INTERVIEW
Etienne Daho was born in 1956 in Oran, Algeria, and lived part of his childhood in Cape Falcon, a seaside resort located about twenty kilometers from the city. At the end of the 50s, the region is a paradise on earth. But everything changed in 1962, when the fighting of the Algerian war broke out in the region. Invited Saturday of " There is not a life in life ," on Europe 1, Étienne Daho, released October 18 a remastered box of his album Eden, tells the dark, but vague, of his childhood.
At the time, he was not only taught to read or write. He is also taught how to run while stooping, driving around in a car and never staying near a window. "For a child, it's a game all that, the world of childhood transforms all that is dangerous, so I did not live it as something dangerous," recalls the singer. "I was not very disciplined, I was running away, I was put in a board a few months at the age of four and a half, to preserve myself, that's where I felt for the first time once the tearing away, the worry of not knowing where my parents were. "
"Now, as soon as I get to a customs, something scratches me"
Very quickly, the building where his mother lives empties, the neighbors flee. But his mother and he are forced to stay, because his father had abandoned the family home without having signed divorce papers. "It was a paternal authorization to leave Algeria, it was complicated, we ended up having an authorization but I had the feeling of having returned to France illegally, now as soon as I arrive at a customs office , something scrapes me, "says Étienne Daho at the microphone of Isabelle Morizet.
At the age of eight, he finally managed to fly and go to France. Today, his memories do not allow him to say whether his papers were in order or not. He landed in Paris, then moved to Reims with his aunt and uncle, who enroll him in a religious school "very severe". "It shocked me a lot, it feels different, it made me feel that too, but thanks to the attention my aunt and uncle gave me - they gave me the culture - I had a very early taste of reading and I learned to defend myself, "says the singer. And to conclude: "One way to be well accepted was to be good in class, so I broke down."