Before I start,I feel I must just mention how ridiculously attractive Jonatan Cerrada is.We weren’t allowed to take pictures or videos at the Sentier des Halles, which was unfortunate although I can understand why. But looking at how good Keira’s photos of the Russian Winter Festival were, these ones would have been super fabulous :) Either way, I thought I’d better include a few pictures of the lovely JC from somewhere, and they don’t come much lovelier than these.
As I might have written on here before, I’m moving to Paris next spring to work for 6 months, so going over there for 3 days was a really good chance for me to get to know the place and I’m really glad I did- using the Metro with its terrifying doors of death and unnerving sulphuric smell would have been something I’d have hated to do on my own for the first time… Anyway, I digress. The main purpose of our trip was of course to go and see the wonderful Jonatan Cerrada, who, after the 2005 album La Preuve du Contraire, hasn’t done very much due to record company disputes etc etc. These 5 nights he was doing in Paris were going to be his first chance to test out a lot of the stuff from the forthcoming (Spanish) album. He seems to have been working on it for ages, hopefully it’ll be released soon… He started off with a Spanish song that I did know the name of but have now forgotten. It was very upbeat and dancy, which I imagine will be the theme of this album. Saying that though, he did do a few slower ones as well, like Pero te Juro, which was just as good. Oh, and he did a really good cover of Gloria Estefan’s Con Los Años Que Me Quedan, which I really liked, partly because it was Gloria’s Spanish songs that really started my obsession with foreign language music back when I was 12. There’s a
MySpace video of him singing it on French (or Belgian?) telly in February. I feel a bit of an affinity towards Jonatan actually.It might sound a bit silly but it's nice to see someone else my age who's clearly very interested in their roots.Of course he's a bit more actively interested than I am,what with this Spanish album and the acting business in that Un,Dos,Tres series and being fluent in Spanish,but still...
As far as the French stuff was concerned, JC did all of our favourites (with the notable exception of À Chaque Pas I must say). Libre Comme l'Air and La Preuve du Contraire were the first ones, followed by Rien Ne Me Changera which I really enjoyed.That's my favourite song of his and of course I had to sing along to every single word.Seeing as we were packed in like sardines (we knew the Sentier was small,but I didn't realise it was THAT small),I hope I wasn't loud like I was at the Russian Winter Festival :) Mon Paradis was next,the song from the film Robots (which sounds very cute when said in French).This was never one of my favourites,but it was one of two that really stood out on the night just because he looked so happy singing it.I like it a lot more now,I don't skip it when it comes on the iPod.
After Con Los Años Que Me Quedan (I think- we tried to remember the right order of the songs but given that we got lost every single time in 3 days that we tried to find our hotel,our memories are not the best),there was a nice surprise.For some reason I didn't think he would do Un Dimanche d'Automne (a song that I've written about on here before),but it made sense really.Before the song,Jonatan explained about his family and in particular when his grandfather left Spain during Franco's rule,to go and work in Belgium like a lot of other Spaniards.Un Dimanche d'Automne is of course about Jonatan's relationship with his grandfather and that it is because of him that he is so interested in his roots.Anyway,it was a really nice performance and I'm really glad he did that song.Pero Te Juro and Nada Es Para Siempre were next,but it was the song after that I'll remember for a very long time.
I knew ages ago that Ruban Noir is about the Madrid train bombings in 2004 and that it's a very personal and emotional song,but you really can't fully appreciate it until you've seen Jonatan sing it live.It's such a contrast- the verses are sad and descriptive whereas the mostly spoken Spanish bits and the chorus are more personal and angry.It was the "et l'Europe s'est levée,le monde n'a tremblé qu'un peu" bit that (very very nearly) made me cry.I don't know,it's hard to explain,but in such a small place it was all very intense and the song seems so much more powerful.The fact that he sings it with as much emotion as if it all happened yesterday too...As he said himself straight afterwards "it's easy to create an atmosphere".Then he went straight into a cover of Suerte by Shakira,which was quite odd straight after Ruban Noir.Odd,but fabulous.
Piensa En Mí Como Te Quiero was next.I've posted about that one before too,although I'm not sure if it's Jonatan's song or someone elses.Either way it was good.Then came On Ne Connaît Personne which I thought was a very strange choice.Again it's one that I normally skip on the iPod as it's not one of the greatest ones on the album.But I like it a lot now :)
We knew he was going to do Baila (an anthem at Europop Mansions Surrey Branch during the month of September),because we'd heard him do it the night before.No we weren't stalking him,we just thought it'd be a good idea to go and find the Sentier des Halles before we went for real.Wouldn't want to get lost and be late now would we?Well,we nearly were,but that was the fault of buses.As usual.Baila was really good anyway.In typical Dima Bilan style,Jonatan milked it for all it was worth,before saying goodbye,running off stage and then coming back about half a minute later to do Je Voulais Te Dire Que Je t'Attends.If I hadn't have known the night before that he was going to do it,I would have been very disappointed,because that's my other favourite song of his.Anyway,he'd managed to change his top in the 30 seconds he was off stage- from a rather fetching green checked shirt to a very very sexy Dennis Petrov-in-the-Malinkiy Prins-video type white top.Ooh he did look good.The hair was on good form,the eyebrow piercing was still present and sexy as ever...NOT that I'm shallow of course :)
All things considered then,it was an amazing night.I hope the third album comes out soon,and I really really hope I get the chance to see him live again some time.I'd even go as far as to say it was as good if not better than the Russian Winter Festival.And that's saying something.
