood days, "
in mourning
" hailed "
a living legend and one of its main ambassadors
".
And to respect his last wishes, the town councilors of the port city have repeated that Arno's ashes will be scattered in this North Sea that he loved to watch so much.
When Arno sang
La Paloma adieu
in concert with his astonishing broken voice... In 1973, Mireille Mathieu also recorded it, and it became one of his biggest hits.
