A secret that is not one for those who have followed the career of "great Jacques", who died in 2018. Higelin senior mentioned it in his autobiography "I don't live my life, I dream it" in 2015.

But the interpreter of “Fallen from the sky” quickly evacuated the subject.

And also swept it away in an interview, as on franceinfo in 2015: "I wanted this guy so much (...) but it didn't win my brain".

"I had never thought about making a song about it, it was while talking with Valérie Lehoux (biographer of Jacques Higelin) who will release a very beautiful book on the subject: my father had asked him to tell the story , I was sensitive to this respect for a given word", explains to AFP Arthur H.

"So this story that kills me / Reveal it, free me" he sings in "The secret", one of the titles of his album "Life" which is released on Friday.

The book by journalist Valérie Lehoux, "For always silence kills" (Flammarion), comes out on March 1.

This modest title is just one of the jewels offered by Arthur H to tell the surges of life that arise in the darkness.

"Titanic", on a beautiful ocean of strings, pays tribute to one of the liner's musicians who played until the last moment during the sinking.

"It's a real question today: can we be fine when everything is going badly?" Establishes the singer.

"Declaration of love"

He found his answer: "it is yes".

"If you like history, you see that it is very chaotic and quite violent, but when you feel that something is flowing, it is not necessarily the end of life".

"This orchestra continued to play both because the musicians were obliged to do so, but also for a kind of declaration of love to music and to life: it is unfortunately a beautiful image for our time".

"Divin blasphemy" is an ode to Brigitte Fontaine, surrealist fairy of French song, accomplice of Jacques Higelin, who leaned over the cradle of Arthur H. Only he can pay him such a tribute, between poetry and irreverence.

"Brigitte, I love her and I adore her and as I have known her since I was born, there is a form of trust and intimacy, I like to make fun of her, with a lot of love , and she seems to like it too, but it is sure that I will not do that with someone else”, smiles the fifty-year-old.

Arthur H was one of those spared by Brigitte Fontaine when the Printemps de Bourges unveiled the cast in 2022 to surround the singer for a tribute concert.

Because there were artists there that she hadn't chosen.

"Before the concert, she was mad with rage, railing against everyone, but after she was on cloud nine, it made her feel good, very happy, there were very great successes in the show, it gave her energy," recalls Arthur H.

© 2023 AFP