PORTRAIT. Olivia Ruiz: “I was born singing”, the Occitan artist speaks on the occasion of her new album

The singer releases her sixth album. DR – Charlotte Abramow.

The Audoise singer Olivia Ruiz released her new album on Friday March 1, 2024: La Réplique. The opportunity to return to his love for music and his roots. 

“You either love it or you hate it.” The most “chauvine” des Occitanes returns to music with a sixth album, “La Réplique”, after a “pause” eight years old. In the life of Olivia Ruiz, a break, there are two novels, dozens of dates of her musical comedy “Bouches cousues”, duets galore and several roles in short or feature films and in the theater. And at 44, time is still running out. This third book that she longs to write, these scenarios that she would like “to give birth to”, a film…

Also read: Olivia Ruiz's first album in eight years: the Aude star takes us behind the scenes of "La Réplique"

"Occitane forever"

Having barely embarked on a 90-date tour, she vibrates with a solar energy, worthy of the south that she embodies. “What makes Occitanie more precious than any other place, it is authenticity. We have a wild side. We speak there with a lot of poetry, the old people at my café taught me much more than certain superstars!”

It took several villages to raise this child. Narbonne beach, where she has her “little nest”. And then Marseillette, la Franqui, or to get lost in Perthus and Tuchan, where she spent her “most beautiful holidays”.She saw South America, loved Havana, discovered Paris, made thousands of people dance. But in the end, back to square one: sunshine, a house with a wide open door and a hashtag: #Occitanieforever.

Defend, assume, claim

It all comes from there. Her “Abuelo”, to whom she dedicates a title sung with her brother, Toan, and her father, Didier Blanc, arrived in the Pyrenees by fleeing Spain, like her grandmother. It was the Retirada. Family trauma. “I’I had to discover my origins myself.”

Spanish is part of her, like the story of her immigrant grandparents, her heritage. In “Yours”, she calls for tolerance towards immigration. From the recent law defended by Gérald Darmanin, it points to the “non-assistance to people in danger”. We expected no less from her.

Also read: "I was a victim of chemical submission" : how Olivia Ruiz managed to escape two sexual assault attempts

Another music sounds. That of “Mother Earth” who is suffering. So she writes “Pachamama”. It describes a planet “in crisis”, for which “there is urgency” to act. It’s imperative to say it, to sing it, to transmit it. To her son, the discreet child whom she watches with emotion dancing to her songs (and not always those she dedicates to him, despite the title “Salt”), she learns the “basics of energy”.

And that the carbon footprint does not disappear with the rain, even if it is a Cévennes episode. Olivia Ruiz is one of those artists who claim values, without wallowing in the qualifier “d’engaged”.

"I was born singing"

A voice that stands out, an accent, a dark look, dressed in brown hair: it transcends, attracts, marks. Hit or miss. His father knows it well. It was he who made music flow through her veins, because “all little girls are in love with their father”.

He remembers the stars in his daughter's eyes after an Aznavour concert, before evenings punctuated by Manu Chao. He sees her again “Take me” in the car. From Olivia, he applauds the requirement, the perseverance, he remembers the enthusiasm of adolescence. He was uncompromising with her on music.

Like father, like daughter: he finds her a perfectionist. Like his brother, Toan, who was surprised by the new album. A nice compliment that hit the mark: “It’s not easy to surprise the people you love.” Today& ;rsquo;today, says Didier Blanc, “the student has surpassed the master. Even if it’s my doll”.

When she was little, she saw herself as a caregiver, a job “not so far away, which does good to people”. Or a makeup artist, hairdresser, as evidenced by an old essay found by her mother: “I wanted to beautify people so that they feel better. It was cute. Ultimately that's what I do.” Free, never idle. Brilliant, not intellectual.

The year 2024 by Olivia Ruiz

His new album La Réplique.On March 1, La Réreplique was released. In thirteen titles, the artist manages to achieve to make people dance as well as to comfort. Mixing piano, guitar, hammer dulcimer and percussion… she tells the stories that touch her. That of Nadia, victim of feminicide, that of her love for her son, that of her grandfather who arrived in Paris. in France during the Retirada. 

Dates in Occitania for the tour. Sète in July, Blaye-les-Mines and Le Garric in April… Olivia Ruiz will come to present her album è his fans &agrav; the occasion of several concerts in the region.  In total, the tour includes 90 dates, between April and December. 

Metamorphosed into Edith Piaf. Olivia Ruiz takes on the features of& #39;Edith Piaf during an appearance in the series The New Look, broadcast on Apple TV since mid-February. In front of Julia Ducourneau's camera, she sings and embodies the emblematic interpreter of La vie en rose .  

Goodbye "the idiots"

Black spots in his career ? His father points out the failure at Star-Ac, which had made him known before his incredible career of “chocolate woman”. But that’s in the past. “I’have a very selective memory.” L’oblivion “saving” bad times, violent events, it’s resilience to her.

A failure in the finale of the show ? The opportunity to launch out more freely. A colleague who tries to sexually assault her ? She only has a few scraps left, otherwise she will go to fight against sexual violence. “terrible dirty tricks” ? Whatever, “the idiots”she forgot them. Finally, the big difficulty, “is to constantly put the title in play, to be a tightrope walker”. She can't wait to see how the album is received.

It wasn’t all idiots. Far from it. “There is the blood family, and then the heart family.” The day after the release of his album , she has nothing but gratitude for those around her. His label, “the young Kaø, genius to follow closely”, the &ldquo ;incredible” Agnès and Sylvain, and her best friends, omnipresent.

Without forgetting the three major players in his life as an artist: a music manager, a literature side and a comedy side, “who work together so that I can do everything”. It was necessary for her to do the same. Some say “disparate”, she calls herself emancipated.

20 years of career

And then the dance: “L’expiation, letting your stomach and pelvis move to Cuban, Colombian rhythms”.< /em> In the clip for La Réplique, she captivates. Veiled by an electric blue, revealed by gestures dictated by the music: strong, half-jerky, half-sweet.