Julien Doré on "Sud Ouest": "We try to offer something that feels good for an hour and a half."
The singer of "Paris Seychelles" and "Coco Câline" will perform this Friday, July 25, 2025, in Luxey, as part of the "Musicalarue" festival. A few days before his visit to the Landes, he talks about his vision of the stage, the importance of work and what the department inspires in him.
You'll be performing 25 concerts this summer in France, Switzerland, and Belgium. How are you preparing for this marathon?
It's a marathon that began many months ago with the Zénith and Arena tour. The summer festivals are part of this continuity. The shows I offer to the public are quite unique: it's a whole universe, special effects, an extremely visual project, and it requires a lot of work. Between June and August, we're giving a slightly lighter version of this show, simply because the sets and the playing times are different. We're trying to offer something that feels good for an hour and a half, that brings a little joy to a world that is finding it increasingly difficult to allow us to experience it.
You'll be performing at Musicalarue on July 25th. What do you think of this festival and its philosophy?
There's an eclectic offering that reflects several musical trends. This is quite rare: today, and I can understand this, we have the impression that festival programs are built with artists who, so to speak, resemble each other, in the sense that they have a connection in the music they offer.
I find it quite daring to give the public this opportunity to navigate in several universes. I really like it, because it leaves some pretty crazy memories, as a musician and as an artist, of what we see, of what we listen to ourselves before going on stage and once we come down. When we affirm this varied proposition as an identity, it is precious. For me, it will allow me to observe my comrades. Philippe Katerine or even Chilly Gonzales [programmed Friday July 25 at 8:30 p.m. and Saturday 26 at 7:15 p.m., Editor's note] are typically among the artists who made me want to make music through their universes and their strong identity.
Do you put the same energy into performing at festivals as you do in your own concert?
At a festival, the sequence of my songs is constructed differently than at the Zenith or the Arena, and the energy is perhaps a little denser because of the performance format. But deep down, the approach is the same. The only thing that keeps me playing music today is the feeling of bringing a smile, an emotion, a little joy. Ultimately, my approach is in this form of sincerity: I go on stage, I have fun, and I hope that this is also the case for those who are in front of me, because the artistic proposal that I make is the result of days, nights, years of work, not just experience.
"The Landes is a department that really appeals to me. I like places that are stronger than man."
How is your show structured? Will you be performing your latest cover album, "Imposteur"?
There will be mostly my songs and a few covers scattered here and there, because they create a link with my own story : I started with covers at "La Nouvelle Star" eighteen years ago and basically they find a space that makes sense in this show. For example, there is a moment where I cover "Les Démons de minuit" with the audience: the visual work through the video that is behind us and the connection I have with the people at that moment create a version that could have been one of my songs. That's where the few covers I do on stage become interesting: they come to graft themselves coherently with the rest.
Will you also be offering video in Luxey?
Of course. Even though the show at the Zenith and the Arena is quite monumental, I tried to adapt it, within the limits of what was technically possible. It's close to my heart and it touches me even more because the programmers come to see me and thank me for the artistic proposal that I bring with me. Today, many artists at festivals no longer bother to come with much in terms of sets, videos, or special effects. This is what really hurts festivals, which are finding it increasingly difficult to survive. If artists come with less and less, well, the public thinks they'll go see them at the Zenith or in a stadium instead.
It requires a lot more people with me on the road, and an adjustment: we spend several days, before the festivals begin, locked away in a large hangar to rebuild a stage set. But the public wants to see things that amaze a little.
Work always comes up in your speech...
Yes, because I think we've led people to believe in recent years that it's not the key to music. The reality is that if we sit in a comfortable armchair, which could be the one that made us believe we were worth something, well, we fade away. Today, the rare full tours in France can be counted on the fingers of one hand. And behind these tours—I'm thinking in particular of Indochine—there are people who work. I think that's even the definition of respect. It's all so fragile that if work isn't at the center, I think we become soft, lazy, and that shows deeply.
Finally, what do the Landes bring to mind? There's the coast, of course, but also the large lakes, the Haute Lande, the Chalosse...
It's a department that I've done a lot of research on, and which really attracts me. That's a rare thing, I felt it with the Cévennes, perhaps because I was born there. There are rare places like that where you say to yourself: "Hey, maybe I could live there one day." I like places that are stronger than man, that surpass us and bring us back to what we are, that is to say, not much and not for long. In the Landes, there is something that inevitably attracts me because it's my sensitivity. All of this makes me very happy to come in July.
