Louane

0:13Hello and welcome to the Monaco Weekly. This time I had the pleasure to speak with French singer Luanne, who is representing France in this year's Eurovision Song Contest with a powerful ballad about her late mother. Here is Luanne with more.

0:42Luanne, what a pleasure. Welcome to Monaco Radio. I'm a big fan of your music and a big fan of Eurovision as well. So it's perfect that you're the French representative of Eurovision this year. My first question to you, Luan, what's your connection with Eurovision? Is this something that you've always followed from a young age or is something new for you? First of all, thank you for your kind words. Well, Eurovision had always a special spot in my heart because we've been following the ESC for as long as I remember. So I guess forever with my family. It was really a special time of the year. We wouldn't miss any of the Eurovision Song Contest years.

1:25So it was really special to us. And my mom has always been a super big fan of the ESC. She was such a big fan of Céline Dion of ABBA. So I was raised with them, obviously. And it's a special spot because it was her dream for me to do it one day. When I was a little girl, she would say to me like, oh, I hope one day you'll do it. It would be a dream for me if you could do it when you're like actually an artist. And so when the French delegation came to me, it was so, so special for me because it was as if I could finally give an homage to my mother. And what a homage, right? Because the song is called Mama, right?

2:09Tell us a bit more. So it's a song called Mama. It's a song that is about, actually, it's both about my mother and about my daughter and about being a mom. It's about, unfortunately, my parents passed away, both of them. And it's a song about saying to my mother that I am finally fine, And finally happy that I wish she could see that. And that's one of the ways that I'm happy today that I am myself a mom. It's really beautiful and profound. And it's so beautiful that you brought your daughter along in that song as well, right? Yeah, it's super special. Actually, she finishes the song. So it's even more special to me.

2:49Oh, wow. And this is really, and it's interesting because this just proves to me that, you know, for those who follow your amazing careers, your songs are usually very personal, very much about your life and we can see your growth with the albums. Is that the case? And you wanted to do that with your Eurovision entry, right? Yes, of course. I mean, in any ways, obviously making it a ballad and it's special to me because it's the first time I have like such an epic ballad. I'm usually more into like piano ballad thing, but obviously making it a ballad makes it even more emotional but i've always i think as long as i remember when i started writing my own songs i've it's always been super intimate and personal even like the most like up-tempo songs you were talking to me right before the interview about a song i have called pardon moi it's super special because even though it's like dancey and like upbeat it's still like super intimate it's talking about like my adhd and how it how it is to have adhd when you're in a couple i've always been super personal in my song so it's yeah obviously i wanted to pursue that into into the esc i love that you can dance and you can be personal at the same time that's perfect oh like the most like the most dancing song on my album on like my latest album called solo the most dancing song is called Je Pleurs which is a song that means I cry and it's like super dancey, super pop super upbeat but it's just like me saying during the whole song that I'm crying every day People will relate to that, you know Luan I very much think so I hope so

4:45And I have a question to you, because what an entrance you've made when you introduced to people Mama for the first time. It was the Stade de France. And what a performance, iconic. And you were coming from this kind of elevated, kind of some sort of platform. I mean, that was iconic. What an iconic start, right? Thank you so much. It was actually, it was kind of frightening. I can imagine. It was not about like the heights, because, yeah, I was 12 meters in the sky. But that was not the main hard thing, if I can say that way. I think the thing that got me really flabbergasted was to have 80 ,000 people in front of me.

5:27That was crazy. That was really crazy. Wow. And of course, you're getting ready for Eurovision. And I was reading some stats. I mean, the audience is gigantic. I think it's one of the biggest audiences ever, you know, Eurovision. It is. So how do you feel? Are you feeling nervous because you're going to be there not just for a French audience, but very much an international one, global, I would say even? I mean, not really. I think that's like the point where I'm in a way, I'm not going to say comforted because that's not true. It's a competition. I'm going to freak out anyways. I think that I come from a TV show in France.

6:04I come from The Voice. You have the same in UK, right? Yes. I come from The Voice. I did it 12 years ago. And I think it was like the best rehearsal or like school that I could have for that contest because I'm really used to like be working with like cameras, TV shows. That's something I'm really used to. I think it's a great advantage for me. Whenever I'm on stage in like a TV show, I don't focus on the fact that there's like as much viewers as they are. So I think this is something that is not going to be too bothering for me. But obviously, it's a big competition and I'm really I'm a competitor.

6:48Like this is something really important for me. Obviously for me, obviously, because I want to give that to my mom. So yeah, yeah, I will always like I'll stress out. I'll be freaking out for sure. but I'm going to fight and give my best, that for sure. She'll be so proud of you, you know, especially because you told me that she was an Eurovision fan, which means she already has good taste and she likes Celine Dion. And she has some Brazilian heritage. I'm very happy to hear that. She does. My grandmother was in Brazil, so yeah. And will you be, I mean, I wonder, I'm not sure if you can tell me how the performance is going to be.

7:20I don't know if that's top secret, but will there be some sort of elevation? I wonder if you can give us a spoiler. What I can say is that it's going to be something really, really different from what you saw at Le Stade de France. It's going to be really more intimate. It's going to be, to me at least, it's going to be super poetic. It's quite a performance actually for me. It's really different from what I've done before. But that's mainly what I can say. Sorry, I can't go further. That's okay. That's okay. And I wonder, besides Eurovision, you know, I know that you're going to release very soon on the 9th of May and I believe Best Of album.

7:58And that's impressive because, you know, you're still, you know, young, but you had so many hits already. So I think, did you felt personally that that was the right time to do a Best Of? No, really, really not. If I can tell you the truth, I don't know if you saw that, but we made like a super, like a funny video about like having the Best Of coming out. and like the main focus of the video was people keeping since like 2018 and that's true I can tell you it's the truth people in like my label like everywhere around me saying like are you gonna have a best of at a point and I I've always said no and like I don't know I think January or February my my record label said to me okay we will want to have a best of and I said no again obviously And they were like, yeah, we knew you were going to say no.

8:46And then my project manager came to me and said, you said no, but let me explain. And then he explained me the whole story of the marketing he wanted to do the whole video about me not wanting to do it. And I thought that he was a genius. So I said, well, in that case, OK, let's go. Let's do it. I think it'll be fun. And Mama will be there as well, right? For those who are interested. Mama will be there and the English version of Mama will be there too. You know, for those who are fans of Luan, you have also a massive tour coming out later this year, right? So you're going to be busy this year, basically.

9:21Oh, yeah, I'm going to be busy this year and next year, too. Luan, I'm a big fan of your music. And, you know, I follow the French music scene as much as I can. What do you listen to at the moment? Do you have inspirations from young artists or, yeah, French? I would like to hear some tips. But if not French, you can tell us what else you'd like to hear. so many so i i love oh my god i love stilto she's a newcomer she's incredible she's also one of my friends but she's incredible i listen a lot to solan which is also a newcomer i obviously she's not french she's belgium obviously i listen to angèle quite a lot clara luciani actually so many people there are so many i love pom i've always loved pom she used to open shows for me during my first tour we're super close yeah there are so many french artists I love mainly women as I'm speaking, I guess.

10:15And obviously, if I can say my favorite French artist at the moment is called Pegas. He's an incredible man who is just starting. He has an EP out and his new single is called Ocean, which means ocean. And I am being obviously too much on that because he's my fiance. Oh, perfect. You know what? I actually should listen to him. I do not know his work, actually. You're going to love it. His name is Pegasus, kind of like Pegasus. But the first E is a three. Fantastic. See, you're giving me amazing tips there. Will you be singing Pardonne-moi on your tour? I hope so. Obviously, I'll be singing Pardonne-moi on my tour.

10:56Obviously. Amazing. Listen, Luan, I wish you all the best on Eurovision. It's certainly one of my favorite tracks. Very beautiful, very emotional. So good luck and merci for the interview. Thank you.

11:17Maman. Thank you very much, Luanne, and good luck on Saturday for the big Eurovision final. I'm Fernando Augusto Pacheco. The show was edited by Elliot Greenfield. Thank you for listening.

11:40Thank you.