Photo credit: Capture France Bleu
Roch Voisine returns to the foreground. Next year, the Quebec singer will celebrate the 35th anniversary of his hit “Hélène” and his first cult album that launched his career in France, with two special concerts: on April 4, 2024 at the Forest National in Brussels and on April 6, 2024. April at the Zénith in Paris. “We will present you a big, unforgettable concert. It’s a big deal! “With multi-scenes there are stage jumps, like we did back then,” enthuses the 60-year-old artist in the show “Décibels” on France Bleu. Although he does not yet explain the incredible enthusiasm for this emblematic title, which was number one in the Top 50 for nine weeks in 1989, Roch Voisine returns to his complicated relationship with “Hélène”.
The Dailymotion player is loading…
“After “Hélène” it was quite difficult”
“It cast a lot of shadows,” admits Roch Voisine, who “did less well” with her symbolic ballad after its enormous success. “It’s not that I didn’t like the song, that I didn’t like singing it. On the contrary,” reveals the singer at Emilie Mazoyer’s microphone, assuring that “after “Hélène,” it was quite difficult,” especially in the media. “It was complicated, you came with a new album, a new song, like the second single, and the first thing they asked me to do was to sing “Hélène,” the pop singer complains today, remembering that was even reduced to this single song even though he still released “30 albums, including 22 originals.” Each time, Roch Voisine had the impression that this title overshadowed his relevance: “I was talking in vain, I was trying to sell my thing. Especially since in my opinion there were songs that were better than “Hélène”. It’s a very simple song, but that’s what makes the big hits. The fact is that after that there were things that were musically better, but for which there was no longer any room.”
“I owe my French-speaking career to Hélène”➡ During @RochVoisineRVI As he celebrates the 35th anniversary of his song “Hélène” with great fanfare, he returns to the microphone@EmilieRadioFr about his sometimes turbulent relationship with his hit song #DecibelFB #Helene35🎧: https://t.co/LLsFFP1uGR pic.twitter.com/4J1WvXBArk
— France Bleu (@francebleu) November 22, 2023
The one who was still a hit with the titles “Before the departure” or “Schade” admits that the blame is shared. “The blame lies with me too. I think that was a big marketing problem. At the record company we were afraid at the time: “There’s something that works, we’ll do five or six of them, like the films. We’re staying in there, we’re not allowed to change under any circumstances.” Roch Voisine, who was frustrated by the situation, analyzes “The Recipe” today: “It’s become so annoying that I have to laugh with the fans. I start the concert with this song and say: “Okay, that’s it.” Well, those who came for this and can go home, the others have two hours of music.” He remembers in passing that he “never one “I had a personal problem with this song”: “I owe my career as a French speaker to this song.”