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Jeff...

(B2) We will no longer see Jeff, leaping on the baffles of a stage, throwing his cap in the air, or walking his elegant hat through the streets of Brussels. Jeff Bodart, one of the most talented French-speaking Belgian singers of his generation, is no more. Struck down by a stroke a few weeks ago in his parents' house, he did not get up. At 44, his "carcass" left to join the "canadairs". How to define it? rocker certainly, singer with texts certainly, of varieties also, it was all that incontestably. His fifth, and last, album “And sometimes, it's like that” was barely dry. And the tour had just started – at the Botanique in Brussels last February. A tour where we saw less the acrobat and more the poet. The leaping angel, imbued with such dynamism on stage that it was impossible not to resist, had opted for a register, if not intimate, less extravagant. But he had kept all his warmth...

Alternately adored or ignored, pacing this roller coaster of fame that has drowned more than one artist, Jeff Bodart has always kept this lucidity, and above all the grain of irony that was his trademark. Making fun of himself and his profession — "Not really a job, a luxury hobby" — his kindness, his modesty did not prevent him from taking a sharp look at the environment in which he moved and the houses of the disc "who try to have money by degreasing as much as possible". But at the same time, he did not recognize the talent to cross to the other side. "When see how the single "Boire, booze, booze" (from his penultimate album) worked like hell, while for me, it's not... the best track on the album, it's... crazy" he assured. And to add: “Give me the keys to Universal, I'll sink it in 15 days, much faster than Messier”!

He was, until the end, a acrobat, and refused to enter the classic, yet well-established cycle of the album every three years - one year of album, one year of promo, one year to recharge - "This is not enough ! I prefer to move forward, do new things regularly, than downtime between records, you have to move forward, move forward… life is too short. “he told us in an interview at the pool bar, near his favorite recording studio.

(NGV)

Photo credit: © Ngv

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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