Chantal Goya

[frenchcontact]

Hi All,

This is a different kind of thread. This is about French singer Chantal Goya. She started her career as an actress and a singer (along with Sylvie Vartan and Francoise Hardy) and then she started to sing songs for kids. It was a huge success and it lasted for several decades. She also sang songs for several famous cartoons.

She was the fairy of my childhood. She sang wonderful songs, for kids of course, but some of her music (by her husband) was fabulous. Her shows, especially, were incredibly beautiful (especially Le Mystérieux voyage de Marie-Rose), with decors that were ten times better than Mylene Farmer's today and extremely expensive...

Here's her official website:
http://chantal-goya.artistes.universalmusic.fr/

And there's a fan site also, with much more info and tons of pictures:
http://www.ifrance.com/chantalgoya/

She had several TV shows and believe it or not, she's more than 60 years old today, she recently remixed her old songs that all young adults know by heart (Bécassine, Snoopy, Voulez-vous danser grand-mère), and she's on the road again, singing in clubs and preparing her new Christmas show.

If you like French music, you NEED to know her. She might be outdated today, but she had a huge impact on all kids for almost two decades (end 70s-90s). Remember that it was almost 30 years ago...
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Il n'est pas de hasards, il est des rendez-vous, pas de coïncidences...

[kiouty]

For me there were three divas :

First diva, from 3 yo to 6 yo : Chantal Goya
Second diva from 6yo to 12 yo : Dorothée
Third diva from 19 to now : Mylène Farmer

But what you forgot to mention, frenchcontact, is that Chantal is now old, completely kitshy material for the "revival-regression of young adults" (most of the time gay) clubs parties, which is too bad, and that each time she goes on TV, she is sure everybody LOVES her, which is only half true. Of course, there is a lot of nostalgia from us, young french adults. But still, there is so much implicit sarcasm in the public cheering her too much, that she should realize it. She's done.

At the age of, well, way more than 50, she still makes silly dances in her costumes of 20 years ago, and is CERTAIN, that one day, she'll back for nowadays kids, when she has no chance, since playstation 2, pokemon and a lot of much cooler stuff exists...

And I want to say that the reason I suddenly dropped my interest in her at the age of 6 (or 8 I can't remember) and started to hate her is when she made this anti-kids scandalous outburst on Patrick Sabatier's show...
I like her for what she brought me in my childhood, but she better stay away from the media now, so as to live up in our memories as a nice childhood memory, instead of craving after a new second-hand "celebrity" that she'll never have again anyway, which totally ruins her image, well, at least for me...

[frenchcontact]

I don't completely agree. Yes, she is very kitshy but she is a legend because no other singer in France managed to do what she did, not even Dorothée. As famous French singer Barbara once told her: "Un jour, tu seras une institution".

And why shouldn't she ride the wave if there's a demand? Yes, people do make fun of her, but believe you me, she knows that and she's using it. As a matter of fact, I have several friends who met her and talked to her, and she is well aware of the fact that she is kitshy, but as the "Absolument fabuleux" movie shows, she can make fun of herself and still have success. After all the remix of Bécassine (Becassine is my cousin) was number 1 in Switzerland and did quite well on the French and Belgian charts.

As to the so-called "scandal" on TV, I think it was uncalled for (she never made any anti-kids comments!) -- but she kinda lost it because people told her that her songs made kids totally dumb and asked her live when she would resort to plastic surgery?... Did you know that she actually paid for the people to answer the phones, just to be insulted on TV in front of a huge audience?

In any event, the important thing is that she made ALL kids dream with her fabulous shows.
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Il n'est pas de hasards, il est des rendez-vous, pas de coïncidences...

[Ricky]

Hey there frenchcontact, thanks for the info ! I'm curious about her and that Dorothee person.

Do you have any download recomendations for Chantal Goya?

[frenchcontact]

My favorite Chantal Goya albums are:

- Snoopy and the corresponding show Le mystérieux voyage de Marie-Rose (live -- her best show)
- Monsieur le chat botté, and the corresponding show, La planète merveilleuse)
- L'étrange histoire du chateau hanté (with interludes to understand the story, and some really good music)
- Babar-Babar

Did you know that when she started singing, she was RCA's biggest star?

You can see little cartons of her shows in the Children version part of her website.
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Il n'est pas de hasards, il est des rendez-vous, pas de coïncidences...

[kiouty]

frenchcontact wrote:

As to the so-called "scandal" on TV, I think it was uncalled for (she never made any anti-kids comments!) -- but she kinda lost it because people told her that her songs made kids totally dumb and asked her live when she would resort to plastic surgery?... Did you know that she actually paid for the people to answer the phones, just to be insulted on TV in front of a huge audience?

Ok ok, I admit i made this up lol
I still remember something happened, but I can't put the finger on it. I still remember it was the start of her downfall.

I don't deny she did great things : she was my first diva !

But still, these attempts to go in the spotlights, for me, are very similar to the attempts of all "half stars" touring in cheap clubs, who are made fun of (Alliage, 2b3...), and who will never able to come back. So, that seems pathetic to me. She constructed a legend, she has to stay a legend (personal point of view). But I wish her the best : ), and if being a cheap icon for clubs is what she wants, and if that makes her happy, I have absolutely no problem with it, and it's far from being a worry for me as I absolutely don't care

I remember seeing her on 3 different shows tekking the same story : she told that SHE could wake up during a night and make herself a plate of french fries (implicitely meaning, that yeah, even herself can be rebellious). I mean, is that the way I want to picture her ???? The answer is NO !

[Melody Nelson]

Chantal Goya and Dorothée are all my childhood!
I even went to a Chantal Goya concert when i was a kid and she signed an autograph but wrote my name with a C instead of a K! haha
I remember i would always watch on tv her musical "Le soulier qui vole" with that talking tree...

Sure Chantal Goya is a gay icon now and sings in clubs for the nostalgic 20/30-something like all the has-been singers but come on you can't blame her for that, she's totally broke because of her husband, she needs to eat! That's pretty courageous to me to dance till 3am at 60!

I will always keep a special place for them in my heart even if their music is crappy :b

[Greg]

I like to listen to Chantal Goya's interviews. She always seems to live on an another planet . And yes, like for Kiouty and Melody, Chantal Goya and Dorothée have a special place in my little French heart

[Melody Nelson]

I heard Dorothée may return by replacing Gerard Klein in "L'instit"! haha

( no, i'm not kidding)

[kiouty]

Jodel, on his june editorial for "Autopsie de Laurent Boutonnat" said this sentence that I'm not quite sure how to translate in english... But since it'(s mostly french people interested in Chantal Goya...

Jodel wrote:

Alain Soral, c'est la Chantal Goya de l'essai français, il persiste dans le premier degré alors que tout le monde le prend au deuxième.

Check : www.boutonnat.fr.st

This was exactly my point about Chantal Goya, here explicitely formulated. And this is sad to see how much little dignity she has left, even she doesn't care...

[frenchcontact]

Chantal Goya will be in concert at the Palais des Congres in Paris starting Dec 18:

http://www.palais-congres-paris.fr/spectacle/spectacle.asp?info=1655418342&pos=-147

I'll be there!
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Il n'est pas de hasards, il est des rendez-vous, pas de coïncidences...

[gaetlebrun]

I will be there too, my first concert of Chantal Goya

[Melody Nelson]

Chantal Goya is on "Tout le monde en parle" right now. Poor Chantal, Les Nuls and Baffie poke fun at her!

I think i would buy her best-of album and the DVD of "le mystérieux voyage de marie-rose" if i had a daughter :b

Like she said, kids don't know her now, it's their parents who go to see her when they meet her in the street. "Generation 80".

[Melody Nelson]

Dorothée is alive!!!!

[Greg]

Wow Dorothée .. She has changed a lot since I've seen her the last time.