Renowned for both her singing and acting, the artist still appears affected by the attacks she suffered early during her fame. Ahead of the release of her eighth album, ‘Le Retour des beaux jours,’ Paradis agreed to an interview, but remained on her guard.
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Wind and string instruments sound the first notes of the opening track, “Cœur ardent.” From an air of lightness, the sound rises, intensifies, builds momentum, like a curtain lifting, the final moment of solitude, the last breath before emerging from the shadows. At last, the instantly recognizable voice emerges: “Suddenly I step into the light/out of breath/heart pounding.” In just a few seconds, Vanessa Paradis takes full possession of the space, seven years since her last albm.
For the first track of Le Retour des Beaux Jours, which is set for release on October 10, Etienne Daho, who wrote and composed most of the tracks with musician Jean-Louis Piérot, envisioned an entrance like a figure emerging in the glare of the spotlights. “The song came together very quickly,” he said over the phone. “I wanted Vanessa to come into the album the way an artist walks onto the stage.” The singer will embark on a tour in March 2026. The Paris concert, scheduled at the city’s Zénith concert hall in May, sold out only a few days after it was announcd.
Paradis reached out to Daho for her return. “I admire him, I respect him, I love him,” she summarized at the studio where the photo shoot for M Le Magazine du Monde was taking place, on July 15. An interview scheduled to last 45 minutes had just ended, the recording stopped at 44 minutes and 53 secons.
We had 45 minutes, then, to better understand one of the world’s most famous French artists, a familiar face since the last century, a name that instantly resonates in the French collective consciousness, her celebrity undiminished over the years. Less than an hour to look back on a career now spanning 38 years, 20 films and, with the new record, eight albums. There was a lot to cover, and a lot more besides. “Vanessa does not sp
