Pagny by Florent, Florent Pagny

"Suddenly something happens. Something breaks. A slight shedding in my throat. A membrane that tears and lets in light, a flow, a surge of emotion, a new sound, full, with a brilliant color. I would say I was born a second time that day. I am so happy! I am eleven years old and I now know what my life will be. To sing."

Florent, born in 1961 into a modest family in Burgundy, became Pagny, the singer with fifteen million records sold. How? His success owes as much to his singing talent as to the extraordinary way he reinvented himself, life after life.

On the eve of his sixtieth birthday, Florent wanted to write this book and almost didn't, as the task seemed arduous for this artist who is as sensitive as he is powerful. "Was everything tellable? To relive my youthful loves, the wild years, that would be easy. But the disappointments, the betrayals? If I was going to tell it, I wasn't going to do it halfway." However, it was too late to give up once the memory machine had started.

Pagny is therefore finally recounted by Florent, who forgets nothing of his past as a hyperactive child, his childhood dreams, the slaps and tears, the extreme highs and lows, the passionate loves and friendships—Vanessa Paradis, Johnny, Coluche, Philippe Starck—and his magical encounter with Azucena, the woman of his life, his alter ego, from whom he has been inseparable for thirty years.

Written with Emmanuelle Cosso, writer, lyricist, and long-time friend of the singer, this work reads like a novel, in which everyone will find a little of themselves through the soundtrack of a major artist in French song.