M gave Thursday evening the first of two shows at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to open the Francos. We attended her performance of rare generosity, in addition to meeting the French superstar a few hours before the performance. Report of a luminous evening of reunion, which took place under the sign of joy and love.
“It’s like a love story, finding someone you haven’t seen for nine years.” It’s going to be beautiful tonight, “says Matthieu Chedid in his dressing room, after a fairly intense sound test during which he settled a host of details. Arrived the day before and still under the effect of jet lag, the incandescent performer likes this slightly feverish state. “It’s an interesting daze,” he said, smiling.
The last time we saw M in Montreal was on the Place des Festivals in 2014, in front of a sea of people. He returned the following year surrounded by his family – his father, his brother, his sister – in a more intimate spectacle. The pandemic will then have forced this long involuntary hiatus for the singer who has been performing in Quebec since the beginning of the 2000s.
“I had almost more success here than in France at first. We don’t forget these things. We are a little in ecstasy here, the energy of the people, the love of the French language. It’s very enjoyable. And I find my great friends, Ariane Moffatt, Pierre Lapointe, Jim Corcoran, Marc Labrèche, Pascale Bussières. It will be an express trip, more in intensity than duration. »
M is back in Montreal on his hugely successful Rêvalité tour: Thursday was his 123rd date, and he estimates that when he wraps it up in London in September, after 150 performances, about a million spectators will have come to see it.
“It’s a real epic, this tour. “How to explain it? “Every night I ask who’s coming for the first time, and it’s always half the room. My audience is getting younger, there are kids, people in their twenties…”
In short, M has been a unifier for more than 25 years, because he practices his profession “in a selfless way, in the love of poetry, art, creativity, family, with the heart”, enumerates he.
“It’s like the song my grandmother wrote to me: ‘I say M and I sow it on my planet.’ They are seeds of love. It’s the right fertilizer, it grows well. »
The singer believes the secret to his durability is staying out of fashion and “off the mark”, while remaining “unrelentingly consistent” with himself.
The color of this tour is purple, a mix between the blue of dreams and the red of reality. “That’s what we experienced on this tour. »
He was getting ready on Thursday, after a short nap and with real excitement, to once again put on M’s clothes: never, after all these years, has his stage character weighed on him.
“My biggest hit is creating M. That’s why I don’t let go. Not that I feel like a prisoner to him, but thanks to this mask, I have even more fun. »
M had promised us in an interview that he would be able to get the spectators of the comfortable Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier to get up from their seats. “It’s a story of energy, what. “We admit that we doubted, but we had to prove him right from the first notes of the first song, Rêvalité, which made the whole floor of the huge room of nearly 3000 places rise in one block.
More than two hours later, at the end of the show, people were still standing between the rows and in the aisles, singing, jumping and dancing, not tired for two pennies – and even those seated in the heights had ended up get up too.
More than a singer, M is an entertainer who takes the public with him into his fantastic and joyful world, without letting go for a second. From the second song, the riff of Qui de nous deux hooked us. Immediately after, Onde sensuelle had already given us the impression that the show had reached its climax.
But the atmosphere remained at the same level all along, from La Seine to Mama Sam.
There was also generosity in the air. For his bassist Gail Ann Dorsey, Bowie’s collaborator for 20 years, who sang alone Life on Mars and with whom he performs a cover of Joe Dassin (A toi), for Ariane Moffatt who comes to sing with him their now classic La bonne étoile , for the spectator who came to sing his version of Nombril, as he does during each show of this tour, for the public to whom he sends kisses and a ton of love, in pure joy.
When he launched the encore with Mojo, the Wilfrid-Pelletier hall, which is often so cold, vibrated with happiness and pleasure. That’s exactly what he was looking for, and he kept us that way until the end with This Day and I Say Love, as he wandered from one end of the room in the audience, from a third balcony to another, taking your time, before returning to the stage and ending with Radio.
His new song Mogodo talks about the inner child in all of us, and one thing is clear: not only is Matthieu Chedid’s not far away when he takes the stage, but he knows how to bring out the inner child of each spectator. time for a well-placed riff. Whether he wears his M headdress or not, under the luminous eye that overlooks the stage, there is such a desire to share in him that we have no choice but to join.
“You set the bar very high for the Francos, thank you, Matthieu,” Ariane Moffatt said as she left the stage after her performance, visibly moved. We can only agree with her: master of riff and rhyme, M delivered a worthy opening show, colorful and truly touching in its generosity. The sower of love has succeeded again.
