Daniel Lavoie - Le Québec Maintenant - 29 Jul 2021

With 98.5FM's Marie-Claude Lavallée & Caroline Legault.
www.985fm.ca/a...
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[@lajoiedelavoie1319]

The hosts introduce Dan with Ils s’aiment, saying it’s a truly great song that still grabs you. It’s a song that’s radiated all across the planet, or at least those who have learned French - it’s thanks to Dan. He says he doesn’t think that it’s because of that song that people learned French. Marie-Claude (MC) asks if she can call him “tu”. Dan says that they’ve known each other for a long time, he thinks she can. He’ll call Caroline “vous” because he doesn’t know her. He says to proceed as they feel. First question: how did he experience the pandemic overseas, having performed in NDP in Asia? He said it was quite strange. They were in Shanghai when the pandemic had just started. They left Shanghai on January 24th before the country closed, and they thought they’d escaped, that it was all over, it won’t come over here. A few months later, it caught up with them. The second time was in Korea for some shows, and it was cancelled after a few weeks due to a rise in cases. The latest was in Taiwan where they did 3 weeks of quarantine and everything was cancelled before they even got to sing. The hosts say that must’ve been frustrating. He says yes, extremely.
MC says in Italian that he told her that during the pandemic, he learned to speak Italian. He replies in Italian saying yes, he learned a little Italian. He doesn’t speak it well, but he’s starting to understand enough. MC says fantastic, compliments. Caroline translates and MC says he speaks very well. MC says that learning a language is like opening your brain not just to the language but to a culture, humour, to everything. He says it’s unimaginable, he thought at 72 he would never manage to learn a new language. At the beginning he was very doubtful but little by little he was astonished to see words coming of their own accord. He was in Bologna in Italy, so it was much easier among Italians than at home in front of a grammar book in your office. It’s starting to sink in. 3 years ago, after a break of 20 years, he reprised his role as Frollo. But he had planned to have a quiet retirement. He says he’d thought of stopping, as showbiz was going very badly. And he thinks it’s not doing better. There wasn’t much space - it became very difficult, so he thought he’d give up his position to younger people, because in any case, they’re learning. But he’d stop scribbling. He’d decided to slow down a lot, until one day he was offered Notre Dame de Paris. He said, hey, what a good idea, and he doesn’t regret a single moment. He’s crisscrossed the planet, he’s been everywhere, he discovered that they have fans across the whole world. They’re recognised in China, in Taiwan, in Korea, in Russia. It’s unimaginable. He says it’s a pretty good retirement plan. What’s going so badly in showbiz? He says it’s no longer an industry as such. It’s more like volunteering. He hates saying “in my day”, but in his day, it was an industry that made a lot of money and therefore was respected, because if there’s one thing that gains respect these days it’s money. At the time, like now, when an artist is presented, it’s as “they have sold 12 million albums, or has had this many million spectators”. It’s never “here is someone who sings extraordinary songs.” Numbers and stats. In this profession, there are fewer and fewer records that sell, so it’s become very difficult even to keep a minimum of respect, because when you’re rich, people respect you. When you’re penniless, people think you’re poor. That’s what he thinks is difficult in the profession at the moment, and which must be extremely difficult for young people trying to make space for themselves. The hosts say speaking of extraordinary songs, tonight at the Place des arts, he’ll be recounting the origins of his most beautiful songs, snd they are numerous, in L’histoire de mes chansons. Does this kind of exercise allows him to have an overview of his career, or even of his life? He says no, because he often talks about them. The new thing is only talking about them for a whole show, not singing, listening to others sing them. That’s a first, and it will be interesting. He realised that he doesn’t always tell the same story for each song. With the years, he remembers differently how each song was composed. If you hear things he’s never said before about a song, don’t be too discouraged, it’s something he’s invented over the years. He says it’s creative work! Is there a song by someone else that he ‘d like to have written himself? He says one of the most beautiful songs he knows is Clouds [Both sides now] by Joni Mitchell. To him it’s a divine song, perfect - the lyrics, the music, the interpretation. There are songs like that, not many, that are perfect. Their producer is very quick, and is finding an excerpt of the song. He’s been to Korea, China, England, Lebanon… which people charmed him the most? He protests, saying it’s a trap of a question. He says today he’s doing the interview on 98.5, and tomorrow he’ll receive messages from everywhere in the world, from China, Korea, people who listened, and who will say “you said this and that”. He says they are all verrrrry charming. That’s a politician’s answer. What did he feel about Asian culture? He found it very interesting, to open yourself up, let yourself embrace something totally new. He’d always been fascinated by China, he read books about China, about its history, even novels by people who lived there, when he was very very young. So ending up in China one day was truly extraordinary and he really enjoyed his trip there. Especially in Shanghai and also Beijing, which he found was an extremely electric city, like London or New York, but at the same time, very beautiful. [Both sides now clip] Dan says Joni was one of his teachers, it’s with her that he learned to write songs. When will he leave again, after spending a little time in Quebec? He says he might go to Korea in November, COVID permitting. If not, he’ll return to Europe to work on a project he’s sharing with Richard Charest, a singer in NDP and also an extraordinary writer. They co-wrote a big project together that they’re trying to develop, to make of it something they can tour the world with. He’ll probably spend some time in Europe. After that, he doesn’t know. If he lives long enough, who knows. The hosts hope that he’ll continue for a long time, we need his voice. Caroline recaps the details for L’histoire de mes chansons. They thank him, he thanks them, saying they are very kind. They say that kindness takes three, and thank him for his kindness. He says he adores kindness, it makes the world liveable.

[@teddytodorova]

Thank you extremely much you took time to translate it!

[@g.d.l.8108]

merci la joie

[@aisteyellow]

Thank you for the translation comment, Daniel is truly awesome

[@nailajafarova9380]

Thanks! 😘