Chante la vie, chante

Benson Theatre, Nebraska

The history of French song over four decades.

Told in words and song. Two singers, one pianist

Design and Staging by André Nerman With Daphné Rabas, André Nerman, Thierry Boulanger piano.

“An American musician that I met one day in Los Angeles during one of his concerts, on learning that I was a French singer, confided in me that when he heard David Bowie sing “Amsterdam” for the first time, he had been impressed as he had never before been by a simple song. Also, that he had found out that the song was by Jaques Brel and that he had discovered this extraordinary artist. Subsequently, he discovered Aznavour, Gainsbourg and others— and he fell in love with “la chanson française”.

Thanks to recordings, over the last 70 years these songs have become part of people’s lives…generations of singers are part of the French heritage, and their chansons have entered into the collective unconscious. Even young people of today know them. From Piaf to Véronique Sanson, from Brel to Berger via Renaud, we experienced four exceptional decades of an incomparable wealth of singer-songwriters. All over the world, including the USA, French song has left its distinct impression. From the cabarets of the left bank to the rebel generation of the seventies, they tell the story of France. But it is the sometimes dramatic lives and destinies of the artists of genius who created them which have left a mark all over the world.