Also seen alongside Tears for Fears or Lenny Kravitz, this newcomer to the artist's galaxy is the big surprise of the clip for "Rêvalité", the first single and name of the album scheduled for June 3.

In this video inspired by the world of superheroes, in particular Batman, - M- ("my soul, my reflection, my mask" he describes to AFP) joins forces with this musician, a key element of the new impetus from David Bowie at the turn of the 2000s.

"I dreamed of playing with her, but I would never have dared to call her, explains the singer and guitarist. "Alain Lahana, who knew Bowie well, and the management, told me one day that she was in France and looking for a place to practice his bass".

The American therefore remains in the studio below her house in Paris for several months, at a time when he lives in the countryside.

When he finally meets her, during a lunch, he asks her "timidly if she wouldn't like to do the bass on a track, then one thing leading to another on the album, also do backing vocals, we remember all of her performing +Under pressure+ with Bowie at Taratata".

New purple suit

She will also agree to do the gargantuan tour which begins on April 8 and will stretch until the end of the year, between average rooms to warm up - with in particular thirteen evenings at the Folies Bergère - then festivals and all the speakers of Zenith type, including four in Paris.

"She is coming to settle in France - well, her sweetheart is French, that helps (laughs) - for the tour, completes the son of Louis Chedid. Gossips will say + he paid Gail Ann +, but it's very badly to know her, one does not force Gail Ann, she granted me her confidence and her time".

American bassist Gail Ann Dorsey on stage at the Barclays Center in New York, April 7, 2017 Mike Coppola GETTY IMAGES/AFP/Archives

The other novelty in the clip is that - M - is sporting a new purple costume.

An obvious reference to Prince and the album "Purple Rain".

"Prince is one of the major artists for me, like all those who have digested Jimi Hendrix and James Brown".

"In your radio" is the second extract broadcast.

We hear the word "radio" pronounced in English, a nod to "Video killed the radio star" by the Buggles - "the first 45 rpm that I bought" - but also "Radio" by Michel Polnareff or again "On the radio" by Donna Summer.

"Getting out of this gloom"

Matthieu Chedid, with his titles that mix funk and disco ("Rêvalité) or pop and ska ("Dans ta radio") intends to infuse a "vibration, to balance high energy in a world surrounded by low energy, to give color, to leave of this greyness". "I feel commissioned for that", he breathes.

Obviously, the question arose of the place of the artist, between health crisis and invasion in Ukraine.

"We say to ourselves, + I'm making a little song, it doesn't make sense with everything around us +, but by talking with loved ones who have known a world that is collapsing, we realize that songs are bubbles essential oxygen".

French musician and singer Matthieu Chedid, alias M, at the Cannes Film Festival, May 12, 2018 Valery HACHE AFP / Archives

A reflection born of what was entrusted to him by one of his friends, the Lebanese Khaled Mouzanar, who notably composed the music for the films of his wife Nadine Labaki ("Capharnaüm", "Caramel").

"One day in Lebanon, the guy who had opened the door of a shelter for him to escape the bombings goes out to smoke. A bomb explodes and kills him. Then, from the shelter, we hear the mewing of cats devouring the body. Khaled told me that what saved him from madness later were things like listening to ABBA very loudly on the walkman”, unfolds the fifty-year-old.

© 2022 AFP