2023-08-14 13:52:04
In many bars, it is an essential late-night song, sometimes even an implicit signal that the establishment is closing. But not for Juliette Armanet, who visibly enjoys the lyrics of the title “Les lacs du Connemara” performed by Michel Sardou. To the point of creating a controversy for a few days, after having assumed his dislike for this very popular sound. And to attract the wrath of the followers of the latter, in particular on the right. Explanations.
The August 5thon the occasion of his passage on the stage of the festival Ronquièresthe singer-songwriter is the guest of particle (or Tip!k), a public service media of the French Community of Belgium belonging to the public group of the RTBF (Belgian radio-television of the French Community).
“It disgusts me”
“At the microphone of Romain, the singer reacted to Unpopular Opinionclear-cut opinions from Tipik listeners. […] Juliette tells us everything“, warns the media. And to comment, around the third minute of the interview which lasts a little more than seven, the opinion of a listener on the fact that a “successful evening, a good evening is only if it ends on ‘The lakes of Connemara‘”.
Juliette Armanet begins to grit her teeth and lets out a “ouch, so here I have a very clear opinion“before continuing:”It’s downright alarm bells for me. What disgusts me“. The interviewer then takes the hand and asks him: “What are the three titles where if you go into the room and there is that in the evening, it’s a ‘no’ you go back (home)?“. The start of the sequence that has gone viral.
Eric Ciotti, Gilbert Collard…
“It’s really a song that disgusts me, she throws. It’s the scout, sectarian side, the music is filthy. It’s right, nothing’s wrong“. Isolated from the rest, the phrase “shock” is circulating particularly on social networks this weekend, several days after the publication of the interview. It was enough, on this bridge of August 15, for some personalities on the right are seizing the question.
“Michel Sardou is simply France. The idol of many generations, a singer with a strong character and who assumes himself. Difficult to swallow for the well-meaning!“, writes in particular on X (ex-Twitter) Eric Ciotti, the president of the Republicans (LR) since December 2022.
The statement also agitated the far right, like MEP Gilbert Collard who himself seems to have a strong opinion on the singer – to the point of pouring into the insult: “Juliette Armanet, the voiceless, declares her aversion to Sardou’s Connemara Lakes. Look carefully, in the title, we find a word that dresses it up perfectly: Connemara!“
This Monday, Jacques Revaux, the composer of “Lacs du Connemara” also ended up reacting to the controversy in the columns of the Dauphine Libere : “I want to ask: but who is Juliette Armanet? Everyone has the right to say what they think but politely. His remark, ridiculous, is not worthy of an artist.
A connoted context
But where can Juliette Armanet’s detestation of this popular anthem come from? Probably not for its rhythm or its text, without particular political or societal significance beyond a context of conflict with Wales and the English.
If it is listened to almost everywhere in France and is very common in weddings, the song is however connoted for certain generations, often associated with business schools and its excesses. “There is a place where Connemara is a religion: HEC (Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales)“, explained for example The world in 2017.
Thus, like Kim Chapiro’s film – The best (2014) – a connection between “Connemara Lakes” and privileged student circles became part of the collective imagination. As a reminder, in this feature film where a gang of students set up a pimping network, the song is listened to at a student party by the characters.
The controversial words and/or songs of Michel Sardou must surely have played a role in the perception of this piece. Colonies, death penalty… Juliette Armanet’s resentment may come from a global vision of the singer’s career, as well as some of his off-stage statements, on immigration for example. For his part, Jacques Revaux assures him: “Sardou is more monarchist, Napoleonic than right-wing…“
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