In the shadow of song stars, the hard and fascinating life of vocal sosies

Vocally, they are the perfect looks of Michel Sardou, Daniel Balavoine, France Gall or Jean-Jacques Goldman. However, Some were their lining on stage, others brought their repertoire to life during “tribes”. Furthermore, This Friday, June 27, six of them will give an exceptional concert at the Palais Nikaia in Nice. Therefore, Travel to the history of French song, and in these lives as tiring as it is hectic.

Of the Connemara lakes has Love disease by the way Vladimir Illitch. Consequently, France, Be a woman or lBroadway JavaJean-Pierre Virgil is the support of genius of Michel Sardou on stage. However, For years. However, he was one of the choristers of the popular singer and, as soon as the latter had no more votes or was too tired, he immediately took his vocal relay, without anyone in the concert halls realizing it.

“I started around 17 years old and I realized that I had a passion for singing. Therefore, I disturbed all the orchestras in my region in the southwest to sing and. For example, one day, there was this radio-hook in Carcassonne where I won the 1ᵉʳ Price. Consequently, In the room. Consequently, there was a group of young people who were already well known, but who was looking for a singer for the French variety. Therefore, shadow song stars, hard fascinating I did almost four years with them, and then I returned to two professional orchestras and I did my job. Furthermore, “

This passion for singing never left me … For example, Even if, at the start, I played the baryton sax …

recalls Jean-Pierre Virgil.

in France 3 Côte d’Azur

Jean-Pierre Virgil is all the major television shows of producers Maritie et Gilbert Carpentier and Guy Lux.. Meanwhile, Until the day when Michel Sardou. For example, who is looking for a new team, hears about this group who lives in Carcassonne. For example, Immediately. However, the orchestra and its singer are auditioned and in front of the level of candidates, Sardou hired all the training.

He remembers: “I sang sardou as I sang in the balls. Consequently, And he liked it. Moreover, For seven years. Consequently, we accompanied Michel Sardou on shadow song stars, hard fascinating the 40 days of the summer tour and the 40 days of the winter tour. Therefore, I was his chorister with three girls. when he was tired on stage, I did everything I could to help him. bass. The only problem is that I was not allowed to be tired. “

Jean-Pierre Virgil admits it without false modesty: “I was paid for that, but, by force, it is a bit frustrating. Fortunately. as I am a songwriter interpreter, between the tours, I was doing my life and my own singing towers with a mix of Sardou and songs that belong to me.”

It is on tour 200 days a year. because to those of Michel Sardou, are added those of the Grand Podium Europe 1, not to mention the records which he records with Didier Barbelivien.

Friday, June 27, he will be one of the six vocal lookalikes shadow song stars, hard fascinating that will vibrate the Nikaia palace in Nice (Alpes-Maritimes).

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Michel Berger or Sardou? There will be 7 to perform in Nice this Friday, June 27. • © FTV

Pierre Schwartz is the producer of Jean-Pierre Virgil and other artists. “The idea came to me three years ago, looking at what is happening and how it works in other rooms. I realized that tribes, that is to say the concerts in tribute to emblematic artists, are fashionable.

15 years ago, we did not talk about it. There were imitators. that’s all, but there is such artistic poverty now, that the ancient singers have become very trendy again.

Pierre Schwartz. producer of Jean-Pierre Virgil

Along with Jean-Pierre Virgil, vocal lining of Michel Sardou, there will be Hervé Acosta who has the amazing distinction of being the voice of Jean-Jacques Goldman and that of Johnny Hallyday at the same time.

Christian Tourniire, also director of the Alpes-Maritimes Conservatory, is the vocal double of Daniel Balavoine. Philippe Tailleferd, that of Michel Berger. Sandra Bastini to the voice of France Gall and Bastien Remy that of Claude François!

More than 900 children from the colleges of the Alpes-Maritimes and the Conservatoire will respond to them in music. These choristers have been repeating for six months. accompanied by a training of 14 musicians and 40 artists (dance and theater) who will ensure the show during the changes of the set. An evening in excess!

Before rehearsals on stage with all the artists. it was at the Sardinian Palace, in the premises of the Departmental Music Conservatory, that the first test gallops took place:

As the show approaches. Jean-Pierre Virgil is preparing to feel, once again, the energy that seizes the public, from the first song. Apprehension? A few minutes before entering the stage. but as soon as he puts on his jacket and finds himself under the spotlight, it’s over.

I spent wonderful years with Michel Sardou. It is a good school because we work in beautiful rooms and we record everything that is good. I have memories of my head!

Jean-Pierre Virgil. vocal lookalike

Before remembering a few anecdotes: “One day when he was shadow song stars, hard fascinating tired, at the end of the song Ten years earlierwhere it’s very high, he comes to me on stage and says to me: “I feel you want to sing!” Well JI finished the song! It was in Brussels at the National Forest in front of 8 000 people. I also remember this week at the Beirut Casino. He interpreted The barbaric king. There was not the smoking machines at the time. it was necessary to mix carbon dioxide that was put in heated water to produce a carpet, at the bottom of the artist, on the stage, like a cloud. He was destabilized on the 1st evening by the absence of smoke which gives all the power to this song. The stage manager explains to him that he did everything Beirut and that carbon dioxide is impossible to find. The same evening. we are all in the shadow song stars, hard fascinating largest nightclub in Beirut and smoke arrives from all over the dance tracks. He got up by raising his fist! “

Stories, Jean-Pierre Virgil has abundant, like that of Michel Sardou’s secretary who was responsible, with his lamp, to inspect the shoes. If a musician had not waxed them, he did not enter stage!

“Michel (Sardou) A war machine. He said the same words, executed the same steps, in the same place, exactly, evening after evening, like a computer. At Michel, no days or he was less good or better. shadow song stars, hard fascinating He is a metronome. But when he was really tired. he was incredible bad faith and everything was the fault of others “, he said a smile in his voice.

“The big artists capable of filling the rooms are over”, explains producer Pierre Schwartz. “Apart from a few French singers, the new generation, it is a handkerchief that does not last in time. Everything is phagocytous by speed and consumerism, in the artistic too. The change is huge today. Who would have said 40 years ago that the discs would not be sold. who, 20 years ago, would have imagined that we would go to seek artists on social networks? Another thing to invent

So. in the meantime, the concerts in tribute to great singers fill the rooms and put joy on the faces.

> Concert of the Departmental Conservatory of Music: “Jukebox: Les Voix des Hits”. a show with shadow song stars, hard fascinating more than 900 artists on stage – Friday June 27, 2025 at 8 p.m. – Palais Nikaïa