“When we disappear behind the words of the poet, behind the melody, to become the message, that’s what upsets us,” Arthur Teboul declared on Thursday on franceinfo.
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“Since yesterday, the emotion has not subsided on our side”, confided Thursday February 22 to franceinfo Arthur Teboul. The singer of the group Feu! Chatterton performed “L’Affiche Rouge” written by Louis Aragon and set to music by Léo Ferré, on the steps of the Panthéon Wednesday evening, during the tribute to Missak Manouchian and his wife, Mélinée Manouchian.
franceinfo: You moved the entire audience with this cover. Did you also have the feeling of living a moment of History?
Arthur Teboul: At the moment we don’t necessarily think about it, but when we move forward and we see the coffins of Missak and Mélinée in front of us. [Manouchian], we feel that something special is happening. Since yesterday, the emotion has not subsided on our side. When you are an artist, a musician, you know that these are rare moments that happen perhaps once in a lifetime. When we become a conduit for an emotion that has lived in us for a long time, when we disappear behind the poet’s words, behind the melody, to become the message, that’s what upsets us.
We can imagine your pride, but was there also anxiety at the idea of singing this song, at that time, and in that place?
It was quite paradoxical: the stakes were higher than usual but the confidence we had in this song, which we often perform in concert, gave us the impression of being in a bubble. We were probably less nervous than usual because we knew this song would carry us, but we tried not to let ourselves be overwhelmed by the grandeur of the moment.
Did you have time to observe what was around you?
Yes, that’s what made this moment even more intense, the words resonated tenfold. I saw in front of me the two coffins of Missak and Mélinée covered by French flags that were waving in the wind. On my left I saw the portraits of their companions from the FTP-MOI [Francs-tireurs et partisans – Main-d’œuvre immigrée], the faces “black with beard and menacing shaggy night”, as said in the song. When I sing these words, facing these heroes, everything takes on a new dimension. And then I add this little more intimate anecdote: with the guys in the group, three out of five of us met in a high school near the Pantheon, we often went to the nearby cafes. So finding yourself at the top of these steps without having imagined it… sometimes life pushes us to experience magical moments like this.