Starmania 1979
The French singer, author and composer Michel Berger one day heard about some astonishing news
Patricia Campbell Hearst, the granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate, kidnapped by radical terrorists, decides to join their movement out of love (or rather Stockholm syndrome) for one of her kidnappers !!
This true story fascinated Berger, who decided to create an album inspired by this story :
This first draft was called “ Angelina Dumas Project ”
Ultimately, the album never saw the light of day, as Berger simply couldn't write a coherent and understandable story
Officially, only one demo of Berger's unfinished work remains :
Frustrated by what he considers to be a bitter failure, Michel will not let go of what he (rightly) thinks is a good artistic vein
His wife France Gall ( who was already assisting him on the Angelina project) introduced him to Canadian singer Diane Dufresne, who in turn introduced him to the work of her lyricist Luc Plamondon
A great friendship will develop between the two men who will decide to restart the Angelina project as a duo
The story will completely change direction even if the original backbone of the story is still present, Angelina now renamed Cristal will belong to the large universe of ...
The story takes place in an undated future ( despite a now outdated reference to Y2k and the 80s )
Humans now live in underground galleries redeveloped into a huge city called Monopolis
The only mirage of happiness for ordinary citizens is the number 1 television show "Starmania" where everyone can become a star for only one night ...
We simultaneously follow the lives and actions of several characters :
Johnny Rockfort : A young anarchist, co-leader of the terrorist group " Les Etoiles Noirs "
Sadia : A transvestite student with a questionable morality, creator and co-leader of les étoiles noires
Marie Jeanne : A depressed waitress who works all day at the Underground cafe, She is one of the few characters who is aware of the public's presence
Ziggy : A young, homosexual, mythomaniac and terribly ambitious record seller, he legally changed his name in homage to his idol David Bowie
Cristal : The young and pretty star presenter, she is the one who directs and presents the most popular show on Monopolis " Starmania "
Stella Spotlight : The fading sex symbol of an aging generation
Zéro Janvier : An extremist politician running for president of all the West
Gourou Marabout : An extremist politician also competing in the presidential election
Roger-Roger : the TV presenter who serves as a storyteller
the full album :
The Berger / Plamondon duo went to great lengths to organize the broadcast of a special television program in 1978 in order to introduce the songs to as many people as possible :
The show was only presented for a short month
Only 33 performances at the Palais des Congrès, but it was a major milestone for French musicals , which already addressed strong and pioneering themes that have not aged a day today !!
DISTRIBUTION :
Daniel Balavoine : Johnny Rockfort
France Gall : Cristal
Fabienne Thibeault : Marie-Jeanne
Étienne Chicot : Zéro Janvier
Diane Dufresne : Stella Spotlight
Grégory Ken : Ziggy
Nanette Workman : Sadia
Roddy Julienne : Gourou Marabout
René Joly : Roger-Roger
Due to its short stage presence, the show was not given a film recording and is now considered a highly sought-after lost media but fortunately the live audio of the show is available in its entirety
To get an idea of the show's visual identity, there was only one thing to do !! Dig into the TV archives :
2:49 for skip interviews ⤵️
Rehearsals :
Single :
For the very first time, the success of the songs will go beyond the show, it's something very unique to France but it's Starmania that opened the doors of mainstream radio to songs from musicals !!
The golden age of French musicals (2000 - 2010) will be fueled by radio success which will attract families, then Youtube will attract teenagers with video clips
But the songs from Starmania are special cases, in fact they have each entered the collective unconscious, still today some people listen to them regularly without knowing that they come from a much larger show ...
It would be difficult to choose just one TITLE song to represent the show But personally when I think of Starmania what immediately comes to mind is indeed : SOS d'un terrien en détresse
ANECDOTES :
The original album contains two songs missing from the final show :
Petite Musique terrienne Part 2
L'air de l'extraterrestre
This alien is a deleted character who only appeared physically in two production, Francis Martin in 1980 and Marc Gabriel in 1986
( In this latest version, it is revealed that Roger-Roger was actually a being from elsewhere )
The song will be recycled in several later versions :
...
The show also contains several unreleased and missing songs from the album !!
La serveuse et les clients
Jingle de Stella
Sex shops , cinéma porno
Les parents de Cristal
Le tango de l'amour et de la mort
...
Claude Dubois ( Technically the very first performer of Zero Janvier ) is the only one of the singers on the album who did not reprise the role on stage, unfortunately it was because of his drug addiction, he took his revenge in 1989 when he replaced Richard Groulx for some performances
* Thanks to miss-starmania for archive images and additional information :
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Michel Berger abandons his role of Grand Gourou to Roddy Julienne without any explanation ?!
Perhaps he didn't feel he had the shoulders to manage the show and at the same time the character on stage ?
...
The real name of the show is : " Starmania, ou la passion de Johnny Rockfort selon les évangiles télévisés "
" Starmania, Johnny Rockfort's passion according to the televised gospels "
This somewhat bizarre title will quickly be shortened to Starmania
...
in the original album the song Ego trip is sung… by Ziggy !!
Diane Tell simply didn't like the song, Berger had to ask Éric Estève to sing in her place
( She would later give in and sing the song on stage )
...
In this version, in addition to randomly attacking wealthy people in the street, scratching their cars and raping girls in parking lots, les étoiles noires of 79 are a bit more extreme than in the other versions … Roger Roger specifies that the terrorists deliberately disconnected the oxygen ventilation of an entire neighborhood, killing all the residents ! This gratuitous murder will be removed or softened depending on the version
...
The name Johnnie Rockfort (a complicated pun to translate which can mean "strong rock'n'roll " or just the cheese of the same name ? ) is perhaps not a coincidence ...
The producer of the show Roland Hubert, not being convinced by Balavoine, completely unknown at the time, he fought (in vain) with Berger so that the role was offered to the rocker Johnny Halliday
...
According to the memories of France Gall, during one of the performances a disgruntled spectator had fun whistling throughout the show exhausting Daniel Balavoine who patiently waited for the curtain call to jump into the audience to beat him up while he was still wearing his bulky costume
More Starmania ? Curious to discover other French musicals ??
MASTERLIST