Yves Duteil in Montreal: 50 years of song and commitment to French

BET À DAY

The French singer-songwriter Yves Duteil, who celebrates his 50-year career this year, will present this Thursday, in acoustic format, his brand new show, “Chemins de liberté”, at the Outremont Theater . 

For half a century now, the artist has maintained a special relationship with the Quebec public, describing it as historic. It is also, according to him, based on mutual respect and admiration.

“The love story continues. I realize that it is an important moment in my life to be in Quebec right now and to present my songs to this public who trusted me and who adopted me. There is a real filiation with Quebec and a relationship, where I knew from the start, intuitively, that we were going to get along well, “said Yves Duteil during an interview with Agence QMI.

For his concert, Thursday evening, the artist will be accompanied by a trio of Franco-Quebec musicians, on double bass, percussion and cello; old friends to play with has always been a pleasure. The singer-songwriter will provide the guitar and piano scores.

“We put ourselves in a little danger and we expose ourselves a lot in this show. We're on the wire, like tightrope walkers a bit, but it's very exhilarating to make music this way”, he explained, specifying that this new show was halfway between discovery and reunion.

Letting the French language live

Known for being a fervent defender and protector of French, Yves Duteil recalled in an interview, the day after International Francophonie Day, that “the French language has every chance, insofar as it has fighters as resolute as those of Quebec”.

The artist also underlined his strength and his fragility in his song “La langue de chez nous”, in the mid-1980s. A song he wrote shortly after a very significant meeting he had with Félix Leclerc.

“The future of the Francophonie is in the hearts of Francophones. Languages ​​are not impregnable citadels. They are living elements that communicate and exchange. […] You cannot develop a language by crushing all the others”, he recalled.

“When you do it that way, it is the negation of the human, in fact. Above all, we should bet on respect for diversity rather than on the supremacy of one language over the others”, he then continued, adding that the protection of French was only possible by accepting its evolution and by doing it through its subtleties, its images and the right formula.

“It's up to us to be faster, more inventive, more creative”, to move the language forward, he said.

This fight can also, according to him, be done gently, through words and music, without it being “cheesy”. “The commitment to gentleness might seem cheesy, but in my mind it's totally the opposite. Kindness is a strength, not a weakness. It is not something that reveals a fragility. It's something that is built around the noblest feelings of humanity.”

Yves Duteil will perform this Thursday on the stage of the Outremont Theater in Montreal, then in Lévis, at L' Anglican, this Friday. He continues his Quebec tour until April 8. 

Two boxes for 50 years of career

Yves Duteil is currently preparing a panorama of his career into two complementary projects. The first, “Paths of Writing”, which has just gone to print, will collect his texts and songs in their entirety, including comments on his creative process. The second is a complete set of his recordings, including unreleased tracks, songs from his 16 albums and a few surprises.