Met at the Vieilles Charrues festival, L'Impératrice is one of the French groups that are exported the best abroad, especially in the United States.

Its members are eager to return, after a first meeting two years ago, during which they discovered with surprise that Americans sang their songs without necessarily understanding the meaning.

INTERVIEW

"We did some concerts in front of a masked and seated audience, so we appreciate even more those that are a bit old-fashioned, like the Vieilles Charrues".

The group The Empress gave Sunday evening at the Carhaix festival their eighth concert since the resumption of their tour.

Its six members have a series of dates in France, but also in Russia and Eastern Europe.

"This feeling of the stage is incredible. We missed her so much! We can see it today", rejoices Flore, the singer. 

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Charles, one of the two keyboards, is surprised, in this beginning of the second tour of the group, that each date is always so different. "A concert really also depends a lot on the audience of the place, on how it's going to sound on stage, on your state of fatigue or excitement, but also on the country", he explains. "The songs are different every time. Each concert is new, each song is unique in the way it's going to be played, and in the way the audience is going to receive it."

Very happy to find their French audience, the members of L'Impératrice also explained to Emilie Mazoyer's microphone their impatience at the idea of ​​reconnecting with their American audience, after a first meeting which had greatly surprised them.

They were due to return in 2020, but had been prevented by the pandemic.

"People didn't understand the lyrics, but they sang the songs anyway."

"We experienced a small separation with the United States, in the sense that we went there once, we had to go back there just before the first confinement," recalls Charles.

"It's like a break, so we have to go quickly to reconcile with our audience. We can't wait. In addition, there is the beautiful promise of the California Coachella festival at the end of it all, it's amazing. exciting. But everything is exciting. We don't think the United States is going to be better than the rest. "

"It has always been a dream that our music could speak to people other than that of our own country and be able to touch them, despite the fact that they do not necessarily understand the lyrics," says Hagni, the second keyboard player.

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The United States, which the members of the group describe as their "first fantasy destination", surprised them with their welcome in 2019. "We thought there would be a lot of French speakers in the room," Flore remembers.

"We didn't have any problem with that, but we realized during this tour that not at all: there were almost only English speakers in the audience."

"People didn't understand the lyrics, but they sang the songs anyway," she wonders. “It was a real surprise for us and that's why we wanted to go back. Now we know that we have a real audience there. everything when we went there two years ago. We weren't planning on doing a full tour at all like it was. And it weren't tiny rooms on top of that, so it was really amazing for us. It was a crazy experience. "