A tiny slice of France comes to Adelaide, Melbourne and Sydney next month with So Frenchy So Chic featuring Nigerian-Franco singer/ rapper Féfé.
Féfé is a returning favourite for So Frenchy So Chic and says he's anticipating the usual high-energy and exuberance he's come to expect from Australian audiences.
“I want to say as usual that I'm looking for a crazy response from the crowd,” he says.
“It's true, I'm always looking for that; I'm looking to make the people go crazy, I love it. To be singing in French in front of an English-speaking audience and to see them go crazy, it makes me so happy.
“It's an exchange,” Féfé says of his live performances. “If I don't give [to] the people, the people are not going to give me back, and if they're not going to give me back I'm not going to give [sic]. So it's just an exchange of energy.”
This year Féfé released his third studio album 'Mauve', a record that explores his artistic interpretation of the colour purple and how it represents a balance between happiness, represented by the colour pink and the blue tones of sadness.
“I did that [album] at a moment of my life when I wanted to give up many things,” he explains.
“When I went to Brazil I had the revelation that life was a mix of blues [the colour, not the music] – of sadness and bad moments – and a mix of what you'd call pink – all the joyful moments – and that was the goal of life to always get the purple.
“If it's only pink you're not going to appreciate it and if it's only blue of course you're going to be depressed. I'm trying to access those two sides of life and enjoy it.”
This time around for So Frenchy So Chic, Féfé says audiences will get to hear a good chunk of songs from 'Mauve' as well as his past two albums: 'Jeune à la retraite' [2009] and 'Le charme des premiers jours' [2013]. “You'll get a bit of the back catalogue too, there has to be a mix.
“It's mostly off my latest album but I pick some songs off my first two albums. I feel there is a place for any kind of music because I think the Australian people are curious and open-minded.”
The past few years have seen Féfé take his own journey to discover more about his Yoruba ancestry; he says the biggest surprise was finding out the answers he was looking were closer to home than he thought.
“What I discovered is that what I was looking for was already inside me. Can you imagine?” he says with a laugh.
“Sometimes you travel the whole world just to see that the answer was just inside you or next to you. Sometimes you need to see other things to see yourself better; it was what I needed to be less afraid and just start to love myself as I am.
"I think it's a journey we all have to take. If we want to start loving each other, we have to start loving ourselves.”
So Frenchy So Chic Tour Dates
Fri 12 Jan - Pinkly Flat (Adelaide)Sun 14 Jan - Werribee Park (Melbourne)
Sat 20 Jan - Bicentennial Park (Sydney)
