Café de la Danse

The concert was a week ago. And already, it hardly seems real  to me. The day and the evening especially, passed by in a blink, I have very no emotional recollection of it, even though I can perfectly remember the facts. It's just that the pressure and the excitement left a big void in the middle.

The feedbacks were good. I sang well, I played well, if one forgets my messing up on Whirlwind. (I suppose no one noticed except Simon.)

The only moment I remember savouring was during Nature boy. I started with a long piano dialogue with Rémy on the contrabass. There's such a good chemistry between us. That comes from all these years performing together with Michèle. I also recall Second breath. I was truly out of breath after my expressionist puppet dance on Goovy and sang at the piano with only cello as accompaniment (we were supposed to have the other Christophe at the harp, but he bailed out at the very last moment as we were relaxing in a café before the soundcheck, the excuse being an unfortunate sudden stomach flu...) 

I remembered Julia's advice: "If you are out of breath, don't try to fight it and finish the phrase at all cost, find another way to sing it". So as I sat at the piano, I decided to take some time to talk a little with the audience and introduce the song.

"Cette chanson s'appelle Second Breath". I said between two breath intakes. "Ca veut dire 'second souffle' en anglais." I paused.

"Cela m'apprendra!!!" I added, still panting heavily.

The audience laughed and I started the song. I used my breathlessness to sing the song in a different manner. I guess it was my best rendition of the song! Finally, the acoustic reprise of Un-me in the end, so enjoyable because I could at last hear the sound of my voice intertwining with the singers'. I started then to wake up and thinking to myself how great it was to perform on stage. And the concert was finished. As if it didn't happen.