May 2012

Hello everyone,

Destiny takes all kind of strange turns... In my previous letter, I told you about our wonderful stay in the Marquesas, and how a peaceful crossing had brought us back to our favourite islands in the centre of the Tuamotu archipelago, where we planned to spend another 3 or 4 happy months...
And then, after spending just one week in our preferred anchoring spot of Punaruku, we got the news that the father of Francette's two daughters, the arranger of many of my songs and composer of many of the music tracks in our films, had died in Paris ; so she had to fly back, and I accompanied her to help her manage, together with her two wonderful daughters, the maze of paperwork involved in funeral services, succession, etc... Never a joyous activity...

But as I was back in Paris it happened that the producer of my new album -to be released in October, my first album in 25 years !) needed me to complete some recordings. And then I got a funny idea...

The last time I had been singing at Paris' famed music Hall, the Olympia, was also 25 years ago ... although I had a great time about two years ago when my good friend Jimmy Buffet invited me there to sing in duet with him "Chanson pour les petits enfants". I wanted to film a live rendering of one of my album's songs, "Les Arts du Lit" , and had an invitation from French singing group Soldat Louis to sing with them one of their songs I have recorded for their 20th anniversary album, but I could not stay till the date of their gig.

And then I discovered that another very good friend, French pop singer Daniel Guichard was going to perform for a whole week at the Olympia. So I called him, and he immediately invited me to sing the song during his show, backed by his 18 musicians. Daniel's huge kindness made the moment unforgettable, and you'll find here a video of my hit song "Les Elucubrations" the way I sung it with Daniel on that memorable day.

And when I tell you about Destiny... as I left the stage, Olympia's manager asked me enthusiastically to come and perform a whole show one night in November; and the recording firm, Polydor, who is going to release the album, was equally enthusiastic... So it's settled, I will star at the Olympia on November 14th, on the occasion of the launching of my new album, with some of the new songs, but also many of my previous hits.

So it was with a happy feeling that I flew back to Polynesia, where Francette will join me again in 3 weeks. There was a little fright when the small plane that took me from Papeete to the Tuamotu had to turn around over the ocean to go back to Tahiti to fix a technical problem involving freezing, but here I am back on board Banana Split, in our peaceful sheltered anchorage, from where I send you these few lines.

I wish you a majestic month of May.
Antoine