A James Bond-like string climb, a Piaf-like voice, an electro disco base, a nod to Barbara Pravi and in the end a song from La Zarra… The Quebec singer will represent France at the Eurovision Song Contest, on May 13 in Liverpool (England), with “Obviously”, a title released this Sunday, February 19 on France 2, both vintage and in tune with the times. And we understand why the patron saint of the tricolor delegation and the entertainment of France Télévisions, Alexandra Redde-Amiel, imposed this artist without going through the selection box. There is evidence in the choice of this strong and flamboyant personality as much as in his song, both melancholy and cut out for nightclubs.
“If you don’t dance, I’m going to be very upset,” La Zarra also launched to Eurofans and journalists on Friday February 17, when she unveiled a preview of “Obviously” to them in a Parisian cinema. The members of the French Eurovision fan club did not need to be asked. And their cheers were up to those they had had in the past for “Voilà” by Barbara Pravi and “I looked for” by Amir, the two best tricolor results in the European competition for ten years, respectively 2nd in 2021 and 6th in 2016. “I don’t regret that there was no selection on television this year, even summarizes the president of Eurofans France, Stéphane Numérique. Finally a French song that will make us dance at the Euroclub! »
“Obviously was very easy to do”
The title is largely Canadian. The Montrealer wrote it with her accomplice Benny Adam and produced it with the electro duo Banx & Ranx. ” The song Obviously arrived while I was doing a seminar in the South of France for my second album, which will be released after Eurovision and will be followed by a tour, explains the singer. I hummed it and it stayed. We wrote it in three nights, because we don’t sleep. It was very easy to do, in a good mood, very passionate, even if the note where I sing the great France was hard for me. »
As in his hit “Tu T’en Iras”, the lyrics are in chiaroscuro: “My heart, my hands, my eyes, my kidneys, nothing belongs to me anymore / I hurt myself to do good, I forget as if it were nothing / In my garden of hell grow flowers that I water with my dreams, with my tears / We may be on the roof of the world, we cannot touch the sky with our fingers “. “There was a lot of pressure on me when I wrote them, comments the artist. And that inspired me. I talked about how I felt during this period, my life as an artist, as a woman, as a mother, who pays her bills in France (laughs). All these anxieties… But if I like to sink a little into melancholy, I always find solutions and I fight. I don’t let go, like a pit bull. »
“I had a bit of this complex of singing for Greater France”
The Quebecer knows that she is expected at the turn. “I had a bit of this complex of singing for Greater France, I who learned with French song, she admits. I am often reminded that I am from Quebec, but for me France is our cousins. I felt at the beginning of my career that I had to come here and I feel at home here. “His Canadian culture can also serve him for the staging of his performance at Eurovision…” I have images in mind, she specifies. Don’t forget that I’m American too. Canada is also America, and I will bring back this touch (on the scene). »
We still have a downside. The choice of the name of the piece, “Évidemment”, lacks singularity after the classic of France Gall and very recently the duo Orelsan and Angèle. Nevertheless, the interpreter prepares “as for a marathon”. “I do everything, whether physical or mental, vocal technique, she explains. I’m self-taught, I’ve never taken singing lessons and that’s where I started. It’s a bit of a tough job, I have to learn and unlearn some things, but the important thing is that I get what I want and tell myself that I really gave it my all…”
To a journalist who asks her if Eurovision is a godsend, she laughs: “In fact, I have no right not to win. Otherwise, I will sing in Portuguese…”