Five years after “Rio”, Christophe Willem publishes his sixth studio album, both more personal and varied, entitled “Panorama”. The interpreter of “PS: I love you” will be on tour in 2023, throughout France, Belgium and Switzerland.
Christophe Willem wrote “Panorama” largely during confinement, a period of introspection which almost made him want to change jobs. After the album “Rio” released in 2017 which had not really found its audience, Christophe Willem needed to take a break to try to understand the reasons for this failure. A setback that awakened certain wounds in the artist that he wanted to take the time to heal.
“This album, ‘Panorama’, was conceived at that time and afterwards, there was the forced break of the Covid. I found myself at my parents’, in my teenager’s room, twenty years later It was a special moment and I really wanted a much more raw album in order to reconnect with my passion”, explains Christophe Willem to RTS.
The French singer likes the stage, the tours, the meeting with his public. His energy, he draws it from contact with people by sharing his music. The conception of “Panorama” is in this particular sense, since the project began when no concert was taking place. “This album really came into existence by starting lyrics, which is very different from my previous albums. That’s why the album is much more contrasting in terms of sounds. There are produced and dynamic titles, but also more calm sounds, with more refined arrangements, less in the energy of live precisely”, explains the French artist.
The Resilience Album
This sixth album, with titles like “J’avance”, “J’tomberai pas”, “Tiens bon”, is for Christophe Willem the album of resilience, but above all a much more personal record than his previous ones. “With ‘Panorama’, we go around who I am”, underlines the singer.
Christophe Willem surrounded himself with authors with whom he spent a lot of time. Reason why “Panorama” took three years to see the light of day: “I know how to write, I know how to compose, but I wanted to entrust the keys to others so as not to fall into the pitfall of watering things down for reasons aesthetic and to have more raw texts”. Because the artist has always made it a point of honor to choose his words well so that they sound good and are beautiful. But this time, he wanted more meaning, to be more direct.
“Panorama” opens with “PS: je t’aime”, a title composed in one day that Christophe Willem found, for once, much too direct: “But in fact, it set the tone, the impetus for the rest of the album without hiding behind pretense”.
>> To see: the clip of “PS: I love you”
Explosive collaborations
“Panorama” has fourteen titles including one, “Au temps pour nous”, which has a very airy, lyrical, almost mystical side. A song that stands out from the others because it is sung in a higher key than the rest of the album. “The treatment and the music sublimated the song itself, I found that it was interesting for this one not to have something too down to earth”, underlines Christophe Willem.
For this recording, the artist has multiplied explosive collaborations: we find in particular Slimane and Chien Noir. “On paper, we say to ourselves that it is improbable, but in reality, it is very coherent when we listen to the album”, details Christophe Willem.
An album in “I” and songs that resonate. Titles in which Christophe Willem settles his accounts with himself. “I think it’s also a self-affirmation album. […] At some point, you also have to claim and fully assume who you are, because the one and only person with whom you will share your whole life is yourself“, concludes the singer.
Interview by Pierre Philippe Cadert
Web adaptation: Lara Donnet
Christophe Willem, “Panorama” (RCA/Sony Music).
Christophe Willem in concert at the Théâtre du Martolet, St-Maurice (VS), February 25, 2023.