Zaz doesn’t do things by halves on stage, as we saw at the Bell Center in 2019. On Tuesday we stood at the Place des Arts not in front of a singer covered in chamomile, but in front of a real tornado. For two hours she displayed crazy energy that was mostly contagious.
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Right at the beginning of her concert, the French singer expressed her desire to shake up the Wilfrid Pelletier Hall. After entering the audience with the sweet song “Happy Days,” she was hoisted onto the stage and shouted “Get up!” while standing! » to his admirers, who until then were sitting comfortably in their armchairs. Then she sang “Imagine”, one of those positive anthems that are the hallmark of this artist, who enchants by encouraging us to embrace life.
To say that Zaz was expected is an understatement: the concerts she gave in Quebec in recent days (Sherbrooke, Quebec, Trois-Rivières, etc.) were scheduled to take place in the fall of 2022. They were postponed because the French singer was not vaccinated against COVID-19, which was a necessary requirement for entry last year. So it was an artist at the end of her tour that we saw on stage: a singer who brings all her skills to bear in a show and delivers with a confidence that sometimes seems like haste.
On his album Isa, which was released two years ago, Zaz slowed down the tempo. However, there wasn’t much of this sweetness left on Tuesday at the Place des Arts. In fact, almost all the pieces were performed with a zeal that rarely allowed emotion to unfold, whether they were steeped in nostalgia like “If ever I Forget” or sunny optimism like “Qué vendra.”
The singer paced excitedly up and down the stage, jumping and shouting, arranging the songs in blocks: folk-pop, gypsy-jazz there, pop-rock further back. Along the way, she delved into all her albums, giving pride of place to the most recent albums (De Couleurs Vieux, Tout là-haut, etc.), but also releasing her covers of Piaf (Dans ma rue and, as a reminder, La vie in pink ), Comme çi comme ça and at the end of the program his great hymns On ira and I want, which the audience received with a smile on their faces.
The momentum was strong, but not always consistent. The last third of the concert dragged on before Zaz released his two big hits and achieved a strong finish. Even a song paying homage to Quebec (“I would like to die at the edge of a lake/Going to a big tabarnac,” says the chorus) was not convincing. Let’s give Zaz his due though: his coronation was well pronounced, with the right accent.
Throughout the concert we felt a gap between the energy bomb that was on stage and an enthusiastic audience but also happy with their comfort. The energy didn’t always flow from the room to the stage and the singer seemed to compensate for this lack by giving more of herself, even if that meant always staying on top of her game and losing nuance in her interpretations.
Zaz only seemed to calm down at the beginning of the encore. She sang “Le chant des grives,” a beautiful song from her latest album. With a voice that is still strong but very urgent. We would have experienced moments like this more often. Perhaps she will show a little more restraint at her final concert on Quebec soil at the same venue on Wednesday.
Wednesday, 8 p.m., in the Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier at Place des Arts.