Starmania | |
---|---|
Music | Michel Berger |
Lyrics | Luc Plamondon |
Book | Luc Plamondon |
Productions | 1979 Paris 1980 Montreal 1986 Quebec 1988 Paris 1993 Paris 1996 Texas 2022 Paris |
Starmania is a Canadian-French cyberpunk rock opera written in 1976 with music by Michel Berger and book and lyrics by Luc Plamondon. It debuted in 1978 with a studio recording of the songs, before premiering on stage in 1979. Several of its songs have passed into mainstream Francophone pop culture, and helped original cast members Daniel Balavoine and Diane Dufresne to rise in popularity in France; it is now considered one of the most famous rock operas in French history.
An English version with lyrics by Tim Rice, titled Tycoon, premiered with the release of a studio recording in 1992, which starred Kim Carnes, Celine Dion, Nina Hagen, Peter Kingsbery, Cyndi Lauper, Willy DeVille, Kevin Parker Robinson and Tom Jones.[ citation needed ]
A comeback tour, directed by Thomas Jolly, Nicolas Ghesquière [1] and Victor Le Masne (Housse de Racket), was announced in 2020 and set to premiere in France on November 11, 2021. It was postponed to November 8, 2022, because of the COVID-19 pandemic [2]
In 1978, its first recording was released (in French), sub-titled Starmania, ou la passion de Johnny Rockfort selon les évangiles télévisés ("Starmania, or the Passion of Johnny Rockfort According to the Televised Gospels") with the leading roles filled by Daniel Balavoine, Claude Dubois, Diane Dufresne, Nanette Workman, France Gall, Eric Esteve and Fabienne Thibeault.
In 1979 the show was given its theatrical debut in Paris, starring Balavoine, Étienne Chicot, Dufresne, Gall, and Thibeault, followed by Canadian productions in 1980 and 1986 and French revivals in 1988 and throughout the 1990s. The 1980 Canadian production had a cast that included France Castel, Louise Forestier, Gilles Valiquette, and Martine St-Clair. [3]
Céline Dion recorded several songs from the musical on her 1991 album Dion chante Plamondon .
In 1992, an English version of the show was created with the release of the album Tycoon, with lyrics by Tim Rice, and starring Kim Carnes, Celine Dion, Nina Hagen, Peter Kingsbery, Cyndi Lauper, Willy Deville, Kevin Robinson and Tom Jones in the principal roles on the recording. The American premiere of Tycoon, with English lyrics, was produced at the UTEP Dinner Theatre in El Paso, Texas in 1996, with Plamondon in attendance. It was alternated on stage in Paris with the French version for a few months.
In 2004, Starmania was honoured as a MasterWork by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada. [4]
In the near future, Monopolis, the capital of the recently united Occident, is terrorized by the Black Stars, a gang headed by Johnny Rockfort, who dances to the tune of Sadia, a student-agitator, originally from the upper crust, who is described as a "transvestite" and descends into the underground to hand out orders. They meet at the Underground Café, under the amused gaze of Marie-Jeanne, the robotic waitress.
Above this underground café stands the Golden Tower, a 121-floor building, the top of which is the office of Zéro Janvier, a billionaire getting into politics by running for the presidency of the Occident. He bases his electoral campaign on a return to order and on the construction of the new atomic world. Zéro Janvier thus becomes the sworn enemy of Johnny Rockfort and the Black Stars. It is in this framework that three parallel love affairs take shape and come undone: the impossible love of Marie-Jeanne for Ziggy, a young androgynous and mythomaniac record dealer; the sensational romance of Zéro Janvier and Stella Spotlight, a sex symbol who has just said farewell to the silver screen; and the passion of Johnny Rockfort and Cristal, a true nexus of the plot.
Cristal, the host and star of a TV show called "Starmania", gets a call from Sadia offering her a clandestine interview with Johnny Rockfort, whose face no one knows. The get-together takes place at the Underground Café. For Cristal and Johnny, it is love at first sight. They go off together; therefore, Sadia has lost her hold over Johnny. Cristal decides to become the spokeswoman for the Black Stars, transmitting pirate messages by means of a neutron camera that lets her take over television frequencies.
Sadia, furious with jealousy, denounces Johnny and Cristal to Zéro Janvier on the evening that he is celebrating his engagement with Stella Spotlight at Naziland, a gigantic revolving discothèque above Monopolis. The Black Stars have chosen this very evening to set off a bomb in the Golden Tower.
Zéro Janvier's men hunt the Black Stars. Cristal dies in Johnny's arms. The shadow of Johnny Rockfort, either killed as well or imprisoned depending on the versions, will darken the victory of Zéro Janvier, elected president of the Occident. The play portrays the struggle of terrorism against totalitarianism, two living forces in opposition, two dangers that threaten the world.
Stella Spotlight, revolted by power, ends her own life and returns to her dream of immortality; Marie-Jeanne, having had enough of the underground world, heads off in search of sunlight.
Luc Plamondon is a French-Canadian lyricist and music executive. He is best known for his work on the musicals Starmania and Notre-Dame de Paris.
Louise Forestier is a Canadian singer, songwriter and actress.
Daniel Xavier-Marie Balavoine was a French singer and songwriter. He was hugely popular in the French-speaking world in the early 1980s; he inspired many singers of his generation such as Jean-Jacques Goldman, Michel Berger, who was his closest friend, as well as the Japanese pop-rock group Crystal King. Balavoine was a part of the original cast of the rock opera Starmania in 1978, which was written by Berger.
Michel Jean Hamburger, known professionally as Michel Berger, was a French singer and songwriter. He was a leading figure of France's pop music scene for two decades as a singer; as a songwriter, he was active for such artists as his wife France Gall, Françoise Hardy or Johnny Hallyday. He died of a heart attack at age 44.
Patricia Gallant is a Canadian pop singer and musical theatre actress. Of Acadian ancestry, she has recorded and performed in both English and French.
Dion chante Plamondon is the tenth French-language studio album by Canadian singer Celine Dion. It was released on 4 November 1991 by Sony Music and features songs with words written by French-Canadian lyricist, Luc Plamondon. In Europe, the album was renamed Des mots qui sonnent, meaning Words That Resonate. It was promoted in Quebec by four promotional singles: "Des mots qui sonnent", "L'amour existe encore", "Je danse dans ma tête" and "Quelqu'un que j'aime, quelqu'un qui m'aime". In France, three commercial singles were released: "Je danse dans ma tête", "Un garçon pas comme les autres (Ziggy)" and "L'amour existe encore". Dion chante Plamondon won the Juno Award for Francophone Album of the Year and Félix Award for Best Selling Album of the Year. It topped the chart in Quebec and reached number four in France.
Marie Denise Pelletier is a francophone Canadian singer. She served as President of Artisti, a copyright collective for music artists operated by Quebec's l'Union des artistes (UDA).
Peter Kingsbery is an American singer-songwriter who co-founded the band Cock Robin in the 1980s. He grew up in Austin (Texas) where he studied classical music. He moved to Nashville (Tennessee) where he began his career as a musician and then to Los Angeles at the end of the '70s where he began a career as a singer-songwriter. He composed a few songs for Smokey Robinson, and one of his compositions, Pilot Error, sung by Stephanie Mills, had some success in the dance charts in 1983. At the beginning of the 80s, he founded the group Cock Robin with Anna LaCazio, Clive Wright and Lou Molino III which enjoyed great success in Western Europe mainly. Failing to break their native country with a first self-titled album in 1985, the quartet became a duo of Kingsbery and LaCazio when they released their second album in 1987. After the band split up in the early 1990s after their third album, Kingsbery enjoyed a fairly successful solo career, releasing four albums over a decade, and scoring a major hit in France with the song "Only the Very Best." With his fourth album he tried his luck singing in French, the language of his adopted country.
"I Believe in You (Je crois en toi)" is a duet by Celine Dion and Il Divo, released as the third and last single from Dion's On ne change pas album (2005), and first and only from Il Divo's Ancora (2005). At first, on 23 January 2006 "I Believe in You" was released as a radio single in the United States. The commercial single was issued 1 May 2006 in France and Switzerland. It was also released as a radio single in Canada, in May 2006.
"Je danse dans ma tête" is a song by Canadian singer Celine Dion from her tenth studio album, Dion chante Plamondon (1991). It was written by French-Canadian lyricist Luc Plamondon and Italian composer Romano Musumarra, and produced by Musumarra. In March 1992, "Je danse dans ma tête" was released as the third promotional single in Quebec and the lead commercial single in France. It reached number three on the airplay chart in Quebec. The music video, directed by Alain DesRochers, won the Much Music Video Award for Best Adult Contemporary Video in 1992.
"Un garçon pas comme les autres" is a song written and produced by Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon for the 1978 musical, Starmania. It was originally performed by Fabienne Thibeault and released on the Starmania album in 1978. The English-language version of the song with lyrics by Tim Rice, titled "Ziggy", was recorded by Canadian singer Celine Dion and released on the Tycoon album in 1992. Dion also recorded earlier a French-language version of the song for her tenth studio album, Dion chante Plamondon (1991). She released both versions on a two-track single in France in 1993, reaching number two on the chart.
"Le monde est stone" is a song written and produced by Michel Berger and Luc Plamondon for the 1978 Canadian-French musical Starmania. It was originally performed by Fabienne Thibeault and released on the Starmania album in 1978. The English-language version of the song with lyrics by Tim Rice, titled "The World Is Stone", was recorded by American singer Cyndi Lauper and released on the Tycoon album in 1992. Celine Dion recorded "Le monde est stone" for her 1991 album, Dion chante Plamondon.
Martine St. Clair is a Canadian singer from the province of Quebec. She has released numerous albums in a career that has spanned over two decades.
À l'Olympia is the second live album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released on 21 November 1994 by Sony Music. It features primarily French-language songs, mainly from Dion chante Plamondon (1991), but also includes English-language hits: "The Power of Love", "Where Does My Heart Beat Now", "Love Can Move Mountains" and "Calling You". À l'Olympia was certified Platinum by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, denoting sales of over one million copies in Europe.
Sans attendre is the twenty-fourth studio album and fourteenth French-language album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released by Columbia Records on 2 November 2012. It is her first new French studio album since 2007's D'elles. Sans attendre features sixteen songs produced mainly by Jacques Veneruso, David Gategno and Scott Price. It contains three duets with Johnny Hallyday, Jean-Pierre Ferland and the late Henri Salvador. The first single from the album, "Parler à mon père" was released on 2 July 2012 and "Le miracle" was selected as the second track to promote Sans attendre. Both songs reached number one in Quebec and "Parler à mon père" also peaked inside the top ten in France. Third single, "Qui peut vivre sans amour?" was sent to radio stations in March 2013.
Renaud Hantson is a French singer, musician, drummer, actor and writer. Besides his solo career, he has been part of hard rock and rock bands like Satan Jokers and Furious Zoo.
Céline Dion Live 2017 was the twelfth concert tour by French Canadian singer Céline Dion. The tour was organized to support Dion's 2016 French-language studio album, Encore un Soir. For the anglophone shows, Dion performed her song "How Does a Moment Last Forever", along with a few rare songs and fan favourites. With twenty five shows, the tour began in Copenhagen, Denmark on 15 June 2017 and concluded on 5 August 2017 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Un peu de nous is a primarily French-language compilation album by Canadian singer Celine Dion, released by Columbia Records on 21 July 2017 in France and on 28 July 2017 in Belgium Wallonia. The three-CD set includes studio versions of songs performed by Dion during her 2017 tour on two discs, and also instrumental versions of selected tracks on the third disc. The title Un peu de nous was taken from the "Encore un soir" song lyrics. The album topped the chart in France and was certified Gold. It also reached number six in Belgium Wallonia.
Starmania is the cast album performed by the original cast members from the 1978 cyberpunk rock opera Starmania, with music by Michel Berger and lyrics by Luc Plamondon. Originally, it was released on vinyl and cassette in 1978. In 1991, Starmania was issued on a CD with "SOS d'un terrien en détresse" performed by Daniel Balavoine replacing "Starmania ". The album peaked at number four in France and was certified Diamond.