It was a warm June evening outside the Alliance Française Pyramid last Friday as the excited crowd eagerly awaited the commencement of the first singing performance. Having already been dazzled by the dance display of the Bamboo Productions crew, members of the audience were on the edge of their seats. The occasion: Fête de la Musique Saint Lucia, 2019, an affair altogether different from the 2018 production. It was a competition last year, with three performers vying for prizes on offer. This year’s edition was non-competitive; it was more a music festival, with four participants taking the stage. Last year’s Fête was held indoors; this year performers and audience alike were able to enjoy the occasion under the stars. There was a grander feel to this year’s event, encapsulated by perhaps the biggest difference from last year: the presence of star performer Davy Dacy.
“I was with a show in Martinique Première when the director of Alliance Française, Evelyn Gasse, invited me on Facebook to Fête de la Musique, and here I am,” said the New York-based musician in advance of the show. “Recently I heard that the Fête de la Musique is the only day in France where musicians don’t get arrested if they’re playing in public. I think it’s a pretty cool thing.”
Dacy was born in Martinique. At 12 he moved with his parents to California for a year, then transferred to Brooklyn, New York. “It actually created a hybrid of different types of people and mentalities into one person,” said Dacy of his childhood travels. “Being close to the Caribbean roots, I gravitated towards Jamaicans, Guyanese, Trinidadians. I also got closer to the Saint Lucian community in Brooklyn, taking various dialects and languages of the Caribbean people, with a little bit of Brooklyn and California slang. I took a piece of everything and it became me. That’s what helped shape me into who I am.”
He added: “I don’t think I have a favourite but I gravitate more towards the Caribbean vibe, you know? The genres I perform definitely reflect everything I’ve experienced in the United States.”
That variety of music and personal backgrounds was on full display at Alliance Française. And although three of the four performers were from Saint Lucia, their stories and musical selections were as wide-ranging as Dacy’s—from Adele’s Hello performed in French, to Léa Castel’s Abîmée.”
Recording artist Chrycee opened the night with the aforementioned Adele hit. “That was quite interesting,” she said, reflecting on her rendition, “Another artist had done a cover on YouTube and I just loved it. So I learned it and I felt it would be a perfect opening to the show as well.”
Each performer sang two musical pieces, one of their own choosing and another in French. Chrycee’s second was her self-penned Heavenly. She said she took into consideration the crowd when she decided to perform “something that was upbeat and also Caribbean”. She also bore in mind that “Alliance Française is all about integration”.
Taking a break from her media duties in order to perform on the night was the host of DBS’s This Morning. Chela Mendes said of her singing: “It’s a hidden talent that I don’t really share often. Two years ago at this event, Alliance heard me sing during the open karaoke portion of the show. So this year I had no choice but to say yes and step out of my comfort zone to be a part of this.”
She sang Toxic by Britney Spears and Léa Castel’s Abîmée, Mendes saying she “fell in love with two years ago and always sang it at home, which is how I learned it word for word”.
Sam Eudovic was next and really impressed with Never Enough from The Greatest Showman soundtrack. A Modern Language teacher at the Vide Bouteille Secondary School, he was able to introduce his songs to the audience in perfect French.
The last of the four participants was Juliètte Coquille, an intern at Alliance Française, who performed three songs: the Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse version of Valerie, Lady Gaga and actor Bradley Cooper’s Shallow from their movie together, and Joe Dassin’s Les Champs-Elysées which came after a special request from the crowd.
“I love to sing a lot,” admitted Coquille afterwards. “My co-workers heard me singing one time and asked: “Why don’t you participate in the event?” Madame Gasse encouraged me and so I agreed to sing tonight. I was really nervous. It was the first time I sang onstage like this. But I had a lot of fun.”
“They were all amazing!” exclaimed an obviously impressed Dacy after he followed the four performers with his own showstopper. “The dancers, the singers, everyone was great.”
