Bertrand Belin live at the Gare du Midi
Music · French chanson · Gare du Midi
He sings the way you tell a story to someone only half listening — low, without effect, and yet you catch every word. Bertrand Belin comes to the Gare du Midi on 13 November. Probably the finest evening of the Biarritz autumn.
Bertrand Belin gets filed under French chanson because he has to be filed somewhere. It is convenient and it is wrong. For twenty years he has built songs where folk meets pop, where a bassline serves as chorus, and where the lyric does the work the melody refuses to do.
A voice that never pushes
His distinguishing feature fits in one sentence: he sings underneath. Where French pop pushes, Belin holds back. The result is a strange intensity, almost uncomfortable at first, thoroughly hypnotic afterwards — and formidably effective live, where the audience’s silence becomes an instrument in its own right.
The local tip
Book early: the main auditorium fills fast on this kind of billing, and the best seats are not the priciest — the sound is excellent at the back of the stalls. Park towards avenue Foch rather than hoping for a space by the entrance.
The kind of artist you find by accident and never let go of.
The editorial team
ici Biarritz