Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Back in French in 2001-2002


Nue (Naked) was Lara's fourth French album to be released in the Fall of 2001 in both Québec and France, making her return to her French singing roots. Her rollercoaster experience surrounding her first English recording album was so intense and, although critically praised, personally exhausting. Her emotional ride through the last previous years was somehow documented in a very personal record to which Lara, alongside her partner and producer Rick Allison, called "Nue". An album that undressed Lara from all the bad remarks she had suffered over the years as an artist and presented a much more vulnerable and fragile yet with an exceptional vocal strength to open up her heart and mind.

Her fist single released in the summer that year was the anthem "J'y Crois Encore", a top 20 French hit followed by the release of the album later that month. The album reached #1 in Belgium and #2 in France (but saddly did little impact in her home beloved Québec). Other singles followed, such as the Lara's personal favourite track "Immortelle" (a strong song that remains constantly present in Lara's live concerts), "Aimer Dejá" and the nominated song of the year in 2002 hit "Tu Es Mon Autre" (a duet with fellow Belgian friend and singer Maurane), which scored the top 5 in France. This has become another trademark song in Lara's carear as she has performed it so many time with so many other artists (including Rick Allison during her 2001/2002 tour).

In addition, this album was also released in Portugal (having reached the top 10 on the album charts during the fall of 2001) as a consequence of her tremendous success of her previous English album, presenting the Portuguese audience with her French singing repertoire.

At this very same time, Lara was once again touring but in a more intimate and acoustic way at the Casino de Paris every November Monday night. An acoustic set that became her transition towards a new Lara Fabian that the public was on verge of knowing and worshiping. During this tour Maurane and Daniel Lavoie were two of the main performing guests duetting with her on "Tu Es Mon Autre", of course, and "Je Suis Mon Coeur", written for Lara by Lavoie himself. This acoustic also led to another live CD/DVD release in the end of 2003.

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