I have written about the Anfoires — or Les Enfoires in French — in a text related to the 2007 concert. Since 1998, Anfuar’s performances have been more of a show of dressing up, sketches, cumbersome bright scenery – and of course, songs. But it started out much more modest. For several years, he only performed on television, and in 1989, a public concert was held for the first time. Veronica Sanson, Jean-Jacques Goldman, Johnny Halliday, Eddie Mitchell, Michael Jones and Michelle Sardoux are not just a list of names, but a list of those who gathered stadiums for their performances. In 1992, concerts became annual. The 1993 concert was dedicated to the great Starmania, which celebrated its anniversary - Jacques Dutron, Patrick Bruel, Patricia Kaas and many, many others turned into the characters of the rock opera and gave the audience not just a holiday - making the legend sound in new, sometimes very unexpected variations - what are Pierre Palmad and Josian Balasco in the roles of Johnny Roquefort and Sadja with their famous Quand on arrive en ville.
And here comes the new year, 1994. It was already an anniversary – albeit a small, five-year anniversary – but what started as a comedian Kolyush’s idea had already begun to turn into a real movement that gradually covered the whole country. The new concert, then the only one, was waiting for audiences all over France and caught information - who would decide to take part in it this time? And expectations were met. Presenters Muriel Robin, Patrick Bruel, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Alain Souchon entertained the audience in between rooms - it's even a pity that Alain did not wear rabbit ears that Muriel persuaded him to try on.
But Restos du Coeur, or in Russian Heart Restaurants, is a whole movement and then, in the first concerts, it was given much more attention than now. In modern, for the most part, volunteers go on stage during the performance of the anthem, there is no time left to tell and show what successes they have achieved, to tell about any interesting cases. But then, twenty years ago, the program was not as saturated as it is now, and the viewer, who was lucky enough to get digitized from the cassette, saw on stage a couple who met through volunteer work in the movement, met several women who give him all their time and much more, to which one name is Restos du Coeur. And could you imagine that Emanuel Bear could talk without taking off his breathing mask?
But we, foreign audiences, first of all, want to see our favorite pop stars and movies, and it does not matter whether the artist has vocal skills or not. The Anfuirs have one rule - you go on stage and sing, let you, like Pierre Palmada, not just a bear in your ear, but an elephant trample properly. Francis Cabrel and Frances Gal lit the hall, setting the right mood for the whole concert. Still a very young Charlotte Gainsbourg, who did not think about the fame that awaited her in the future, together with her mother gave one of the most lyrical compositions in the history of the Anfuirs. Celine Dion, whose star has so far shone only over Quebec and France, modestly sang along with Jean-Jacques Goldman. Florent Pagny and Carol Frederic showed great vocal skills that opera singers would envy. Adored by your submissive author, former Telephone member Jean-Louis Aubert accompanied and sang alongside Roman Boringe. Lots of names — Eddie Mitchell, Catherine Lara, Vanessa Paradis, Laurent Woolsey, Pow woW, Renault, many beautiful songs, many unexpected moments. But the brightest and most memorable, touching the heart and Westerning into the soul came the duet of master Charles Aznavour with Patrick Bruel - you had to see with what inspiration they performed Hier encore, with what respect Patrick treated his older colleague - neither before nor after the entire quarter of a century Anfuarov was nothing like this.
These are Anfuars – and other words are superfluous for those who often play concert audio in their player, who watches video recordings and rejoices like a child, if you appear new or dig out an old one that was considered lost. For those who catch all the news about the new concert, look at the lists of speakers in the announcement in the hope of seeing all their favorite artists – and if any of them miss, he is very missed at the performance. And for those who hear about the Anfuars for the first time, he has yet to discover this new world in the ocean of the French stage.
10 out of 10
If you haven’t seen Muriel Robin as a penguin, consider your life wasted.