braimee

In their introduction songs, Stella and Sadia are both defined by how they are perceived.

"Travesti" isn't about who Sadia is, but it is about what she appears as. The entire song is addressed to a general "vous", an imaginary audience composed of "les hommes qui murmurent". She describes herself as both an object of desire and of fear: she is only defined by other people's reactions and perception of her. 

The song basically tells us that Sadia is everything and nothing, all at once, and that we might try but we'll never truly understand what she wants and who she is... (it's been 45 years and I don't think anybody has fully figured it out yet)

The only sentences that are about who she is – not who she isn't or who she is in relation to someone else –  are "Je suis un travesti", "Je suis le sexe démystifié" and "Je suis la violence personnifiée". 

The first one is key to understanding her character through its several possible interpretations, but it is indefinite and doesn’t tell you who she is as much as it tells you she’s pretending to be something or someone. And the last two actually elevate her to the status of allegory: it's almost like she is worshiped as a symbol of transgression and a projection of people’s “secret desires” and “suppressed hatreds”... you know who that reminds me of ?

You guessed it, it's Stella, whom Zéro calls "déesse de l'amour, déesse de la guerre" ! Beyond the recurring religious lexical field and motifs that permeate Stella's storyline, she is also introduced through an external perception, since the first time we hear her name is in a magazine article. She quite literally first appears to us as "une image de magazine" !

Much like Sadia, Stella's first song is addressed to an audience of "vous" – arguably made up of the same men Sadia mentions in hers – and it's about the dichotomy between appearances and "l'envers du décor" (the main theme of Travesti is basically the relationship between "voir" and "savoir"). The only difference is that Sadia controls her image, using it to her advantage, whereas Stella's image controls her. This image keeps eluding her, no matter how hard she tries to keep up, because it is all just smoke and mirrors, and something she was never in control of: her very first line "On m'appelait Baby Doll" is in the passive form, as if the name "Baby Doll" wasn't objectifying enough <3

The reason I'm drawing a parallel between these two (and not with Cristal or Zéro who are also obsessed with their image) is not only the Tango and their reunion in the good old eros/thanatos motif, but also because I feel like their main obstacle in the show is that at some point, people stop looking at them and they can't bear it. 

They are both personas within their world: Stella Spotlight and Sadia are names they chose for themselves and they're both trying their best to hide the truth about who they are behind carefully constructed characters. That’s why when these characters can’t sustain them anymore, they annihilate themselves, in a way.

Stella can't exist without being looked at, she was born when she rose to fame and she dies alone in the dark. There is no Stella without Spotlight ! In the Adieux she wanted to make a grand show of her death and to be an object of consumption and entertainment until the very end. In Le Rêve, her death becomes the only thing that's truly hers and for no one else to see. (Also, I can't stop thinking about the fact that, since the tower exploded, no one ever knew how Stella really died :D)

Sadia is a character created for Johnny and the Etoiles Noires. So it’s fitting that she literally ceases to exist the moment Johnny sees Cristal, and Sadia (as in, whoever she was pretending to be) disappears when she loses her grasp on him. The Etoiles Noires can't exist without Sadia but she can't exist without them either. 

Stella and Sadia cross paths at Naziland, just when keeping up pretences has become useless. The Tango is a mysterious song, but it is thematically relevant to the 2022 ending as it is a memento mori sung by the only two characters who know they’re going to die. 

Both Stella and Sadia are walking lies and they die when they exit the stage, leaving their respective images behind to reveal what was underneath. At their core, they’re theatre characters, which means they can not exist without an audience.