"It does not take away the energy or the strength to do something": Florent Pagny confides in his illness

Ophélie Artaud 16:06 pm, April 03, 2023

"An image of the past, the one we will never see again." It is with these words that the singer Florent Pagny presents the cover of his autobiography "Pagny by Florent", which will be released this Wednesday, April 5 at Fayard. He appears with long hair, a cigarette in his mouth. Guest of the show "20h30 le dimanche" on France 2 this April 2, the singer returned to his career, but also to his cancer, and his recent recurrence.

"I did a bit of a jerk"

On the set, the artist appears emaciated but smiling. "When they entered my intimacy, they always saw me with my little cigarette butt in my mouth. It's over, it won't happen again, it's over," he adds about the photo chosen on the cover. The book, begun two years ago, was to tell the life and career of Florent Pagny. But a year ago, the singer with 15 million albums sold discovered that he had lung cancer, which forced him to cancel his "60 years tour".

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After a first wave of radiotherapy and chemotherapy, doctors told the artist that he was in remission. He then decided to return home to Argentina. "It worked really well, it's just that I was a bit stupid," says Florent Pagny. Because a few weeks ago, the singer had a relapse. "The cycle of immunotherapy has a value of 4 months, and me, in the fifth month, one night, it started," he says. "I coughed all night, and with what had happened to me, I quickly got on a plane to be checked and indeed, I saw that there was a ganglion that had fixed."

"I'm doing great"

However, the artist decided to continue his work - a clip with Kendji Girac shot in Patagonia and a portrait for TF1 - before resuming chemotherapy treatment. However, Florent Pagny does not lose his smile. "I'm doing great," he assures Laurent Delahousse. "It doesn't necessarily take away the energy or the strength to do something, and just because you're in treatment doesn't mean you're not doing anything anymore."

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Because the artist refuses to let the disease take over his passion. "It's not work, it's a passion and it's something I have to live. Being zapped by the disease, there are times when it can take power but others when I have to continue to do what I have to do, "insists the singer, who has different musical projects in progress. After releasing the song "Encore", in duet with Kendji Girac, Florent Pagny will be on stage this summer in several festivals throughout the France.