Hyper Weekend Festival and big lineup. For its fourth edition, which will be held from Friday to Sunday at the Maison de la Radio et de la musique (Paris 16th), the event will offer a plethora of concerts, creations and masterclasses. Among them, The Awfulthe intimate, piano-voice project of Bilal Hassani who, in December 2023, began writing very personal songs with Martin Dust. 20 Minutes proposed to the artist, who will be on stage Sunday at 6 p.m. and 8:30 p.m., and to Didier Varrod, musical director of the Radio France channels, creator and programmer of the Hyper Weekend Festival, to take part in the cross-interview game …
Why this title, “The Awful”?
Bilal Hassani: The Awful is a nickname that my very close friend and I gave to the dark side that inhabits us. She’s a reflection of everything I like least about myself, but she’s also a reassuring figure because she tells you the truth, she speaks to you without lying to you, she doesn’t sugarcoat what she has to tell you. When I was with Martin Dust on the island of Levant where we conceived the songs, I told him “Today, I am Affreuse!” » And he replied to me: “What are you talking about? » So I tried to explain to him: “The Awful One, when she is there, she invokes herself, she is the one who decides”. And we pulled that thread.
Musically, you opt for the piano-voice…
Bilal Hassani: I told Lilian Mille, who accompanies me on the piano, that I really liked film soundtracks, the one made by Air for Virgin Suicidesthat of Mullholland Drive…I also wanted to find a theme for The Awfulfour or five notes which would recur in several titles to mark the state in which I find myself when telling certain things. We materialized L’Affreuse and she became a comrade, a friend who was like a beacon in the writing. I said to myself: “There, I’m afraid, there, I feel beside myself. Do we assume it? Are we going there? » And we have often made the choice to get right into subjects that are hard…
Didier Varrod : It’s an ultra-strategic project artistically for Bilal given the range of everything he’s offered since we’ve known him. He arrives with a counter-use proposal which will probably be his most political project even though one might think that it is primarily an aesthetic project. But aesthetics and politics come together in a very strong way in this project. When we talked about it, we clapped hands: come on, it will be on the Hyper Weekend Festival 2025!
Bilal Hassani: It’s a show that is very strongly political. Until then, I liked to give a patina, let’s say plastic, synthetic, to what I was doing because I think it’s a very healthy queer defense mechanism. That’s where we find the hyper pop, the camp, etc. There, I had to let out the same cry without protection. I had to say things in a more blunt way.
Didier Varrod : I wanted to say I was particularly attached to Bilal. I admire him deeply. I ask myself: “Why didn’t I have someone like that in my generation who would have given me the courage to experience what I had to experience? “. It moves me a lot to know this boy.
But you, through your career, you who have been a gay rights activist, secretary general of radio Fréquence Gaie, you have paved the way for this young LGBT generation…
Didier Varrod : Of course, but I tell myself that he needs to know: if my generation had had a Bilal, perhaps we would have saved a little time and experienced a little less suffering and drama.
(Bilal is very touched by these words and says so.)
Bilal, is this project a parenthesis or a new direction for your career?
Bilal Hassani: I think he’ll keep me entertained for a while. The pieces are very strong titles, which say things that need to be heard and received with attention. I will try to be as careful as possible during this cycle to defend these songs in their fragility which was there from their conception. At the Hyper Weekend Festival, I have a beautiful showcase for my music. When we were in a seminar for this show, we first thought of it for the stage before thinking of a record, we were thinking about a concert setlist and we realized as we progressed that a concert setlist and a curation of tracks for an album are not very different.
Didier Varrod : I remember a meeting between us. We were talking about the order of the pieces. At one point, we came to “side A, side B”, we said “Let’s turn the vinyl over”! It’s a great luxury to be able to be at the start of a story before thinking about a record.
The festival has existed for four years. Is the public acquired in advance or is it distinguished by the curiosity to discover these artistic projects?
Didier Varrod : This year, on the ticketing side, we have a much more immediate response than in previous years while the programming is, in my opinion, a little more demanding. We have sixteen creations, it’s a record, no festival in Europe offers so many in three days. The public trusts us since they do not know a priori what they are going to see. Several shows were already sold out in December and we noticed that the audience was younger than the one we usually welcome at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique where the average age was 50. There, we have an average age of 35 years. And then it is a public which has also understood that beyond pure aesthetics, there are progressive values of inclusiveness, of parity which are in the missions of the public service. There, there will be Bilal, but also, for example, Chilly Gonzales who surrounds himself with an almost exclusively female cast of young rappers including Le Juiice and Theodora… It is important to me that this festival is a moment of entertainment and a “safe place” where we tell the world as we dream it.
Bilal, do you feel this “safe place” side, this “safe space”?
Bilal Hassani: Yes, especially on my project which is particularly personal, where I open up unvarnished. I wouldn’t have done it anywhere else, that’s for sure. I have always been more serene in public service in general and at Radio France in particular because it is one of the least traumatic places in my artistic life. Here, I never felt like I had to assume a posture when I spoke or when I sang. I’m given this creative space which is very, very punk and it’s very comfortable to create. I trust Didier, in his taste. I had the opportunity to see lots of shows at the Hyper Weekend Festival in the past, and I said to myself that there were no others like it. The word “hyper” can be felt in the walls. I think this will be a good nucleus to grow this pretty flower, The Awful. I have the impression that lots of things could happen on stage and change the trajectory of my little life…
We often hear that in the most uncertain and politically dark periods, artistic creation is more abundant and inspired. Is it a cliché?
Didier Varrod : No way ! It’s true that there is at the moment an artistic vitality which keeps me in suspense and makes me want to act, to invent, to put myself in danger and to question myself. There are propositions in pop, in hyper pop, in rap, which are quite disconcerting. Me, I always have faith in human beings and I tell myself that we are a country that stands out for this vitality, its capacity to resist, and that art, and music in particular, is the most important vector. the more the more unifying. Beyond generations, beyond sexualities, beyond where we position ourselves on the political spectrum, we manage to create moments of miracle, of communion. When I program an artist I try to give a historical perspective to my work as a programmer. In the four years that the festival has existed, we can read a story of the lightness of entertainment but also of the awareness of the importance of the creative act in the civic field.
Our file on Bilal Hassani
What would you say to someone who immediately claims that Hyper Weekend is a “wokist” festival, a pejorative way of saying that it highlights artists from diverse backgrounds?
Didier Varrod : I would already tell him to come and listen and not just hear. When we listen, we can be surprised by the difference in points of view. What Bilal will sing is not the same thing as what Voyou will offer by taking up the repertoire of Henri Salvador, who was not a priori the most conducive to progressive values. Saturday evening, there is a rap scene which, inevitably, does not have the same prism or relationship to the world as Bilal but, the idea is to ensure that it coexists and even, that at a given moment, it can be looked at and appreciated. I had great proof of this last year.
That’s to say ?
The opening evening brought together around ten artists from different backgrounds and generations. Each offered three piano-vocal songs, which, for many, was a counter-use. There was Piche coming out of “Drag Race France”, Camélia Jordana, Meryl, Yamê, Alice Taglioni… With this cast, I thought I was taking a big risk. I walked into the auditorium and I was like, “How the fuck is this going to go?” “. Many were there for Luigi and Meryl. The average age was 25 years old. Alice Taglioni, they must not have known her. At one point, I saw Gérard Pons, then director of the Francofolies de La Rochelle, crying… Because when Sheila entered the stage and began to perform Spacereveryone stood up to sing. I think there are two oceans between the political beliefs of Camélia Jordana and Sheila but, in the end, it was wonderful, they were all together, held each other’s hands. It was a magnificent moment.