INTERVIEW
The show " La vie secrète des chansons " returns on Friday evening at 11 pm on France 3. The first episode of this fifth season will be on the theme of America. Guest of Culture Media on Friday, André Manoukian, the presenter, reveals a little more about the content of this first episode.
"America is the Mecca of all musicians"
"America is the Mecca of all musicians," he says. "We do in one year in New York what it takes ten years to do elsewhere," said the presenter. "But when New York doesn't like you, it spits you out like old chewing gum," he warns.
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Behind his piano, André Manoukian will take viewers on a trip this evening. And will reveal the stories behind the legendary songs. From Joe Dassin to Sheila via Claude Nougaro. "All songs inevitably have a secret story. The lesson to be learned is that there is no recipe for making a hit," observes the emblematic jury of " La Nouvelle Sta r".
America in the time of yéyé
"America was always, at the time of yéyé, not only a source of inspiration, but it was there that they went to seek their songs. Claude François was the best placed. Often, as soon as there was a Motown [American music label] soul song, there was a fight between Sylvie, Dalida and Sheila. It was often Sheila who won, "recounts the musician. "From the 1950s, all the so-called 'modern' singers will all plug into America to go do their shopping," he explains.
André Manoukian will tell how Claude Nougaro created the song "Nougayork". After crossing the desert which leads him to resell his house in Montmartre, the singer decides to move to New York, where he will meet a French musician who had worked with Stevie Wonder.
The presenter will also talk about Joe Dassin whose grandparents were Russian refugees fleeing the pogroms. "His father, Jules Dassin, a huge director, was kicked out of America by McCarthy's bullshit and so he has this ambiguous relationship [to America]. He is going to readjust an American hit called 'Yellow River' and he actually 'America' ", says André Manoukian.