The upper part of Merchants Street in Valletta was transformed into a music venue on June 21 in celebration of Fête de la Musique, an international world music day that was first introduced officially in France in 1982 by then Culture Minister Jack Lang to coincide with the summer solstice.
In the decades since the first edition was staged in France, the event has spread to many countries – from Canada to China, Malaysia to Morocco and some 36 other countries – and, for the first time, Malta was this year added to the list.
The event, staged by the Parliamentary Secretariat for Culture in association with the Malta Council for Culture and The Arts, the Malta Tourism Authority and the French Embassy, offered a five-act line-up that included Chris and Moira, Mark Spiteri Lucas Band, Xirka Rock, Ira Losco, and one of France’s biggest rock acts, Matthieu Chedid.
When I arrived in Valletta, the first two acts had already finished their performance and had warmed up the crowd. The Xirka Rock collective went onstage to face a responsive crowd of mainly local and French music fans.
Fronted by Mikaela, Matt Borg and Paul Borg Bonaci, Xirka Rock served up a barrage of rock classics with the same fervour that has made their own concerts such a success, working up the crowd into sing-along mode and setting the vibe for what was still to come.
Losco, with full band in tow, came on and delivered a set of familiar tunes culled from her last two albums, slipping in a popular cover of Ain’t No Sunshine for the occasion, and wowing the crowd with both her performance and sexy outfit.
By the reaction Chedid received when he walked onstage, one would think the man has had dozens of hits in Malta. He hasn’t, but the mass of young French people present were definitely fans of the man who is more popularly known as M.
On the night, he wore none of his usual flamboyant clothes, outlandish makeup or signature ‘new wave’ hairdo – instead, he has grown a beard, donned a garden hat and adopted a more ‘normal’ look.
Indeed the only sign of M’s presence, other than in the music, lay in the black-and-white colour code of his clothes, right down to a unique pair of two-tone shoes.
“Je suis M, tu es M”, he sings on Le Roi des Ombres, an essential number that adds weight to the artist’s alleged transformation from M back to Chedid. With or without the stage name, however, makes little difference to the energy he projects through his performance.
Boosted by three amazing backing musicians, Chedid is an engaging performer with a versatile taste in music and he’s not afraid to let it out either.
Towards the end of the set, he is joined by Losco and his sister Anna for a rendition of Hey Joe, which would have been perfect as a finale, but the crowd simply wanted more.
Chedid was only too happy to fulfil their wishes, later rounding off a truly entertaining night and a fine way to celebrate music.
This will hopefully become an annual fixture in our cultural calendar, possibly with a broader range of genres to truly capture the universal appeal of music.
Thank you Mr Lang for starting it all, thank you French ambassador Daniel Rondeau for bringing the concept to Malta, and thanks to the local authorities who collaborated to bring the event to fruition.