It was the atmosphere of big nights on Saturday at the MTelus for the Zaho de Sagazan concert, probably the most anticipated of these 35th Francos. And the French sensation of the hour did not disappoint, offering a performance as captivating as it was exultant.
It was not the first time that the singer-songwriter from Saint-Nazaire sang in Montreal. Last year at the Francos, when she had just released her first album La symphonie des éclairs, she gave a free outdoor concert on a small stage at 6 p.m., in addition to opening for Juliette Armanet. She returned less than a year later, last April to Club Soda, this time with four Victoires de la musique.
Her rise has been so meteoric that Zaho de Sagazan sang Davie Bowie’s Modern Love at the opening of the Cannes Film Festival this year… for Barbie director Greta Gerwig, who was chairing the jury.
After a first part provided by the duo Bibi Club, Zaho de Sagazan arrived on stage around 9:15 p.m., greeted with noise. But it was in total silence that she performed Fontaine de sang alone on the keyboard.
On the second song, Aspiration, she will be joined by two musicians, a drummer and a keyboardist who is also a master of all electronic sounds. Installed on small platforms in an industrial setting – Zaho de Sagazan likes Kratfwerk and it shows – it is these two who will ensure the different atmospheres established by the 24-year-old singer, who walks between pure techno and French song… often in the same room, which sometimes gave the first part of the show a bit of a choppy feel.
Zaho de Sagazan performed almost all the songs from his one and only album. With a kind of feverish intensity and her voice always true and sincere, she sang her songs of dreamed love, she chased away sadness, warded off anguish and death, sometimes on the keyboard (Tell me that you likes, once again in attentive silence), most of the time at the microphone, sometimes even going down to the first row of the audience gathered on the floor.
The concert moved quickly to the anticipated song, La symphonie des éclairs, which earned him the Victory for song of the year.
“Now we dance in the storms, it’s over with the ballads!” the singer said. At the end of Ne te regarde pas, it was time to let loose. “Don’t look at yourself, let loose,” she repeated like a mantra. The strobe lights came on, the crowd – like the singer-performer, who said only one word: “Dance, dance” – let loose to pure techno music. A moment of total letting off steam and exultation that lasted a long time, which Zaho de Sagazan ended… lying on the stage.
As an encore, the singer returned for a rendition, in German please, of 99 Luftballons, then of Ah que la vie est belle by Brigitte Fontaine.
“I chose it because it’s the most beautiful chorus in the world, and because it’s a song that reminds us that life is beautiful! Thanks for all the love…and keep loving. » After the usual photo, Hurricane Zaho de Sagazan re-emerged from the scene, and the storm suddenly subsided. We already miss her.
