Paris (AFP)

"In the stars", "mysterious, but also" accessible ", having" crossed all generations ": it is the Christophe that Jeanne Added and Sébastien Tellier describe to AFP, who sang with him and regret the artist "extraordinary".

The meeting with this notorious night owl was often full of surprises. "The first time I saw him - it's not a fable - I ring at 11:00 p.m. at his house, someone comes to open me and guides me in a long corridor to his room, he is naked , under a sheet eh (laughs), watching La Callas in concert on a giant screen. I sat on the end of the bed and we talked ", remembers Sébastien Tellier.

The unclassifiable bearded man, who invariably takes "Dolce Vita" on stage and sang "Senorita" with his "hero" on the duet album "Christophe, etc, vol. 1", accuses the blow of his disappearance before to recover.

"It was in his image, extraordinary, he kept a large part of mystery, even at home (laughs), as already in the stars". But the man in cowboy boots and blue smoked glasses was not an out of reach icon. Sébastien Tellier also describes him turning into an "open book", like that night in the studio where he told him "his mother, a seamstress at Balmain". "There was no barrier, it made you feel comfortable."

- "To play bowls" -

Same observation with Jeanne Added, who sings "La petite fille du 3eme" on volume 2 of the duets. "He met everyone on the French scene and he was very accessible, always a sweet word, he is someone who will be missed."

"From the first meeting with him, the familiarity is immediate, immediately friendly," said AFP journalist Christian Eudeline, author of the biography "Christophe, portrait of the last dandy" (Fayard, 2014). "He goes on TV, but takes his bike to go and play boules, we have rarely seen a star so detached from his status".

All also agree on the ability of Daniel Bevilacqua, his name, to cross the ages and escape the huts to reach all audiences.

"The first time I met him was ten years ago, at the Ball on July 14 organized by Rodolphe Burger on the forecourt of the Palais des Papes in Avignon - in front of 10,000 people - and it is the first time that I had an understanding of what popular music is, "remembers Jeanne Added.

"His pieces no longer belonged to him, existed without him, had crossed the generations, there is such a beauty in there", develops the one who has a weakness for "Lost Paradise" and "Comm'si la terre leaned".

- "High nobility" -

"+ Dolce Vita +, + Crazy success +, + Blue words +, I like his hits, mini-symphonies, which touched everyone, engages Sébastien Tellier. It is high nobility, a mixture of absolute art and of popular success. "

"Success in the 60s with + Aline + and + The puppets +, then ten years later with + Senorita + and + Les mots bleus +, then in the 80s with + Succès fou +, and then the trendy press praised it. When you are invited by Guy Lux and you're covering Télérama, it's a jackpot ", summarizes Christian Eudeline.

And all of them depict a creator always in search. "All of Christophe's delirium is not a com plan. It is a goldsmith who continued to chisel, always with the + niac +, he did not go on retirement in Saint Trop '", insists Sébastien Tellier.

"He was not only a singer, it's obvious, I had seen him in piano-voice, he was in the evocation, that's what I like, the ellipse, when all is not unrolled on the carpet, that there is an effort to be made as a listener, decrypts Jeanne Added. The music was inside him ".

"On stage, it's a rare moment, it doesn't give in the past," says Christian Eudeline, not yet ready to use the imperfect.

© 2020 AFP