Chantal Goya finds her panda, one year after the costume was stolen

Eureka! After months of mystery and nostalgia, Chantal Goya’s Pandi Panda is finally preparing to make its comeback. The announcement, relayed by The Parisianmade fans happy: “Children’s favorite character, with that of Snipe will be back in my show next Sunday for the last two Parisian dates of the tour of my fifty years of career”, she confided. This good news closes a long chapter for the 83-year-old French singer, deeply attached to the costume of her musical universe.

After months of research, a member of his team found the solution. Marie-France Larrouy, costume designer and faithful collaborator of Chantal Goya since the 1980s, found in her archives the original mold used to shape the panda’s head. Marie-France, who stands out today in the show’s workshops Mask Singer (TF1), then embarks on a moving project: bringing Pandi Panda back to life. “It’s a beautiful story, says Chantal Goya. Marie-France was 19 when she started working with us. She recreated everything identically, in the spirit of our beginnings, when we were tinkering with our costumes in two small maid’s rooms,” she testifies on a daily basis.

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In a few days, on March 26, the variety singer will collect the brand new panda head. “Marie-France told me it was 75% finished. I will finally be able to sing again Pandi Panda and its beautiful ecological message, written by Jean-Jacques. It’s the greatest gift anyone could give me and the children.”she rejoices.

The costume never found

The story of the stolen panda. This dates back to last spring, in Sausheim, in Haut-Rhin. During a concert given as part of his tour, Pandi Panda’s original costume mysteriously disappeared. At the time the singer did not want to alert the children. But a few weeks later, on Instagram, June 25, 2025, Chantal Goya then shared her distress: “I can’t sing Pandi Panda anymore, do you know why? she is indignant . Because when I sang for my last gala of my tour, in Sausheim, someone took it from me, it disappeared. And it hurt me a lot » She files a complaint, hoping to find him. In vain.

The variety singer shares the stage with the man she nicknames « Pandi Panda », a giant panda, a stage companion since 1984. She made the costume at the time with her husband Jean-Jacques Debout. The animal was used to convey ecological messages to children and had become a landmark during his shows.

From March 29, Chantal Goya will give two performances on the same day, at the Palais des Congrès in Paris, at 2 p.m. and 6 p.m., marking the kickoff of a new tour entitledChantal Goya – 50 years of love. This tour will extend until January 2027 and this time, Pandi Panda will be there.