Notre-Dame de Paris: Garou recounts the "trauma" of the success of the musical

Alexis Patri 4:00 p.m., May 29, 2022

INTERVIEW

On September 16, 1998, an unknown singer made his debut on the stage of the Palais des Congrès in Paris, in the role of Quasimodo.

A few months later, buoyed by the success of the musical 

, Garou, then 26 years old, became one of the best known and most adored singers in France.

A lightning trajectory that Garou had absolutely not anticipated, as he explains on Sunday at the microphone of Didier Barbelivien on Europe 1, on the occasion of his invitation to the program 

.

Invited to tell his story through five songs of his choice, Garou notably selects 

, by Robert Charlebois. 

>> Find Didier Barbelivien's shows every Sunday from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m. on Europe 1 as well as in podcast and replay here

Recently taken up and adapted in the film 

by Valérie Lemercier, this song recounts the melancholy of a popular singer, faced with a success that delights him as much as it overwhelms him.

Robert Charlebois sings there in particular "You want me to be a God, if you knew how old I feel. I can't sleep, I'm too nervous. When I sing, it's a little better. But this job, It's dangerous: the more you give, the more the world wants."

“I had no aspiration at all for popularity”

An evocation of the pressure of success that resonates with Garou's experience.

"I still have a lot of trouble with the digestion of

", confides the singer on Europe 1. "It happened so quickly, I really did not expect it. When I say yes to this thing I thought it was great to get on a plane and cross the ocean. I thought I was going to do a play, but not that I was going to be famous. I told myself that, from anyway, I was going to be made up. So people weren't going to recognize me on the street."

The monster success of the musical will therefore surprise the young singer.

The tour and media omnipresence of the Notre-Dame de Paris troupe will indeed suddenly propel the young Garou, Patrick Fiori and Julie Zenatti to the rank of stars, in addition to confirming the celebrity of Daniel Lavoie and Hélène Ségara, already known to the General public.

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From "Starmania" to "Notre-Dame-de-Paris": how musicals were born in France

"It is true that at many levels there was trauma. There is still some, "book Garou at the microphone of Didier Barbelivien". "I had no aspiration at all for popularity.

Then bam, bam, bam!

It fell on me.” 22 years and nine studio albums later, the singer has therefore not fully recovered from the upheaval that 

will have been in his life.