#zero janvier

HIIII remember @starmaweek? Our awesome fandom week dedicated to starmania fanworks?

Well, we're back for a second edition! It will take place from the 1st to the 7th of June!

Below are the prompts for this edition and the rules (same as last year). We hope you'll have fun and be inspired! Do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions :)

Business is business!

Starmaweek day 5 : betrayal

Rating: General Audiences Warnings: Major Character Death Relationships: Marie-Jeanne & Ziggy (Starmania), Other spoilery relationships (see notes) Characters: Johnny Rockfort, Sadia (Starmania), Cristal (Starmania), Marie-Jeanne (Starmania), Ziggy (Starmania), Zéro Janvier, Stella Spotlight Additional Tags: Alternate Universe,  Canon-Typical Violence, Angst, I swear not everyone dies

Summary:

“Are you ready? It’s almost time!”

There is an edge to his voice, but Cristal won’t be rushed, not tonight.

“Just a minute,” she calls. She doesn’t know why she’s so nervous – the past is the past; she’s in control, she’ll be safe, she’s made sure of it. The helpless naïve girl she used to be is no more. Her decisions brought her here, to this man, this tower, this night that will change everything.

In which not everything is as it first seems.

-- 

The French singer, author and composer Michel Berger one day heard about some astonishing news

Patricia Campbell Hearst, the granddaughter of a wealthy newspaper magnate, kidnapped by radical terrorists, decides to join their movement out of love (or rather Stockholm syndrome) for one of her kidnappers !!

This true story fascinated Berger, who decided to create an album inspired by this story :

This first draft was called “ Angelina Dumas Project ”

Ultimately, the album never saw the light of day, as Berger simply couldn't write a coherent and understandable story

Officially, only one demo of Berger's unfinished work remains :

Frustrated by what he considers to be a bitter failure, Michel will not let go of what he (rightly) thinks is a good artistic vein

His wife France Gall ( who was already assisting him on the Angelina project) introduced him to Canadian singer Diane Dufresne, who in turn introduced him to the work of her lyricist Luc Plamondon

A great friendship will develop between the two men who will decide to restart the Angelina project as a duo

The story will completely change direction even if the original backbone of the story is still present, Angelina now renamed Cristal will belong to the large universe of ...

The story takes place in an undated future ( despite a now outdated reference to Y2k and the 80s )

Humans now live in underground galleries redeveloped into a huge city called Monopolis

The only mirage of happiness for ordinary citizens is the number 1 television show "Starmania" where everyone can become a star for only one night ...

We simultaneously follow the lives and actions of several characters :

Johnny Rockfort : A young anarchist, co-leader of the terrorist group " Les Etoiles Noirs "

Sadia : A transvestite student with a questionable morality, creator and co-leader of les étoiles noires

Marie Jeanne : A depressed waitress who works all day at the Underground cafe, She is one of the few characters who is aware of the public's presence

Ziggy : A young, homosexual, mythomaniac and terribly ambitious record seller, he legally changed his name in homage to his idol David Bowie

Cristal : The young and pretty star presenter, she is the one who directs and presents the most popular show on Monopolis " Starmania "

Stella Spotlight : The fading sex symbol of an aging generation

Zéro Janvier : An extremist politician running for president of all the West

Gourou Marabout : An extremist politician also competing in the presidential election

Roger-Roger : the TV presenter who serves as a storyteller

the full album :

The Berger / Plamondon duo went to great lengths to organize the broadcast of a special television program in 1978 in order to introduce the songs to as many people as possible :

The show was only presented for a short month

Only 33 performances at the Palais des Congrès, but it was a major milestone for French musicals , which already addressed strong and pioneering themes that have not aged a day today !!

DISTRIBUTION :

Daniel Balavoine : Johnny Rockfort

France Gall : Cristal

Fabienne Thibeault : Marie-Jeanne

Étienne Chicot : Zéro Janvier

Diane Dufresne : Stella Spotlight

Grégory Ken : Ziggy

Nanette Workman : Sadia

Roddy Julienne : Gourou Marabout

René Joly : Roger-Roger

Due to its short stage presence, the show was not given a film recording and is now considered a highly sought-after lost media but fortunately the live audio of the show is available in its entirety

To get an idea of ​​the show's visual identity, there was only one thing to do !! Dig into the TV archives :

2:49 for skip interviews ⤵️

Rehearsals :

Single :

For the very first time, the success of the songs will go beyond the show, it's something very unique to France but it's Starmania that opened the doors of mainstream radio to songs from musicals !!

The golden age of French musicals (2000 - 2010) will be fueled by radio success which will attract families, then Youtube will attract teenagers with video clips

But the songs from Starmania are special cases, in fact they have each entered the collective unconscious, still today some people listen to them regularly without knowing that they come from a much larger show ...

It would be difficult to choose just one TITLE song to represent the show But personally when I think of Starmania what immediately comes to mind is indeed : SOS d'un terrien en détresse

ANECDOTES :

The original album contains two songs missing from the final show :

Petite Musique terrienne Part 2

L'air de l'extraterrestre

This alien is a deleted character who only appeared physically in two production, Francis Martin in 1980 and Marc Gabriel in 1986

( In this latest version, it is revealed that Roger-Roger was actually a being from elsewhere )

The song will be recycled in several later versions :

...

The show also contains several unreleased and missing songs from the album !!

La serveuse et les clients

Jingle de Stella

Sex shops , cinéma porno

Les parents de Cristal

Le tango de l'amour et de la mort

...

Claude Dubois ( Technically the very first performer of Zero Janvier ) is the only one of the singers on the album who did not reprise the role on stage, unfortunately it was because of his drug addiction, he took his revenge in 1989 when he replaced Richard Groulx for some performances

* Thanks to miss-starmania for archive images and additional information :

...

Michel Berger abandons his role of Grand Gourou to Roddy Julienne without any explanation ?!

Perhaps he didn't feel he had the shoulders to manage the show and at the same time the character on stage ?

...

The real name of the show is : " Starmania, ou la passion de Johnny Rockfort selon les évangiles télévisés "

" Starmania, Johnny Rockfort's passion according to the televised gospels "

This somewhat bizarre title will quickly be shortened to Starmania

...

in the original album the song Ego trip is sung… by Ziggy !!

Diane Tell simply didn't like the song, Berger had to ask Éric Estève to sing in her place

( She would later give in and sing the song on stage )

...

In this version, in addition to randomly attacking wealthy people in the street, scratching their cars and raping girls in parking lots, les étoiles noires of 79 are a bit more extreme than in the other versions … Roger Roger specifies that the terrorists deliberately disconnected the oxygen ventilation of an entire neighborhood, killing all the residents ! This gratuitous murder will be removed or softened depending on the version

...

The name Johnnie Rockfort (a complicated pun to translate which can mean "strong rock'n'roll " or just the cheese of the same name ? ) is perhaps not a coincidence ...

The producer of the show Roland Hubert, not being convinced by Balavoine, completely unknown at the time, he fought (in vain) with Berger so that the role was offered to the rocker Johnny Halliday

...

According to the memories of France Gall, during one of the performances a disgruntled spectator had fun whistling throughout the show exhausting Daniel Balavoine who patiently waited for the curtain call to jump into the audience to beat him up while he was still wearing his bulky costume

More Starmania ? Curious to discover other French musicals ??

She said that during their little introduction at the start of the show and later during the debate, there’s a curious paradox with Zéro and the Gourou’s musical themes

Zéro’s theme is pretty smooth, a little round, if you will, and pretty seamless, while the things he sings are quite brutal, and his logo itself is very angular, with sharp edges.

As for the Gourou, his musical theme is very sharp with more abrupt sounds and rhythms, which opposes itself to the roundness of his logo – not so much to his ideas though 😅