David Hallyday’s tour clashes with feminists in Pas-de-Calais

Wednesday November 6, as part of his tour where he mixes his repertoire with that of his father, David Hallyday will perform in Longuenesse near Saint-Omer in Pas-de-Calais. This will be his second concert after the launch of his tour on November 2 at the Millesium in Epernay near Reims. In Epernay, no incident marred the show. In Saint-Omer, the atmosphere could be less festive. Before the two hours of the concert, the atmosphere around the Sceneo performance hall will be one to watch. The activists of the Audomarois feminist collective plan to tow when the 2,300 spectators arrive. They made it known this Monday morning in the regional daily The Voice of the North . “The authorization was issued to us on October 31 by the sub-prefecture of Saint-Omerexplains one of their activists to Figaro. It is not a question for us of disrupting the concert but only of raising awareness against sexual and gender-based violence in strict compliance with the law. It is a completely peaceful approach. We especially don’t want any stories with fans of Johnny Hallyday or with far-right activists who would have the idea of ​​coming to fight. »

These ch’tis activists who usually put up posters with black letters on a white background to denounce sexual and sexist violence have nothing to reproach David Hallyday except the name chosen for his tour. According to their interpretation, Requiem for a Madman “would poeticize femicide.” This collective of “descendants of petroleum workers” has around 400 subscribers on its Facebook account. Saint-Omer, like neighboring towns, has been mourned by several recent feminicides and several trials are underway.

Released in February 1976, this hit written by Gilles Thibaut and composed by Gérard Layani was a big success with first place on the hit parade with more than half a million copies sold. When the rocker died in December 2017, Requiem for a Madman returned to the sales rankings. As music critic Bertrand Dicale recalls in September 2022, polls at the time revealed that it was the 9^e Johnny’s song preferred by the French. “So you know her, but you may not know why this man is locked up, obviously armed and threatening to shoot anything that moves…” he explains in a column. The song contains a chorus that has gone poorly since the Me Too movement: “I loved her so much that to keep her, I killed her/So that a great love always lives/It must die, it must die of love.”

In his written response sent to Figarothe collective specifies that it “do not ask for the censorship of this song but we believe that it is necessary to inform people about these violent messages conveyed in the song, in the cinema…”

Contacted by the Figarothe venue management explained: “We do not take a position on this subject. We have not heard back from the Prefect for the moment. We have never faced this type of problem. We don’t know if we will need more security.” If the Sceneo walls belong to a private owner, the place under public service delegation is managed by a subsidiary of Fimalac, owned by Marc Ladreit de Lacharrière. “The tour has just started, there have been no incidents so far”explains surprised, a spokesperson for the company Richard Walter productions which manages David Hallyday’s concerts. Now that the name of the tour appears on the entire poster campaign, it will be complicated or at least expensive to change it.