"La Marfée": do you know where the name of Yannick Noah's latest album comes from?

Eloïse Bertil 18:06 pm, June 06, 2023

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"I always tried to tell things that touched me, adventures that I lived," says Yannick Noah in the podcast "Yannick Noah, between you and me" about his songs. In October 2022, the ex-tennis player who found a new life in music released "La Marfée", an album whose name was opaque to many... but not for the Ardennes! And for good reason: La Marfée is the name of the wood that borders the town of Sedan, in the Ardennes, the place where Yannick Noah was born in 1960.

La Marfée is therefore the place where Yannick Noah's parents, Marie-Claire and Zacharie Noah, an Ardennes woman and a Cameroonian, met. "I am the ambassador of miscegenation. I am Franco-Cameroonian and I love my two countries," said the former tennis player. Yannick Noah was only two years old when his family moved to Cameroon. The return to Cameroon had been difficult for Yannick's father. But her mother had found the place wonderful. Subsequently, Marie-Claire Noah worked hard for the development of the village of Etoudi, in the suburbs of the Cameroonian capital Yaoundé, where the Noah family has its roots. She also gave the same name of "La Marfée" to the school she founded there shortly after their installation.

>> READ ALSO – Yannick Noah: at 12 years old, the legendary Arthur Ashe writes him a premonitory message...

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During his childhood in Etoudi, Yannick Noah often heard about La Marfée and his native Sedan. In "Yannick Noah, between you and me", the star says: "It's a place that mom told me about when she was here, in Etoudi. When she was a little too hot, or when she missed the seasons." He continues: "She was telling me about the moment when, when it rained, she put on her little K-Way to go pick wild strawberries. Or when she listened to her Brel records with a sweet and beautiful melancholy."

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"It's a luxury to be able to transmit something to the other"

Became chief of the village of Etoudi since the death of his father in 2017, Yannick Noah sings in his new album his return to his roots and his new life in Etoudi. At the microphone of Jacques Vendroux, he confides: "I make a first song called 'Back to Africa', on this land where we are, and it's a wink to mom. Because this part of me that I have from Cameroon, it's surprisingly thanks to my mother, who is French." Today, Yannick Noah has taken up the torch of his parents, through his associative commitment as well as his role as patriarch, and at the same time continues his career as a singer.

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To listen in full to Yannick Noah's intimate and rare account of the strongest moments of his life, find the podcast "Yannick Noah, entre vous et moi" produced by Europe 1 Studio on your favorite listening platform.

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