Paris (AFP)

Casting royal, from Véronique Sanson to Laura Smet: Grand Corps Malade offers itself an album of duets with female voices, "not only to talk about women but also to hear them" as he told AFP.

The success of "Mesdames" (which comes out Friday, label Caroline) is that the host always leaves room for the other.

Like "During 24h", developed with Suzane, where a man and a woman exchange their lives.

The electro-punchy tempo and the themes approached - "I will go out in a skirt for a few moments in transport / To understand the very essence of the hashtag balance your pig" - make you think you are in the universe of the singer, who denounced street harassment in his song "SLT".

"Yes, he was super benevolent and it is true that we are found both in our styles, on this title," Suzane rejoices to AFP.

The alchemy continues in a clip, not yet unveiled, that the two musicians have just put in a box.

"Without too much spoiler, it's a small short film, where I am in the shoes of Grand Corps Malade and vice versa", she breathes.

With one exception, Grand Corps Malade never arrived with a turnkey text.

"For most of the women on the album, we saw each other, and once my proposal for a duo was accepted, we asked ourselves: + so, what are we going to talk about? +, Says the artist met by the AFP.

- "Shocked by the pay inequality" -

The slammer has always been attentive to the condition of women in his songs - "I am shocked by the pay inequality and I hallucinate to see that the right to vote was granted to women so late" - and the substance has joined the form when he thought of a full duet album.

The opus stirs up generations - from the Sanson monument to Manon, a teenager spotted in a slam competition - and moods, between dark textures and more colorful patterns.

And the credits bring together singers (we also meet Louane, the rapper Alicia), musicians (Julie and Camille Berthollet) and actresses.

The opportunity for Camille Lellouche to show that she is not only an actress (she had passed at the beginning of her career by The Voice).

The song "Mais je t'aime", "Camille showed it to me on this piano," says GCM, pointing to the instrument.

"There, it's special, it's her own song, she played the melody, had already written her part. And there, I said: + wow, I want to do this song with you +".

- "This little crack" -

Not much of a surprise to him.

"I know her well, she's a friend, she has that in her, she has an incredible voice, she picks up you, she has this little crack, he explains. We released the song as a single and it works. not bad on radio, which is new to me (laughs) ".

For the title "A glass in the hand", Laura Smet does not sing but her narration allows this story of an upset encounter to parade in cinemascope.

"I wanted an actress, for the glamorous and cinematographic sides of this text. Laura Smet, it amused her a lot this idea, she was hyper-enthusiastic, I discovered a brilliant woman, humble, and almost impressed, she m 'Said + me, you know, behind a microphone in the studio, I have a bit of the father's complex ".

"She liked this text so much that she offered me to direct the clip - I won't betray a secret by saying that she has other concerns at the moment (the actress is pregnant, editor's note) but it is will do later, to extend the adventure of the disc ".

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