2023-09-02 17:18:52
“It’s always sunny above the clouds, but me, if I were a bird, I would go dancing in the storm / I would cross the clouds like light does / I would listen to the symphony of lightning in the rain … » Zaho de Sagazan, seated at the piano, romantically sings a magical song in all simplicity.
Conquered, his audience holds his breath. The young artist is at the heart of a stunning show. She swirls on the electro loops of her musicians, Tom Geffray (drums) and Alexis Delong (synths), vocalizes under red or blue spotlights, interprets with her deep and powerful voice the singular songs she has written, words and music.
Star at 23, the singer-songwriter is compared to Stromae and Brel. She imposes by her magnetic presence and the fulgurance of her texts without concessions. The influence, madness, death invite themselves into his songs which also proclaim mad love, exalt the impulses of the body and the heart, or claim the lightness of his youth.
With only one album, The Lightning Symphony (Disparate/Warner Chappell/Virgin), but already several hits, “Les Dormantes”, “Tristesse”, “My Unknown”, “Les Garçons…”, Zaho de Sagazan has a string of concerts: 75 dates in 2023, festivals in abundance, the Olympia in November, the Zéniths of Nantes and Paris in March 2024…
“Develop without making artistic concessions”
How do you suddenly go from darkness to light? ” I need sleep, she said smiling. I have a very dense life, few breaks and not enough sleep. A lot of work, my head inside and I’m super-happy! » Very relaxed a few hours before setting fire to a new stage, Zaho de Sagazan relishes. “I’ll quit when it doesn’t make me happy anymore. We are made of lots of dreams, necessarily different. » Whatever happens, she is sure, all her life she will remain faithful to what triggered her vocation as a teenager: the piano and the English singer Tom Odell.
Behind the young prodigy, a logistics was set up at full speed. Her friend Lucie Guilloux is her manager: “I know Zaho from the Aristide-Briand high school in Saint-Nazaire. » Both were studying in the music section. “I had the conviction that she could do very great things. » The two young women immediately assert themselves in the face of the music industry. “We set up our label, Disparate. We own everything we do, it’s a huge freedom. I want to help him develop without making any concessions on his artistic choices. »
23-year-old French singer Zaho de Sagazan performs 75 concerts this year / Guillaume Ménard/SDP
A small structure of five people managed by Lucie Guilloux, Disparate surrounds the young artist in development with an administrative manager, Sophie Leudière, a strategy and marketing project manager, Lola Serres, and a video director, Guillaume Ménard, another friend of the high school. “It’s the project of a group of friends, on a human scale. » The young team is aiming high. “Luckily, Zaho has a real vision: instinctively, she sees the direction to follow. We have great ambitions and a common vision, we find ourselves in the choices, the rhythms, the values. »
A dozen people around the singer
Zaho approaches his tour like a marathon. She travels the roads surrounded by a dozen people: stage manager, sound engineer, lights, record and poster seller, musicians… Her close guard watches over the grain and manages the logistics: arriving in an unknown city, finding the welcome, prepare the room, do the sound checks (pre-concert sound settings), then quickly dismantle and leave. At first, the team traveled with two eight-seater rental vans. In July 2023, she acquired a bus, and can drive at night while sleeping comfortably: “We couldn’t wait any longer! »
The adventure remains artisanal, with regard to the great American rock groups which travel in convoys of dozens of trucks. Zaho de Sagazan, who dances on stage as in a club, sings with great energy, with little rest between two concerts, does not have a sports coach, but has taken up sports “in a hyper-serious way”. Invited to sing in Montreal (she will return to Canada for two dates in April 2024), as soon as she arrived, she rushed to the gym!
The mind matters too. “You have to make beautiful songs, be generous with the public, not get lost in numbers and social networks: we receive a lot of messages of love and hate”says Zaho de Sagazan, who manages her social networks herself. “I keep an eye on Zaho during walkabouts, selfies, signatures… You have to stay attentive without being paranoid. I also have to see the times when she needs a rest. Sadly, several artists found themselves buried under an overly busy rhythm”recalls his manager.
Zaho de Sagazan is well aware of the danger, she who was delighted to sing in the first part of Stromae at La Défense Arena in June, before the Belgian artist, exhausted, canceled all his concerts. “I hope he will recover.she breathes. Concerts are such wonderful moments! » Zaho recharges his energy through this contact overflowing with emotions that is the stage. She is not about to leave her.
#Zaho #Sagazan #marathon #runner #tour