The years pass and Daniel Lavoie gets more and more handsome! His refined features, his hair adorned with flecks of silver, his body movements, which were jerky not long ago, are from now on stamped with grace and sensuality. This glamour increases, nevertheless, he can’t have had a very easy life. For two years financial problems tormented him non-stop. That will not prevent him one bit from releasing an album in French, which he wants … to be a comfort to him. “Perhaps because I needed to give my spirits a boost”, he admits to me with a dazzling smile, “but also to comfort us all in these times of trouble and poverty. I, I have my family, my wife, my three children, who love me and whom I love. It’s because of all that that I am at peace with myself, in spite of all the difficulties.” 

To manage this enterprise, which is a new album (his eleventh, not counting two compilations and a disc of the show l’Olympia in 1987) he made a call to his faithful friends who had written beautiful words, notably Sylvain Lelièvre and Louise Forestier: “I had liked Louise’s last show, Vingt personages en quête d’une chanteuse (Twenty people in pursuit of one singer) so much that I went to see it three times! I had loved working with the English speaking lyricist, Mary-Beth Derry, for the album Here in the Heart (1992). I wanted to create the same intimacy with a French speaker, in this instance with Louise. I love working with women, they make me say things which a man never could.” “It’s a disc of French song just how I like it, those of Aznavour and of Renaud, those of Nougaro and of Cabriel, it recaptures his warm voice as if Summer has come, French song which follows a tradition where the words are as important as the music.” 

Lavoie’s projects don’t stop there, a new show is due in the Autumn, musical research with the composer François Dompierre, the realisation of his next album in English. It is also possible that we can see him on the big screen, the film for which his success “Here in the Heart” was originally composed. Called Kleptomania (with the actress Amy Irving), it should have come out last Autumn, but “they had some problems themselves as well”, he added with humour and the question is will it come out this year.. perhaps. “What is happening is that I remain in contact with the American film world.” It’s due to that, that one can see him singing in the legendary soap General Hospital (in January 1993). “I love roving around this way in both languages!” the Manitoban, who is the most performed on this planet, explains simply. 

But for the moment, what is closest to his heart, is his new album in French (it’s without a title at the moment as he’s still writing it). “It’s a disc about love and friendship with music with a bit of jazz, a bit of the blues, gentle, warm, like a big breath.” Don’t believe that Daniel has soaked up herbal teas and other soothing drinks to fulfil it: “I’ve been knocking back smart drinks the whole time! It’s better than coffee and alcohol at giving that little boost … and that’s goooood!” 

Without doubt, Daniel Lavoie has found the secret of passing through all his crises: he loves himself…

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