Mirror of voices: The concert of emotion
Jeane Manson & Shirel, have bewitched the stage at the Palais des Congrès…
It is in front of a packed audience that the 2 artists seduced the audience and I dare say brought tears to the eyes… of this reunion with a good number of admirers. Between love, passion and emotion… the musical fusion lulled us to the sounds of the excellent musicians of Laurent Comtat’s orchestra, who accompany them.
The gospel voice of the beautiful American set the stage on fire like a fireworks display, and her rare tones of a thousand vocal colours lit up the space to welcome the exceptional voice of the divine Shirel, the universal and unforgettable artist Esmeralda of the world-famous musical.
At that moment, I let myself be carried away by the symbiosis of the voices of Notre-Dame de Paris and the chapel of Harlem… Magical moments of vocalizations according to poignant songs such as “Jerusalem”, a true musical jewel (of which Shirel is the author). Melodies with South American accents, popular hits mastered, Jeane Manson excels in the juggling of feelings, she sings about women, life, love and the Indian summer in homage to her friend Joe Dassin.
The magic of emotions in the union of an elective artistic filiation
From Europe to Latin America, through the Middle East and China… all over the world, Jeane and Shirel fill the hearts of those who welcome them with joy. At the end of each concert, they cry out in unison: “Goodbye, shalom, adios, arrive this evening, goodbye and maybe see you soon…”.
Hats off to Sophie (Geninatti Productions), this woman of the shadows, who combines management expertise and relational ease. It was she who organised this sparkling concert, a veritable American-style tour de force, and also contributed to its success. It was also worth mentioning.
Meeting: The exclusive interview with Alexandre Blondin
Jeane Manson: You had already sung a duet with Shirel in the concert “Double Je” in 2016, it was in Israel.
This return to the stage with your daughter seems to be part of what’s inescapable in our lives, the transmission… Would you say it’s the concert of love? Yes of course, but I’ve been singing with Shirel since she was 4 years old.
Singing is a family tradition. My mother Chris Stevens was a great jazz singer in the United States.
She sang with Louis Prima (The King of Swingers), to whom we owe the international hits “Sing, sing, sing” and “Just a gigolo” among others. She is the one who made me want to become a singer, a passion that I passed on to my daughter Shirel.
Shirel: You have crossed the threshold of a key number, a magic number that has a special meaning in the Jewish religion. That of transmission, of passing from one state to another.
This concert “Les incontournables” sums it up pretty well, what do you think?
I am 41 years old and soon to be 42,” she answers frankly with a smile. I love my age, really… I’ve never felt as good as I do today. I sincerely feel that I’ve fulfilled the role I was born for. So, yes, I still want to continue on this path by doing what I love without constraint and with the sole objective of offering happiness.
Jeane Manson: Speaking of passing on, passing on, would you say that this concert is a communion of family love, that you need to pass on to your audience who’ve loved and admired you for so many years?
The audience is my only love, the most faithful one I have left today. I’ve loved men, yes, I’ve loved men, but I haven’t met the great love, the one you stay with for 40 years or more … it’s a bit late now.
The artist’s throat tightens slightly, his sparkling blue eyes light up and then veil themselves. The sensitivity of the woman expresses itself, and during the few seconds of a moving silence, I am both disturbed and moved by the sincerity of being oneself.
Shirel: Reconciling family life and the life of an artist is sometimes complicated and requires caution, choices and sacrifices. You are the mother of three little girls. Do you agree that a child never really belongs to us, that he is dependent on his destiny and his future freedom?
My family is my top priority. If I had to stop singing to preserve it, I would.
I sometimes forget that they are not only my children, but children that I gave birth to and that one day they will take flight. Sometimes I am a little apprehensive with my daughters who are 10 and 12 years old and who already express this need for freedom. Luckily I still have a baby with me, which leaves me a few more beautiful years before it happens with her. I think that the notion of belonging “my children are mine” is very complex and not simple to implement.
The family, here comes a pretty young woman with long blond hair, Marianne, Shirel’s younger sister. “My sister and I are very close, we think of each other before we think of ourselves. »
She came along with her boyfriend, a talented DJ from Tel Aviv, who performed a few highly acclaimed musical performances on stage. Marianne is a production manager at i24news in Tel Aviv, an international Israeli 24-hour news channel.
She confides to me that I’m just an extra in this concert, that her aunt Barbara (her mother’s sister) is there too and that they will all be singing together tonight (like when she was a child) “Oh Susanna” a traditional American country style song.
Jeane Manson: Singer, actress, comedian, author, painter and amazon of the song.
Where does this cultural and artistic eclecticism come from?
I’m American especially! On the other side of the Atlantic, artists are very often versatile, they dance,
they sing, they’re actors, comedians, musicians…
You have beauty and talent, a true gift from heaven? That’s why I thank the lord every day.
But you know, as soon as I got a little wrinkle, I was also thrown out like a tissue…
In spite of everything I’m still here and my voice follows me too. Smiles…
Shirel: As for your mother, fairies seem to have leaned over your cradle?
Do you understand these young girls and women in their perpetual quest for physical perfection?
The video clip of one of the songs on my new album features women of all ages, physiques, beauty and different origins. I observed them, interviewed them, photographed them. It’s a theme that awakens in me a particular interest in the diversity and beauty of women, of all women, in what is natural, spiritual and universal.
What message would you like to send? That a woman is beautiful when she’s still herself.
Jeane Manson: You’ve been singing all over the world for over 40 years, selling 30 million records,
a magnificent track record of success with many gold and platinum records!
You could even say for over 50 years, because I started singing professionally at the age of 18.
If you had to sum up your career in one word, what would it be?
Thank you Lord for giving me the faith, the chance to do this job and the love of my neighbor.
Your successes: “Make me dance”, “Woman”, “Before we say goodbye”, “Live your life”, “Tears in your eyes”, seem to be modelled on your life. Are they the messengers of your feelings and emotions?
I’ve always been used as a seductress. So there was nothing exceptional about being offered love songs with the most beautiful, the most seductive, but also the most tragic variations of love.
Have you suffered from being away from your children often?
Yes, of course, even though I tried to have them around most of the time. I used to tell them, “If you don’t want Mommy to work, she doesn’t work, but we won’t go on holidays anymore, we won’t be able to do this or that. “And in life you have to work, that’s a value that I taught my children. Parents are only archers and children of arrows who must follow their own destiny, just as I have followed mine.
On the other hand, my children have travelled all over the world and had enriching experiences. If I had stopped living my passion, I would probably not be the same and I might not have such a complicity with my daughters.
Shirel: Today you live in Tel Aviv, the city that never sleeps!
This city has an incredible energy. Restaurants don’t close between 2 and 4 p.m. for example. There is no time for illusion or superfluity. What is fantastic is the force that unites and unites people of many nationalities in a unique explosion of life. In Israel, the Dead Sea is at the lowest level on the planet. Perhaps this is the secret of our origins and our constant search for truth.
I was there last May to cover the Eurovision Song Contest. A competition that Jeane Manson took part in 1979 in Jerusalem. She represented Luxembourg and remains to this day the only American singer in the history of the competition. In 2013, you, Shirel, sang an amusing parody “12 points for Eurovision” illustrated by a second degree clip sprinkled with a few truths. How do you, as an artist, view this institution?
I love Eurovision and I don’t understand why France hasn’t won since 1977. Cock-a-doodle-doo…
The French are probably no longer patriotic enough, which discredits their participation? The question remains, but the results are there! What struck me most recently was the incredible victory of the Israeli singer Netta in 2018 and her song “Toy”. What courage, one had to dare to present such a contribution to the world. Israel did it and won! We always come back to the daring and the progress of this pioneering country, land of a new world.
Jeane Manson: They say that writing is an outlet?
For me it’s music and also horses. When I’m with the horses I forget everything, I free myself from all the pressures of life and everyday life. But how could it be otherwise, since when you are on horseback you have a duty of prudence, complicity and respect with the animal.
You’re a woman who vibrates with love and emotion. Would you say you’re a horse whisperer?
I think so because it works well with horses but it doesn’t work with men.
You sang “Let’s make love before we say goodbye”, that’s quite revealing.
Do you think an artist’s repertoire is modelled on his own life and identity?
Yes and no, because in the beginning I sang folk songs and not French songs at all. I was lucky enough to have authors like Jean Renard and Michel Mallory who proposed me the song “Avant de nous dire adieu”. At first when I sang this song, I wasn’t thinking about goodbye, good bye, but about God… and I prayed to heaven. It’s not an easy song and not many artists can sing it well. Except maybe my daughter Shirel, who readapted it in English.
I said to myself if this song is for you, it will be and it has been… Number 1 in France in 1976 and more than 2 million copies sold. It’s that success that allowed me to sing all over the world.
Shirel: Have you suffered from the absence of the children of artists, who, swept away by the wave of their success, move away from their loved ones against the tide?
I don’t like to talk about the past. What’s past is past, you have to look to the future. I don’t want to judge and I don’t think you have the right to judge your parents. You can’t know what you would have done in their place. As far as I’m concerned, my family life is my priority today.
You said in the press about your mother: “She has this talent for touching people with her voice. Every time she goes on stage I cry. She touches me deeply. “It’s a wonderful proof of love…
I love and admire my mother for what she represents as an artist and what she is as a woman.
I may have inherited the gift of his voice.
She’s the one who made me want to sing like her mother before me.
We have differences, contradictions but this common point of sharing music that unites us.
Jeane Manson: We are living in difficult, troubled times, with tensions, violent acts and behaviour.
Should artists be messengers of hope, peace, humanity and alliance?
I say to the intolerant that they follow the path of wisdom, that they must change their hearts of stone into hearts of gold to see the world differently. In our society, women are at work in constant competition with men and we women do not want to be in conflict with men, we just want to be there as equals.
You have to believe in life, fight no matter what and move on.
I’ve sung about love all over the world and I’ve always asked myself the question “Why don’t people listen to the love messages in the songs? “It would soothe many ills.
Jeane Manson: “It’s not enough to see the world, you have to know how to love it, how to observe it?
And accepting it… instantly adds the artist.
My gaze then plunges into the depths of his azure eyes and I answer him to close this interview.
“I’ve seen it in your eyes.”
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