Whether we like him or not, Michel Sardou is a monument of French song with dozens of hits… The artist, who became a singer by chance, will bow out this Friday March 29, 2024, in Brest, accompanied by a twenty musicians and singers. He announced it in the columns of Parisian: that’s it, he’s retiring in the South of France. Quite improbable, the curtain will therefore fall on 60 years of career… in Finistère, in the city of Ponant! An unexpected epilogue that we owe to covid. Michel Sardou, who was initially scheduled to play in Brest on December 2, 2023, was struck down by the virus and forced to postpone the Brest date.
This Friday, the 77-year-old singer will perform to a sold-out crowd at the Arena, in front of more than 3,600 spectators. During this tour of around sixty dates, which began on October 3, in Rouen, he sometimes appeared drawn. He confided in the columns of Le Télégramme, on December 8, that the two hours on stage were physical. But “the voice is there”, also assured the one whom Elton John nicknamed “The voice”.
At 77, Michel Sardou will give the last concert of his career in Brest. (Claude Gassian)
So, what to expect for this last Brestoise? There will be “Les lacs du Connemara”, a must-see, as the song, which has passed through the generations, has become inseparable from Michel Sardou’s repertoire. The show, however, reserves surprises, such as “Today perhaps”, interpreted in the style of Louis Armstrong. The immense African-American jazzman had, according to Sardou, covered this song written by his father, Fernand Sardou. A funny text where the author has fun with the clichés of the “lazy southerner”. A nod from Sardou to the father figure, who will forever remain his “viewer from the first day”. Jackie Sardou is not forgotten with “A Girl with Clear Eyes”, the praise of a mother who was a lover at 20, long before becoming a mother. Another tribute with the cover of “Something from Tennessee”, this time to Johnny Hallyday, “the friend of 40 years”, with whom Sardou did not have time to reconcile before the departure of the “taulier”.
In Brest, like almost everywhere in France, Michel Sardou will play to a sold-out crowd at the Arena. (Claude Gassian)
Special effects and outspokenness
A plump medley of around twenty songs also punctuates the show. Special 3D effects will surprise the public, offering, among other things, an eloquent setting for “historical” songs like “Verdun” or “Vladimir Ilitch”, which sees the statue of Lenin disintegrate… “Je vole”, “Les Ricains », introduced by the American anthem revisited in Jimi Hendrix style, “I’m going to love you”, “Le privilege”, “Musulmanes”, “The other woman” or “As usual” should also be in the tour of singing. And between the pieces, of course, the artist’s customary frankness… A single stranger hovers above the duo with Pierre Billon, both childhood friend and maestro of the conductor’s latest tour. Response at the Brest Arena, this Friday, from 8 p.m.