Alexis Patri 9:52 p.m., December 27, 2021, modified at 9:54 p.m., December 27, 2021

Étienne Daho celebrates his 40-year career Monday evening on Europe 1, on the occasion of a special issue of the program "Musique!". The singer-songwriter remembers, at the microphone of Stéphanie Loire, his first success and the wave of "dahomania" which at that time permanently transformed his life.

It's a hit from the summer of 1985 that no one had seen coming.

He remains today as a timeless of French pop.

That year, Etienne Daho published his mini-album 

Tombé pour la France

, carried by an eponymous song.

It is this title which will launch his career, and a frenzy around his music and his person remained under the name of "dahomania".

A time that the singer remembers on Monday evening on Europe 1, where he was invited for a special number of the program 

Musique!

over his 40-year career. 

>> During the holidays, find Musique!

Monday to Thursday from 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here

"It was a monster that moved into my living room. It was completely delusional," he recalls.

"I had a lot of fun, so it was after that things got a little more complicated. But I took the opportunity and it was fantastic. I came from Rennes all of a sudden, I was celebrating, I met lots of people, I was successful, they thought I was great. I loved everything, really. "

A success that Etienne Daho cannot explain

To celebrate his success, Etienne Daho spends his nights in clubs in the capital. "It was the heyday of the Palace and the Bains Douches", he recalls. "We left the Palace to go to the Baths. And if we found that there was not what we needed, we came back to the Palace and we spent the night there. In the morning, we had to get up to go to the TV. It lasted a few years like that, sleeping only three seconds. "

If Etienne Daho benefits so much, it is because the success of

Tombé for France

was a great surprise that it still cannot be explained today, 36 years later. "This song was not formatted at all. But it has something. I don't know what. It's very difficult to analyze," he says. "It's a good song, I think. But a song is good doesn't mean it's going to be a hit."

The singer is however certain of one thing: it is a TV show that changed everything for him: 

Les enfants du rock

.

In 1985, his "Cowboy" sequence devoted 20 minutes to him on the air.

"At that time, I went to Ibiza with a bunch of friends. I went to Ibiza a lot in the early 1980s. We stayed ten days to party," recalls the artist.

"And, when we got back to the airport, it wasn't the same at all. It was this show that sparked a frenzy in the radio shows and record sales."