Mylene Farmer in Béart 87 program

My dear fan family,

Allow me to share with you my little journalistic discovery. It all started with a photo…Actually 3 photos that I came across at some point somewhere on the net. Since at that time I had no point of reference, I placed it into my unknown folder. One day I decided to look into that folder and get some information from the fans.

Here are the photos. By looking at them, it is obvious they are from the earlier era – sometimes late 80s. The group of people doesn’t ring the bell at all…

So I posted the photos and the question throughout the Mylene Farmer’s Facebook fan groups.

Thankfully, there are very knowledgeable fans out there – thank you very much for responding so fully and educating those of us (present company included) who didn’t know much about this instance in Mylene’s earlier era.

So here is what I found out:

The photos were taken during a program on the Antenna 2 TV channel called Béart 87.

The date of the broadcast is in fact January 14, 1987.

It is almost 35 years to the date since this event.

It’s very early in the game for Mylene! In fact, it is so early that she has very few songs to promote. The only album out is Cendres de lune for almost a year (released on April 1st 1986) the next album Ainsi soit je…is still in the works and it will take more than a year to get it ready for release in April 1988. So understandably, being between the albums the only thing Mylene could do is promote existing songs at any possible occasion. And God only knows – she did. She put all of herself into delivering her live performances vividly and enthusiastically and as often as possible. The goal is to become memorable. The goal is to enter the music scene of the late 80s and stay there!

Mylene performs “Au Bout de la nuit” that evening as a support of the Cendres de lune album – it needs to sell! She is still pretty much nobody with just one album. The sales are hard and the market is still very cold for the newbie (even as enchanting as Mylene)  

Although “Au Bout de la nuit” is one of the most beautiful ballads in the album, it was not yet recognized as much as other singles from the album. So perhaps, that the reason to bring it out to the public again! And of course Frantz with a royalty of the French music scene at the time -Guy Béart himself. Although I didn’t find how she managed to get to the program and what Béart thought of her afterwards, one thing is for sure – mission was accomplished. Mylene became the face and the name associated with the crème de la crème of the music elite.

Lets go over the singles in the order of their release around the time of this event:
First is being “Maman a tort” released March 1984
And followed by “Plus grandir” released September 1985
“We’ll Never Die” (in Canada only). released February 1986
“Libertine” released: 1 April 1986 – same day as the album Cendres de lune
“Tristana” released: February 1987
“Au bout de la nuit” released: 25 June 1987

Strategically, it is understandable that Mylene prepares the soil for the future release of Tristana (hint to the outfit she wears. But inexplicably she didn’t perform Tristana that evening as one could expect knowing it will be out as a single in just a month – but instead she did “Au bout de la nuit” and Frantz (totally out of the blue) – but I’ll share with you some curious info about it a bit later in the story)

“Au bout de la nuit” has never been performed on tour, but there are four times to my knowledge when Mylene promotes it on television and all of them on Antenne 2.

Béart 87 (14 January 1987, Antenne 2) is being the first one in the series. There is a lovely photo of her during this performance as she changed her Tristana inspired red coat to the black classy slim dress

Ligne directe (2 April 1987, Antenne 2),

I didn’t find the video anywhere – please let us know if you have the link.

C’est encore mieux l’après-midi (9 April 1987, Antenne 2) she performs Tristana same day  – the single is out! Time to make it known 😊 How can she keep the direct stare without blinking for so long – her eyes are just mesmerizing, no?

Le grand rendez-vous (4 June 1987, Antenne 2)

So who is a host of this memorable soiree? Béart is a presenter, and he also performs a duet with Mylène (and what a lovely duet it is!).

Program was apparently recorded in Guy Béart’s house where he has invited many singers and performers.

The song Frantz is a cover by Marie Laforêt just like Guy Béart said prior to singing it with Mylene

CLICK HERE to read more about Marie Laforêt and Mylene Farmer meeting .

I have found a few original recordings of Frantz performed as Guy Béart / Marie Laforêt duets. Its hard to compete with this apparently very famous song (I admit, for me the song was hardly known before Mylene)

But it was in 1965 when Guy Béart and Marie Laforêt sang Frantz for the first time. A “joke” song which features a man and his mistress, whose husband is dying. Obviously, the two lovers have a hard time leaving each other. At the end of the song, their problem is solved: the woman is now free, since she learns of the death of her husband… A song is full of irony and puns on the morality of marriage (especially modern times marriage) and which obtains a great success during the year 1965.For the record, Mylene was only 4 years old when the song came out and Guy Béart sang it.

Mylène interprets the part sung originally by Marie Laforêt, and Béart sings his. All live, therefore, and with Béart’s dry guitar for only accompaniment. It remains a real rarity which will never be published on disc and to our knowledge, never rebroadcast.

Marie Laforêt is also a memorable figure on French music scene as well as in the cinema. Mylene immortalizes another Marie Laforêt’s  cover called  Je voudrais tant que tu comprennes by giving unforgettable performance of it during her Tour 1989. Who didn’t cry along with her watching it En Concert? I certainly did. Read more here

Here is how Mylene felt about the performance: “I wanted to maintain a certain distance from the audience. Because soliciting is neither in my principles nor in my nature. But while singing Je voudrais tant que tu comprennes , which I borrowed from Marie Laforêt, I felt tears rising to my eyes. The first few evenings, I refused to let them flow. Then, I ended up admitting that this false modesty was nothing but cowardice, in front of an audience that demanded real emotions.” – Télé 7 jours , 11/27/1989

But how did it come about? Why Marie Laforêt? You know by now Mylene did only a very few covers and only for very good reasons.

Well, here how the story goes: apparently, it was Bertrand Le Page (on the right) Mylène’s manager at the time was the reason for Mylene to sing this song:

“I always told Mylène that she should do covers. One day, I lent her all my Marie Laforêt records, because I wanted her to sing three songs that I liked a lot. However, I didn’t tell her which ones. She called me back, telling me I’m going to sing Je voudrais tant que tu comprennes, which was one of the three chosen. This is where we realize what the word synchronicity means.” (” Platinum “- 1994).

The other song by Marie became Frantz. Mystery solved, ladies and gentlemen!

PLEASE NOTE: I will post dedicated article about Bertrand Le Page (former manager of Mylene) soon. Don’t miss it!

But as for the third cover – yes!!! you guessed it! She chose it not from Marie Laforêt repertoire but from Juliette Greco – “Déshabillez-moi” instead. And who can regret that choice? Unfortunately, we cannot know how Bertrand felt about it as he has passed away. But I am sure, the song remains one of the favorites even now. Rumor has it that Juliette Greco was present in audience for Avant que l’ombre and  was so touched  by Mylene’s performance, she came up to her dressing room after the concert to express her high regards for Mylene’s work. It is so empowering to see such a link between generations of artists! Mylene must have been touched deeply by such a gesture. More about it read below:

As far as Marie Laforêt, they have met in the end of the same year 1987 on Domcile A2 – Antenne 2 where Mylene performed La ronde triste and Tristana and afterwards joined Marie Laforêt the guest of honor of the show (who chose to invite Mylène).

CLICK HERE to read more.

The other people on the photos are: Diane Tell (in the leopard hat) – another Canadian born singer

You probably know some of her famous songs:

You can also see Emmanuelle and Eve Béart (Guy Béart’s daughters)

A little about them:

Emmanuelle launched very successful acting career as a French film and television actress, who has appeared in over 60 film and television productions since 1972. An eight-time César Award nominee, she won the César Award for Best Supporting Actress for the 1986 film Manon des Sources.

Her other film roles include La Belle Noiseuse (1991), A Heart in Winter (1992), Nelly and Mr. Arnaud (1995), Mission: Impossible (1996) and 8 Women (2002).

Eve Béart was born on July 10, 1959 from the union of Guy Béart with his first wife Cécile de Bonnefoy du Charmel. A very short-lived relationship: the couple married the same year and separated in 1960. Guy Béart was then a couple with the model Geneviève Galéa who gave birth in 1963 to Emmanuelle. She later has become the star we know, Eve Béart is now a jewelry designer.

Emmanuelle and Eve Béart as we know are very close sisters.

“She is not in a profession like mine, where you expose yourself” , explains Emmanuelle Béart on June 8, 2020 on Télé 7 jours And if she later interprets several texts of her father in the tribute album, this is not the case for her sister. ” She just didn’t feel the courage or the inclination to do it.”

Despite their differences, the two women are incredibly close. In an interview with Télé-Star, in 2015 , the interpreter of Manon des sources admitted: ” Eve is my sister. (…) Apart from blood ties, I really have the feeling that Eve is a woman I would not have liked to pass by. ” As for the jewelry designer, she confided: “ You would not have been my sister, I would have loved you all the same. “

As for the Guy himself, Béart died from a heart attack on 16 September 2015 in Garches at age 85.

Guy Béhart-Hasson was a beloved French singer and songwriter. He released over 240 songs and 25 albums during his sixty-plus year career.

Béart was born in Cairo, Egypt to a Jewish family. He also grew up in Lebanon and later moved to Paris where his found recognition.

In 1994, Guy Béart was distinguished by the Académie française, which awarded him the great medal of French song (medal of vermeil) for all of his songs.

Speaking of Juliette Gréco, here is another lovely duet for you:

One more person, I should not leave out – Sabine Paturel which was very well known back then for her Shirley Temple image and infantile tunes.

Another interesting fact:

It was during the recording of this program Mylène met Danyele Fouché , Guy Béart’s press attaché and who will become Mylène’s press attaché for years 1987 and 1988.(more precisely from Tristana to the single Ainsi soit je…).

To read a full interview with Danyele Fouché CLICK HERE

LYRICS of FRANTZ with translation:

Chérie rentre il est grand temps
Ton mari est très souffrant
Mon mari est très souffrant
Qu'il prenne un médicament
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Chérie rentre, rentre chez toi
Ton mari est presque froid
Mon mari est presque froid
Qu'on lui brûle un feu de joie
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Chérie rentre, tu dois rentrer
Ton mari est décédé
Mon mari est décédé
Y a plus rien qui puisse l'aider
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Viens mon cher Frantz encore une danse
Je rejoindrai mon vieux mari après
Chérie rentre en ce moment
On doit lire son testament
Que dis-tu en ce moment
On doit lire son testatment
Non non mon cher Frantz plus une seule danse
Je vais courir pleurer mon vieux mari
Non non mon cher Frantz plus une seule danse
Je vais courir pleurer mon vieux mari

Honey, it's time to come home
Your husband is very ill
My husband is very sick
Let him take a medicine
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man later
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man later
Honey go home, go home
Your husband is almost cold
My husband is almost cold
Let's burn a bonfire for him
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man after
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man later
Darling come home, you must come home
Your husband is dead
My husband is dead
There's nothing left that can help him
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man later
Come my dear Frantz one more dance
I'll join my old man later
Honey is coming home right now
We have to read her will
What are you saying right now
We have to read her will
No no my dear Frantz, not one more dance
I'm going to run and cry for my old man
No, no, my dear Frantz, not one more dance
I'm gonna run and cry for my old man