INTERVIEW
The show "Live Les Vieilles Canailles" is named in the new category "audiovisual creation" at the Victoires de la musique 2020, which will take place on Friday evening and the ceremony of which will be broadcast on France 2. Valéry Zeitoun, the producer of the trio bringing together Jacques Dutronc , Johnny Hallyday and Eddy Mitchell, will be present at the ceremony. He shared Friday in "Culture Media" his ideas to revive the Victories, whose audiences tend to stall.
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A second ceremony on YouTube
"The public is changing," says Valéry Zeitoun. "I have four children between the ages of eleven and 24, and not one of the four watches television. And they are not the only ones!", He adds. If he notes that "there is still an audience for this kind of television", he points out that "the audience of France televisions is very adult". The producer therefore proposes to "think about making a ceremony on a public service channel and a ceremony with YouTube, platforms". He considers that it is necessary "to try to develop this and go where the public is".
Singers to present the Victories
Another complaint from Valéry Zeitoun: the presenters of the Victoires. Friday evening, the ceremony will bring together ten presenters like Julian Bugier, Laurent Ruquier, Stéphane Bern or Daphné Burki. What the producer regrets, who would prefer that professionals from the musical world take care of it. "In the cinema, it is always actors who present the Caesars. In the United States, in England, it is always singers who present the events," he underlines. "We have animators - I have nothing against them, they are excellent - but I think we have singers, singer-actors quite capable of presenting the Victories," said Valéry Zeitoun.
Developing the college of voters
The 35th edition of Victoires de la musique has only eight categories, compared to 19 for the first ceremony in 1985. If their number has decreased over the years, this year the controversy swells after the removal of the categories "world music", "urban music", "electronic music", "rap" and "rock". Which earned Victories to be accused of lacking diversity. "The president of Victoires, Romain Vivien, had requests from great rap artists who wanted to compete with the other" categories, explains Valéry Zeitoun. "The Victoires were criticized for being too long a ceremony, so they decided to try to shorten the show and give all the artists named the chance to play," he added.
But according to the producer, the result all the same a ceremony which "either lack of categories", "or the structure of the voters" is not the right one. "The Victories are not a ceremony that does not move. I read that Romain Vivien had taken into account these criticisms and that most certainly, they will make evolve the college of the voters", he notes however. "There is perhaps a college of voters more sensitive to the French variety than to rap," hopes Valéry Zeitoun.