Fireworks over Nice, France
Calogero (Calogero Joseph Salvatore Maurici) was born in 1971, in Échirolles, Isère, France, south of Grenoble. His unusual first name is common in the Sicily of his parents and has Greek origins, meaning “beautiful old age.” He learned several instruments (flute, piano, bass guitar) as a youngster and began his career as songwriter and frontman for a band named Charts. His debut (“Au milieu des autres”), second (“Calogero”) and third (“3”) albums were in 2000, 2002 and 2004.
Calogero wrote and released “Les Feux d’artifice” (“Fireworks”) as the name of both a song and album (his 6th album) in 2014. It refers to a pyrotechnic display of orchestrated explosions of colored fireworks for a celebratory purpose. Originated in China, firework displays became a favored way for the French monarchy to embellish its reign. With the Mediterranean Sea as an incomparable backdrop, pyrotechnic festivals have become a favored summertime event throughout the French Côte d'Azur in towns like Cannes, Monaco, Antibes, Frejus and Nice.
Calogero wrote the music with his brother Maurici Gioacchino. The lyrics were written by a close collaborator, Paul Ècole. With little exception, Calogero himself focuses on musical composition for himself and others with lyrics contributed by other artists. The album became Calogero’s most successful since 2004 and its lead song “Un jour au mauvais endroit” won “original song of the year” at the 2015 Victoires de la Musique (French “Grammies”).
The name of the album and song draws upon a patina of historical associations. Igor Stravinsky wrote a piano piece with a similar name in 1908. It was a short piece as a wedding gift for his teacher and mentor Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter Nadezhda. Shortly after in 1911-12, Claude Debussy included a piece by the same name in the second book of his two-book set of 24 “Preludes.”
The name of the album and song draws upon a patina of historical associations. Igor Stravinsky wrote a piano piece with a similar name in 1908. It was a short piece as a wedding gift for his teacher and mentor Nicolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s daughter Nadezhda. Shortly after in 1911-12, Claude Debussy included a piece by the same name in the second book of his two-book set of 24 “Preludes.”
The song experienced a concatenation of experiences that eventually imbued it with a rare emotional quality in France. As written in 2014, the song constituted a reminiscence of youthful experience as a child attending a late night fireworks display. The song and the phrase “Les Feux d’artifice” were metaphors for the impermanence of life’s beautiful events like fireworks and the transitory nature of experiences that nevertheless persist in memory. As such, the song’s final stanza encourages the living to “shine bright in the eyes of others, to offer them light like a shooting star passing by.”
By tragic coincidence two years later, the savage 2016 terrorist attack-by-truck on a crowd of 30,000 people on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice occurred during a traditional night of fireworks on July 14 at La Fête Nationale (National Celebration). This event stopped the world in its tracks and spread a new layer of meaning on Calogero’s song. It killed 86 people and injured 458. Fifteen of those killed were children and adolescents. The truck driver was shot and killed on the scene, while 8 accomplices were convicted in 2022.
The association between that event and Calogero’s song became inseparable as the human faces of those who died populated the song’s metaphors and the repeated Refrain: “short-lived stars that are born, shine bright, then slip away while falling towards the sea, making starfish.” In Calogero’s words: “on est comme des feux d’artifice: nous sommes là pour peu de temps; faisons donc en sorte de briller dans les yeux des gens” (“We are like fireworks: we are there for little time; let us therefore shine in the eyes of people”).
Calogero in Concert, July 14, 2017
The song is solidly structured with an alternating Verse/Chorus profile that includes 3 Verses of 8 lines each, 2 Refrains/Choruses also with 8 lines, and an Outro with (take a guess) 8 lines. Each verse has 2 stanzas. The Verses have a classic ABAB rhyme scheme as do the Refrains and the Outro. The chords and progressions are simple and stable with slight variations while the Refrains have soaring episodes appropriate for the lyrical imagery of fireworks.
At the request of survivors’ families, Calogero performed the song on the same day in the following year (July 14, 2017) at a tribute concert held in homage to the victims at the Promenade du Paillon (Place Massena) in Nice where the “Water Mirror” is a perennial attraction for children. He was accompanied by the Philharmonic Orchestra of Nice and the opera choir. Calogero stoically made it through most of the song, but broke into tears at the second line of the Outro. After a pause, the choir resolutely retrieved the fallen baton and carried the song to its conclusion.
As usual, interpretive notes on language follow the lyrics below, addressing points highlighted in bold and italic. The lyrics and translation may be scrolled while listening to the video clip.
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FRENCH
Verse 1 J’étais hissé sur des épaules Sous ces galaxies gigantesques Je rêvais en tendant les paumes De pouvoir les effleurer presque Ça explosait en fleurs superbes En arabesques sidérales Pour faire des bouquets d’univers Moi, je voulais cueillir ces étoiles Refrain On allait aux feux d’artifice Voir ces étoiles de pas longtemps Qui naissent, qui brillent et puis qui glissent En retombant vers l’océan Et ça fait des étoiles de mer Ça met dans les yeux des enfants Des constellations éphémères Et on s’en souvient quand on est grand Verse 2 Dans le ciel vibrant de musique Je voyais naître des planètes Jaillir des lumières fantastiques Et tomber des pluies de comètes Je m’imaginais amiral Regardant voler mes flottilles J’ai fait des rêves admirables Sous ces fusées de pacotille Refrain On allait aux feux d’artifice Voir ces étoiles de pas longtemps Qui naissent, qui brillent et puis qui glissent En retombant vers l’océan Et ça fait des étoiles de mer Ça met dans les yeux des enfants Des constellations éphémères Et on s’en souvient quand on est grand Verse 3 Puis sous les cieux incandescents Quelqu’un refaisait mes lacets Je voyais des adolescents Au loin, là-bas, qui s’enlaçaient Ça laissait dans mes yeux longtemps Des traînées de rose et de vert Je voyais dans mon lit d’enfant Des univers sur mes paupières Outro Nous sommes comme des feux d’artifice Vu qu’on est là pour pas longtemps Faisons en sorte tant qu’on existe, De briller dans les yeux des gens De leur offrir de la lumière Comme un météore en passant Car, même si tout est éphémère, On s’en souvient pendant longtemps |
ENGLISH
Verse 1 I was hoisted onto shoulders Under these gigantic galaxies I dreamed while stretching out my hands To be able almost to touch them It exploded in splendid flowers And stellar arabesques To make bouquets from universes Me, I wanted to gather these stars Refrain We were going to the fireworks To see these short-lived stars That are born, shine bright, then slip away Falling towards the sea Making starfish It puts in children’s eyes Fleeting constellations And we remember them when grown Verse 2 In a sky echoing with music I watched planets being born Fantastic lights bursting in air And falling showers of comets I imagined myself an admiral Reviewing my flotillas fly I dreamed amazing dreams Beneath these cheap rockets Refrain We were going to the fireworks To see these short-lived stars That are born, shine bright, then slip away While falling towards the sea Making starfish It puts in children’s eyes Fleeting constellations And we remember them when grown Verse 3 Then under the incandescent skies Someone was tying my shoelaces I saw teenagers Far off, over there, hugging each other That left in my eyes a long time Swirls of pink and green I saw in my child’s bed Entire universes on my eyelids Outro We are like fireworks Since we are there for only a short time Let’s make sure that while we live, To shine bright in the eyes of others To offer them light Like a shooting star passing by Because, even if all is ephemeral We remember it a long time |
NB:
de pas longtemps: is a negative construction that means the opposite. In this case “pas longtemps” means short-lived.
on s’en souvient: "en" is a magic adverbial pronoun with many meanings. Here, it refers to "Des constellations éphémères" in the previous line and means "about them." "Se souvenir" is a reflexive verb that means "to remember."
de pacotille: means cheap, shoddy, tacky, fake, bogus.
de pas longtemps: is a negative construction that means the opposite. In this case “pas longtemps” means short-lived.
on s’en souvient: "en" is a magic adverbial pronoun with many meanings. Here, it refers to "Des constellations éphémères" in the previous line and means "about them." "Se souvenir" is a reflexive verb that means "to remember."
de pacotille: means cheap, shoddy, tacky, fake, bogus.