05. Normandy and Picardy
"Comme Une Enfant" - Jean-Pierre Gaulfier and Sacha DeschampsTitle Translation: "Like A Child"
Language(s): Normand French
Lyrics: Jean-Pierre Gaulfier
Music: Jean-Pierre Gaulfier, Marcel Dumariner, Sacha Deschamps
Tune: Hozier ft. Mavis Staples - Nina Cried Power
Jean-Pierre and Sacha performing together at a music festival in Amiens, Picardy, before setting off to Todlichebujoku
SRNP had put a lot of time and effort into their last entry, alongside bucketloads of money, in large part simply to avoid another embarrassing non-qualification, but also because they truly wanted to win the 50th contest. They had certainly achieved one of these goals, bringing the non-qualification rate down to 50% (or the qualification rate up to 50%, read the situation as you are wont), but, giving the contest was won by Britonisea, and was being held in Todlichebujoku who came 2nd, it should be obvious that this did not happen. Given simply how much was put into such a risky enterprise, questions slowly began to spread around the SRNP offices in Caen, murmurs about whether they could afford to compete, and hushed suggestions that the country simply couldn't win; Normandy and Picardy has not won the contest since a badly bodged hosting in WHF24, and some suggested or hinted at suggesting that the powers that be simply did not want them winning again, so it was simply not worth it. Whether Normandy and Picardy would be back in WHF 51 was, surprisingly to those in the fan community and the country more widely who were more than happy with the country's recent results, suddenly under question. And then there was another shock.
Head of Delegation Jacques Braudel suddenly resigned from his post. Had he gone of his own accord? Or had he been pushed? Whatever reason, and none has ever been provided, firmly helping to fuel speculation (especially given the large amount of money invested on M. Braudel's advice) that he had been forced from his position. Suddenly things were very much in the air. What was going to happen? Luckily for fans of the contest across Normandy and Picardy, SRNP were quick to confirm following Braudel's resignation that, "SRNP remains committed to its Arts and Culture programming, and World Hit Festival will continue to provide an essential and popular part of that programming for the foreseeable future." Hidden within this innocuous quote, however, was a sign of change to come, namely the specific linking to "Arts and Culture programming". Up until this point, WHF had very much been treated as its own thing, never particularly falling under the remit of any of the "broadcasting remits" that SRNP normally works by, although unsurprisingly whoever has been the Head of Delegation has had close connections to the music industry or to music broadcasting on the SRNP network in one way or another. Now, it was firmly being brought in-shop and into the hands of Arts and Culture.
This break was secured when, a few months following Braudel's resignation, the new Head of Delegation, Simone Derrida, was unveiled to the world. Simone Derrida has worked on much of SRNP's cultural programming, especially that relating to the Picard Republic, beginning her career 30 years ago at SRNP member radio station "La Voix Picarde", before working for much of her career both within the sphere of music, and is currently the director of SRNP's central Radio 3, famed for its more unusual, slightly left-field broadcasting, which she helped bolster even further by promoting and championing new artists from across the United Republics, leading her at one point to be attacked by those who accused her of a pro-Picard bias. She recently was involved in the production of a series of shows for SRNP 1 about music and its importance in various media. What this is all saying is that she is a figure with years of experience, but also very much with her own way of working. Her ethos came through during an interview she gave, in which she answered a question about how she would approach the position:
I want to focus on using WHF as the best platform possible to promote the best of Normand talent, whether up-and-coming or well established, but focusing very much on the musician, his or her relation to the craft, and this important role of representation... We won't shy away from being daring or promoting something different, as has been the case throughout my career, but we want to focus on pure quality tracks, representative of the amazing talent our small Republics have to offer, and how we can show off the best of our industry, but must importantly the act themselves, in the best way possible.
- Simone Derrida, HoD
With this mission statement in mind, Simone decided to pursue what she called an "organic" strategy, carrying on as she normally would, interacting with musicians and artists, and trying to find Normandy and Picardy's entry as 'raw talent, out in the wild'. One thing she was certain she wanted was to reach out to singer-songwriters and bands, the sort of people she often encountered anyway. Luckily, this organic approach soon worked out, when she ended up at a gig in her native Beauvais, where she saw Jean-Pierre Gaulfier, a relatively well-known name within the musical circles Mme. Derrida walks in, but not so much beyond it. Watching his performance in a small, smoky venue and yet still being able to see the way he performed, the way he was able to show his emotions, and of course his music itself, Derrida decided that Gaulfier was the one, and so following the gig, she suggested the idea to him. And this is where we meet M. Gaulfier more properly. Gaulfier, 30, is as aforementioned a singer-songwriter himself too from Beauvais, where he was performing on that fateful evening. Although he had built a loyal following, and connections within the wider industry like Derrida, her offer very much was a bolt out of the blue, and he in fact originally rejected the idea, but Derrida, hoping to get her way, told him the offer would remain open.
Gaulfier, later describing how he ended up accepting a very happy Derrida's offer to FITUni, a popular Normand fansite (WHF United: the contest is known as the
Festival International de Tubes in Normandy and Picardy), recounted the story of how the entry came to be. Following a local music festival soon after his gig, Jean-Pierre ended up working with Sacha Deschamps, a very well respected musician within the country's alternative scene, alongside a close friend, Marcel Dumariner. The three very quickly created a number of tracks, one of which was the one that would become "Comme Une Enfant". Who should turn up to that studio but Simone Derrida, ostensibly coming to approach Sacha Deschamps regarding a documentary on the country's alternative scene in the 1980s. But in many ways, unsurprisingly, she had come as she knew Jean-Pierre was there. He agreed to play her some of the demos. Simone instantly fell in love with the nascent "Comme Une Enfant". It had to be the song. And, with the encouragement of Marcel and Sacha, who agreed to take part in the performance, Jean-Pierre ultimately agreed to take the leap.
The song was, unsurprisingly, brushed up and readied. In line with Derrida's hopes to "promote" the artists, she gave Jean-Pierre and Sacha a large amount of autonomy as regards the artistic direction, culminating in first the music video and then, finally, the staging below. The music video was released following the song's first debut, synchronised on SRNP Radio 1 and 3, to be followed by an interview carried out by Normand commentator Hilaire Martin on his radio show on SRNP 1, in which he asked Jean-Pierre about the song and its inspiration, and how he was preparing for his journey alongside Sacha to Todlichebujoku to fly the flag for the United Republics. Speaking about the nature of the lyrics in general, Jean-Pierre remarked,
These lyrics are in a way very personal, but I think they do speak to a common experience. I recently reached the milestone of becoming 30, and so thinking about my life, whether I'm really happy with it, is something I've been doing more recently... My sister has just had her first child, and it has made me think about these questions anew... but also I worry about whether I worry too much, and fear that I will regret spending too much time thinking about a possible beyond, and what I might leave behind, that I will forget to live at all.
- Jean-Paul Gaulfier
The entry as a whole is a marked departure from the previous Normand entry, the loud, perhaps brash and ultra-modern
O Tempora. Instead, we have Jean-Pierre's usual mix of soul, blues and indie rock, aided and abetted by Sacha Deschamps, who was to join him on stage, and tinged with the R&B leanings of Dumariner, resulting in the track below, a homage to childhood innocence, the need to actually live life, and the anxieties we all face up to at one time or another about our lives. Jean-Pierre and Sacha, backed by SRNP, helped promote the song, which became Jean-Pierre's first number one hit, and Sacha's first since 1997, before whisking the two of them away to Sinnlichšukai, host city of the 51st WHF. Before he knew it, Jean-Pierre was definitely no longer in his small bar-cum-venue in Beauvais where he had bumped into Derrida. Now, he was performing to many millions in a large arena. He knew, as he stood waiting for his cue on stage, that he just needed to give it his all..
It's a Normand entry, so of course the stadium began pitch black. Well, at least things are consistent, although it would be nice to shake things up now and again. Although something interesting then happened. Rather than the song beginning straight away, the entry began with an old projector being turned on, the figure turning it on vaguely becoming partially visible in the residual back-glow of the light. The camera turned around from the sideways view of the camera to show a large, fancy projection panel, made up of many different panels, some further forward than others to create a textured look, onto which the projector, well, projected, as well as maintaining a contemporary touch. As they are wont to do. The projector originally began playing an
old style countdown onto this panel, which was arranged at a 90 degree angle to the front of the stage, and situated in the lower down section, which reached 0 as the drums kicked in. During the first verse we only the projected images could be seen, with the projector itself providing the only light in the entire arena. The cameras captured the dust slowly moving around, milking it for aesthetic value, as it also showed, now from a view behind the projector, the images on the screen. What were these? We begin with a child turning around a spinning top and watching it spiral off, and most of the first verse is spent watching it slow down, begin to wobble and finally, no, it's still going, and it's gone, fallen flat on its side. There's imagery in there somewhere I guess.
La nuit au lit, je me demande
"Qu'est-ce qui arrivera quand je me serai enfui?"
"Peut-il y avoir du bonheur?"
Des problemes pour les penseurs
Mais pour tout le monde aussi
The first verse ended with a partial fade out as the spinning top stopped, well, spinning to allow for Jean-Pierre to move into position. The camera feed faded back in to show Jean-Pierre behind a microphone stand and in front of the projector, wearing something not too dissimilar to in the image above, nice and understated, but not shabby by any means (or, well, at least not joggers). His hands trembling as they hovered ever so slightly above the microphone as he felt the emotion of the whole moment dawn on him, but also knew he needed to kill this performance, Jean-Pierre steeled himself and began to sing, presenting an air of fragility. The camera moved slightly to look over his shoulder and show the image projected behind him, which now shows an old recording of toddlers playing together as their parents watch on, a scene of innocence yet also showing the natural progression of time, the growth from child to adult.
Dans une gare isolée
En montant dans un train qui mène a rien
Ou je suis dans une navire
Toujours en train de sombrer
Hein, une couchemar ou realité?
You might have noticed that the projected images don't exactly match what is going on in the lyrics. All I can say regarding that is that this is a staging concept to go along with the song, although there will be some moments where the two come together more perfectly. This is one of them; time to stop being meta and go back into the action, and the past tense. Jean-Pierre kept singing, looking up in an almost longing way (albeit not the sort of romantic longing, as he tried to retain some sort of composure; now was not the time to go all in. In any case, in many ways this verse had little different from the previous one, the sense of atmosphere provided by the fact that the projector was the only light source remaining, and the camera shot remaining quite tight, although still able to show what was on the projector screen. For this verse, that consisted of now showing a child of about 6 or 7, daydreaming away, before suddenly this was almost "washed away", in a sense.
Comme une enfant, je croyais à l'infini
Mais maintenant je vois juste des impasses
Ou les rêves qui ont flétri
Des avenirs annulées
Et les passés qui n'importent plus
As the chorus began, a series of background lights, providing a low blue hue with a touch of white, came into action, helping to lift things slightly to help show the shift to the chorus. As the first half of the chorus began, the background projection changed to show a simpler dark blue background with smoke moving about, matching the new lighting. Then, a new voice could be heard. Sacha, not to be shown at this point at least, much like the notably absent backing singers, joined in (starting with "Et je peux pleurer"), a faint figure appeared amongst the smoke behind Jean-Pierre. And then another. Faint figures, seemingly made out simply of points like constellations, or even coming from the smoke itself, of all different sizes and ages appear behind Jean-Pierre, fading in and away, before one who actually looks rather like Jean-Pierre is shown reaching out and patting his shoulder, an effect allowed for by the camera angle. Thus, it appeared that Sacha's voice represents a part of Jean-Pierre, telling him to carry on and that it will all be fine, as well as representing the "adulthood" stage of this journey through life.
Et je pleure comme une enfant, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant
Dis-moi tout va
Va bien aller
Juste comme une enfant
Et je peux pleurer, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant
Tout va bien aller
Fermes tes yeux
Vis comme une enfant
The lights somewhat died down as the next verse began, and from the smoke behind Jean-Pierre, who had just about been able to hold it all together during the chorus and pour the emotion into his vocal performance, a new image emerged, again looking more like an old style projector film, with a few old scratch marks even appearing here and there. The camera shots in this verse really made the most of one of the main effects provided by the setup thus far, namely the fact that the images being projected onto the background screen were also projected slightly onto Jean-Pierre's face, to which the focus changed. The camera was situated as a slight angle beneath and ever so slightly to the left of Jean-Pierre to help best capture this effect, which mostly manifested itself as varying degrees of colours. This is not, to clarify, static block colour changing over time, but a more dynamic process using archival footage, but due to the face being an imperfect projecting surface mostly the main colours as well as certain images, including what looks faintly like the image of a family. As the verse came to an end the camera pans out and shows the main background projector image once more, where the audience now saw rather grainy shot of an empty bed, a solitary picture like the one seen earlier, and sunlight playfully dancing through a window pane, blissfully unaware yet adding to the power of the scene, which is more static.
Ce n'est pas cette vie qui m'effraie
Mais quoi que le dépasse
C'est la vide qui me ronge
La silence qui me maintient éveillé
Et qui me rend sourd
C'est se réveiller pas le matin
The next chorus saw the background lighting intensify even more, working alongside the other elements of the song to help keep the sense of progression going. The camera slowly panned around Jean-Pierre as the image behind him slowly faded away but at the same time zoomed in on the family photo, which appears to have a crack across it which extends across the projecting screen. Jean-Pierre let even more of himself into this chorus, in a way both getting more comfortable with the thought of performing this song to such a large audience across the multiverse, yet at the same time giving more of himself away and channelling everything into the performance. Then, as the second half of the chorus began once, the camera view changed to show Sacha, who was situated on the other side of the projector screen, although this side of the very large and expensive kit which the Normand delegation had brought with them was not made up of projector screens but rather LED screens, a least in the middle section, moving to LED lights towards the far end at the back of the stage. A big thank you to the technicians that helped get this on stage by the way. Anyway, back to the action. Sacha was in an outfit rather like
the middle Mama here, as the camera panned around her and she followed it. With the final line of this chorus, and with the help of some post-effects works the audience at home saw a shot of both Sacha and Jean-Pierre, the projector-LED screen no longer between them but the two almost fading into one another in a sense, as they sang the final line. This also meant the actual back of the stage and the arena was shown for the first time in the entire song.
Et je pleure comme une enfant, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant
Dis-moi tout va
Va bien aller
Juste comme une enfant
Et je peux pleurer, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant
Tout va bien aller
Fermes tes yeux
Juste comme une enfant
It was now time for the bridge, to be sung by Sacha. The audience could of course see Sacha in front of her side of the screen-thing, with the word "VIS" (Live) originally emblazoned across it. Whilst the lighting for the most part remained a rich blue, almost navy in tone but not so dark, a red undertone emerged, shown mostly on the back LED panels. The camera panned out slowly from Sacha to show more of the background, as "VIS" made way for a series of concentric rings which expanded outwards across the background screen in time with the claps/beat, which the led lights on the screen-thing towards the back of the stage also flashed to. Meanwhile, Sacha was serving not so much the buckets of swag for which she is well known in Normandy and Picardy but rather a touch of this alongside a sense of almost motherly care and reassurance, but with the sass and her stage presence helping ensure that this was not sickly sweet, and coming through truly with the "oh ouais".
Et tu peux pleurer plus
Mais à quoi sert une vie d'regret
ou une vie pas bien vécue?
Alors, ouvres ton coeur
Et fais tous les moments compter, oh ouais
Vis comme une enfant
The camera view moved back around to the other side of the screen-thingy as the final chorus began, and we once again see Jean-Pierre. The actual beginning of this final chorus was actually quite simple, focusing very much on Jean-Pierre himself and his singing, as a whole range of emotions were on show, showing perhaps a tortured man, trying to heed the advice but also having to come to terms with himself and the world, trying to get himself going by repeating what Sacha said and telling himself he can do it. Indeed, perhaps the most interesting thing to happen in this first part of the chorus was Jean-Pierre taking the microphone from its stand, before beginning to walk out towards the front of the the actual stage. As he did so, the camera feed came well out to show a wide panoramic shot of the entire stadium, and a series of closer panning ones as the chorus continued. On the background were various clips of people in all stages of their lives, kind of like
this type of footage, right from a mother cradling her new-born to people around a deathbed for an old man. At first Jean-Pierre is on his own at the front of the stage, putting every sinew into his desperate yet ultimately vain questioning, hoping the sun won't set, although on either side of the main stage on the raised sections the backing singers, doing a wonderful job, can finally be seen. A series of closer shots are used for the final call-and-response style section (the "Enfant,
Enfant" bit) to show, over his shoulder, Sacha walking towards him, before, as he sang the final line Sacha reached him and placed her hand on his shoulder. For the final shot, the feed returned once more to the projector side of the screen-thingy as all the lights in the arena slowly died away, to show a faded image of a young boy reaching out, almost as if he were trying to get through to the stage or the viewers home, albeit not in a menacing way but more a youthful "come and play". With that final image, even the projector turned off, and everything became black. Just like it had been at the beginning. There is probably some symbolism in that.
Je peux vivre comme une enfant, Enfant
Et faire la course vers une crépuscule sans fin, Enfant
Tout va bien aller
Je fermerais mes yeux
Et vivre comme une enfant
Oooooooh ouais enfant
Dis-moi ç'va bien
Dis-moi le soleil
Ne couchera jamais
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
Enfant, Enfant
J'ai vécu comme une enfant
And with that the performance was over. Sacha and Jean-Pierre hugged each othet, each very much relieved but especially Jean-Pierre, who was looking forward to relaxing for the rest of the night. The two of them turned to the audience, shouting "Merci", before leaving the stage. Their job was done, and matters were now out of their hands...