Daniel Lavoie: the official website

Daniel Lavoie, The Big Prince of Song

Côté Femme, 31st July 2002
Isabelle Bieth-Leize

The Canadian singer will be the Airman in Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince) put to music by Richard Cocciante from the famous book by Saint-Exupéry.

The meeting was arranged in a suite of a big Paris hotel … Daniel Lavoie opened the door, a huge smile illuminating his entire face, highlighting exquisite lines round his dark green eyes, velvety eyes. Of a tall elegant build, he shook hands firmly. Dressed entirely in black, he kept his leather jacket on throughout the interview. Perhaps he was already trying to slip inside the skin of the Airman... The never to be forgotten performer of Ils s'aiment recalled his childhood "on the plains of the West", his longings, his family ... with simplicity, gentleness and humour.

IBL: Why did this project attract you?
DL: For several reasons: to get back on stage after the unbelievable success of Notre Dame in which I came off rather well. Also to live in Paris and to work with a team which I knew well. If I'd been offered another part, I would have dithered over it for ages. Le Petit Prince has a special place in everyone's heart, it touches people of all ages, all over the world.

IBL: Weren't you scared that the work might be misrepresented?
DL: The whole team approached the project with humility and with great respect. We'd worked out that Le Petit Prince would not be a disco version! The book had to be "tamed" to try to understand it and to remain true to its perception, without attempting to re-write it. The one aim was to do it properly and, in these troubled times, the work opened the door to a certain calmness.

IBL: When did you read the book for the first time?
DL: As a teenager, and I don't think that I remembered much about it. Saint-Exupéry wrote Le Petit Prince when he was 42, in a period of self doubt. I believe that the topics he touched on were not easy for a teenager to understand, at least not for a teenager from the plains of Western Canada where I lived. When I read it again many years later, I at last understood its meaning. What touched me was the man's helplessness within his own life and his need to rediscover the simplicity and magic of his childhood. The older we get, the more life seems complicated … This desire for simplicity arouses powerful emotions.

IBL: What was your childhood like?
DL: I had a very happy childhood, "blessed by holy water" as we say back home! I grew up in a small village in Manitoba, far from the centre of things. We didn't have a lot but we didn't know that other people had more. I roamed around the prairies and the ditches, there was never anyone about and I had many good adventures there. Later I went to the big city, to a boarding school run by the Jesuits.

IBL: When did you get into music?
DL: At about the age of 5. I started to learn to play the piano with the nuns in my village. At the beginning I wasn't very stylish but I had a certain ability. All the time I was at college, I played with my mates. As school ended, we left for a tour of Québec. We were a long way from home … We put our instruments on a lorry, we split up and I never saw them again!

IBL: What moments stand out in your career?
DL: Those that stand out most are – when I was singing for the first time with Edith Butler in Montréal in 1975. I had such sweaty hands that my fingers slipped on the piano! There is also the first time I sang in Paris … and then Notre Dame de Paris where it was very nice to share success with the entire company.

IBL: What would you like to pass on to your three children?
DL: A certain confidence in life. I'm not one to dictate, I try to show them by example and to arrange things so that they can chose a way that suits them. When we are young we are under the impression that life is short but, as we get older, we realise that it's not as short as all that … particularly if you are working at something which you really don't like!

IBL: Where do you live?
DL: In a village to the south of Montréal. It's in the countryside because I always have lots of problems living in towns. I lived in Paris with my family (they agreed to it) for a year because of the show. I try to be adaptable ….

IBL: What hobbies do you have?
DL: I like to ride my bike, I'm enthusiastic about gardening and horticulture. I've got a large wood and I busy myself in the forest, in my vegetable plot and in my orchard. There's a lot to do but I like physical work. I'm also fond of reading … In short, I've a very full life!

IBL: How do you see yourself in 10 years time?
DL: Living life to the full, if that's possible. I don't know what will happen to the world, we all feel a bit uncertain about what lies ahead. I've not got a life's plan and I'm not about to get one. I like to approach each day as it comes, because I don't like to plan for the future …I'll be OK!