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Flashmag March 2019 www.flashmag.net
When I win the Reve Antillais (Antillean, Dream) contest I see myself as a solo artist, meaning I have the desire to have my own career, not necessarily to evolve into a group. It was a learning period that allowed me to consider building my own career. Like the great musicians of the time as Giles Floro, and others. My dream, was to have a solo career.
During your period of artistic development had you had the slightest doubt about following up on your career?
Yes, as many before me, I had moments of discouragement, some of my projects were rejected by production companies which found that my songs were interesting but not commercial enough. I was not known back then, and I was trying to find my place, it was not easy. There were already big names on the spot such as Tania St Val or Zouk Machine. Meanwhile, these setbacks did not at all demotivated me, I simply said that I had to work more, and that I would get there sooner or later. Even if at a certain time my family wanted to dissuade me a little, they would have liked me to be a doctor or a lawyer. It is true that at the time, parents saw their children hardly live from music.
The debate in the West Indies, is what purists like Béroard call the francization of Zouk, which would lose some of its flavors since it’s sung in French or English. In your opinion isn’t it normal to use these languages, to reach a wider audience, or whatever the language, it is the music that matters ?
With all the respect I owe to my elders like Jocelyne Béroard, they are people that I really appreciate because it's thanks to them that I'm here. I think this is a false debate, for me the language is not at all a blockade. I had the opportunity to sing in African countries, in the United States or Japan, in Creole or in French, that did not prevent people from vibrating to the rhythm of the music. It is enough for people to be charmed by the melodies and harmonies of music, music has a universal language. Now speaking of the French, we use, I think that is not in vain. The public speaking the French language is vast, in France, in Canada and in African countries, and it is important that we try to reach these audiences.
It is normal that we use Creole in our songs as French. there are very beautiful zouk love songs in Creole, just as there are very beautiful zouk love songs in French. Me personally, my songs are in Creole and French, as well as my new single Puis que c’est ainsi (since it's like that). I chose to write in French because, I do not like to be lazy in easiness. You know the song and the voice is the mirror of the soul, coming from Guadeloupe it was easy for me to write in Creole, but I preferred to write in French to see if I was up to it. Whether you write in French in English or Spanish, I think the key is to reach your audience. There are African groups that sing in dialects that even other Africans do not understand, but they are performing all over the world and people love it. For me it is the music that matters, concerning the language, it doesn’t matter if we understand the lyrics or not. The language contributes to the musical atmosphere. In my opinion, language is not a criterion for denaturing music. What distorts the Zouk, is to forget the foundations that groups like Kassav have built in the 80s and 90s because we have phenomena like Zouk RnB and other that desacralize our creed.
In Cuba the government has just banned the Dance hall since, it would shadow the original cultures of the islands, in Guadeloupe and Martinique, it seems that genres from the British islands are taking more and more the upper hand, in others. In your opinion, Is there a problem of identity in terms of survival, if they continue to prevail at the expense of local genres? Isn’t it normal that cultures of the different islands coexist?
Absolutely it is the current theme. Our music seems to be abandoned, in favor of foreign waves, I think it comes from the media that publicize certain genres to the detriment of others. On the island of Reunion for example I saw that they had a different policy they certainly broadcast foreign music, but they better, protect local music. I think it's important to protect our cultural heritage so that new generations can learn from it.