INTERVIEW – A singer, dancer and actor, he has released his first masterful album since the Paris Paralympics.
The general public discovered this during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games. Lucky Love’s music is praised worldwide by thousands of fans and icons such as Lana Del Rey, Cardi B and John Galliano. A year after her single masculinity – which has become a manifesto of resilience in Ukraine and an LGBT anthem in the United States – the French singer-songwriter of British and Kabyle descent presents his first record.
A musical rhapsody set under the skies of Los Angeles, titled I don’t care if it burns (“it doesn’t matter if it burns”), which immerses us in a kinetic atmosphere of church organs and shimmering guitars, synths and rhythmic explosions. Luc Bruyer, his real name, crossed all artistic paths before reaching music. Visual arts, dance, film, photography, fashion…
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After joining the Saint-Luc art school in Brussels, he collaborated with visual artists such as Olafur Eliasson. As a dancer, he shone alongside choreographer Carolyn Carlson before triumphing on the stage of the Paris Opera with Marie-Agnes Gillot. And, after graduating from the Cours Florent, he began his career as an actor.
Madame Figaro. – You are writing your autobiography for Éditions Grasset. How can you sum up your musical journey in a few steps?
Lucky Love. –I’ve had songs in my head since I was a teenager when I wrote poems inspired by Rimbaud and the book. Just kidsBy Patti Smith about her romance with Robert Mapplethorpe, in which I recognized myself. Music followed me to Madame Arthur’s Parisian cabaret, where I later performed as Venus of a Thousand Men. It marked my nights in Berlin, where I lived from 2016 to 2022, wandering art galleries and gay clubs. He was a faithful companion when I was 14 when I danced in my room after going out to vent my anger. From techno toHello Mary From Schubert, Madonna to Freddie Mercury, British pop to disco, Bronski Beat and German noise techno, angels and devils have flown through my intimate musical soundtrack. Until the day I bought a keyboard on my 25th birthday. my melodies began to flow freely.
The song I Don’t Care if it Burns crucified on the brink of being broken by grace. What inspired him?
The idea came to me while listening Ghetto realityvinyl recorded by Nancy Dupree in 1969. She was a music teacher and ran a children’s program in upstate New York. A kind of Vivian Mayer voice that left behind a sublime body of work. His songs, which focus on the black struggle for civil rights, are performed by children’s choirs and sound like bluesy gospels. It made me ambitious. I wanted these vocal polyphony, and I invited gospel choirs.
I’ve had songs stuck in my head since I was a teenager
Lucky Love:
Where were you when you composed the ballad? Skid Row, The name of the Los Angeles ghetto
Like the other songs on the record, it was born in the Los Angeles villa of actress Megan Fox, a haven of peace bathed in light and tree-like palm trees. The recording studio was set up behind a bay window, and from this view of Los Angeles we could see the Skid Row ghetto; the city of fallen angels, in the heart of the city, where thousands of homeless people gathered together. When I ventured there, my past caught up with me. The people who lived there reminded me of who I was at 15, marginalized. I never thought that I would reach the top. Skid Row is a song that makes us look delicately at the hardness of things. Because what is not easy to look at is not necessarily ugly…
How did you feel when Thomas Jolie invited you to open the Paralympic Games?
My first instinct was to refuse. I didn’t want to be the “handicapped singer” who came to perform at the “handicapped” ceremony. I was born without my left hand. This has always been my reality and I have never seen myself disabled. No more than everyone around me. It’s normal to have a disability. All people have one, or even several, even when they are not visible. The world is too focused on the visual. I didn’t want to appear without my hands. To me, being disabled means being “prevented,” but many people who are socially defined by disability are not. So I had a hard time flagging an institutionalized idea that I don’t share.
What makes you change your mind?
Watching the Olympics ceremony, I realized that there is already diversity in casting, not just visually, but also through thought and voice. The best way to embrace diversity is to highlight it. The creative team did it. we thought the same. My performance should highlight what unites us. so i rewrote the chorus of my song masculinity by inserting the expression “ my own ability » (“My own abilities”). The directors wanted me to appear shirtless, but I sang with my jacket on. I only threw it in at the end so the audience could see that my difference doesn’t affect my work.
The world is too focused on the visual. I don’t want to show up without my arms
Lucky Love:
At the same time, the fashion world established you as an icon, making your voice resonate on the catwalks…
Last Fashion Week I opened Gucci’s men’s fall-winter show in Milan and Margiela’s spring-summer show. I have always loved fashion. My album cover is also signed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino. There I am represented as a knight in a bare fleur-de-lis cloak surmounted by ermine.
I don’t care if it burns Belem music.
Concert in Paris on November 21 at La Gaieté Lyrique and March 24 and 25, 2025 at La Cigale.
Source: Le Figaro
