With joy, thousands of people attended the SuperFrancoFête show on August 31st in the Agora of Quebec’s Old Port, an event led by the “Trois Mousquetaires”: Sylvain Parent-Bédard , Isabelle Viviers, Jean-François Blais, and your “d’Artagnan”, Clément Duhaime, supported by the whole team of SISMYK, the music department of ComediHa! I was there.
This exceptional one-night show will have brought together around thirty artists from different French-speaking countries, under the musical direction of the excellent Scott Price, on the same stage and in front of an audience of 5,000 spectators chosen at random from over 50,000 registrations.
Due to space constraints, those less fortunate were invited to attend the event in front of a giant outdoor screen at Place des Canotiers.
According to the “Musketeers”, this artistic, musical and ephemeral high mass was intended as a nod to the SuperFrancoFête of 1974, an event that lasted ten days and left an indelible mark on the memories of his contemporaries.
In his article on the evening of August 31, 2022, entitled SuperFrancoFête: an exciting tour of Francophonie in 40 songs, the journalist Cédric Bélanger brilliantly reported the essence of the event, which could also leave a lasting mark on the mood if it were to be repeated.
Language strengthens bonds
Beyond the musical and poetic performances, behind the scenes and on stage, this event has also made it possible to establish or strengthen links between artists from the four corners of international Francophonie.
From their diverse and numerous accents, echoing through the words and songs in the common language, their speaking radiated the stage as well as the receptive and enthusiastic audience.
An audience that, given the circumstances, has proven to be more open and inspired by the artistic rather than political “discourse” promoting the French language. I know both worlds and speak with an open heart…
win hearts
Through art, the French language is a winner when used to positively touch people’s minds…
Aside from influencing the intellect, the arts in all their variations, and singing in particular, touch the heart in an intimate and intense way.
And when, in this case, the song is served in all its French-language variants, and at what is ideally an annual event on the scale of the SuperFrancoFête, then it comes across as no other political discourse promoting the common language.
Also theatre, dance, comedy and cinema, which have declined in the diversity of the Francophone imagination, should be inspired by the convergence model offered by the SuperFrancoFête for an optimal influence of the French language.
Given the electrifying impact of the SuperFrancoFête 2022 on the public at the Agora of Quebec’s Old Port on the evening of August 31st, I no doubt expect a feverish reception during its televised broadcast over the next few months on TVA, TV5 Monde and TV5 Québec- Canada in more than 200 countries.
