Lara Fabian

Today we travel to a lot of places: the Flemish part of Belgium, Italy (Sicily in particular), as well as Canada. Are we presenting a band? No, we're talking about a solo artist.

Lara Crokaert (born January 9, 1970), better known as Lara Fabian, is a Belgian singer. She has sold over 32 million records worldwide and is the best-selling Belgian female artist of all time.

She was born in Etterbeek, Brussels to a Flemish-Belgian father, Pierre Crokaert, and a Sicilian mother, Maria Luisa Serio. Since 1996 she has also held a Canadian passport alongside her original Belgian citizenship.

She was named Lara after the main character of the novel Doctor Zhivago. Her professional name is a modified spelling of the given name of an uncle, Fabiano. She spent her first five years in her mother's hometown of Catania in Sicily. After that she moved to Ruisbroek near Brussels, Belgium. Italian was her first language.

She began singing, dancing and taking piano lessons at a young age, and began formal music lessons at age eight. She began writing and performing her own songs during her ten years of formal music study. Fabian's songs were influenced by her classical vocal training and by contemporary artists such as Barbra Streisand and Queen.

Let me point out that Lara is not LGBT herself, but she is an important ally. Like Celine Dion, she had a hit single celebrating being gay at a time when such a gesture was both unusual as well as very helpful to our cause.

During the 1980s, Fabian entered a number of European competitions and won several prizes. She released her first single, L'Aziza Est En Pleurs/Il Y Avait in 1986.

Here's L'Aziza Est En Pleurs (Aziza Is Crying):

In 1988, the RTL TV channel in Luxembourg invited Fabian to represent the country at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland. The song was entitled Croire (Trust) which reached a respectable fourth place (while Celine Dion won the contest representing Switzerland). The single became a hit in Europe, selling nearly 500,000 copies.

The song is a ballad, with Lara singing that she wants to believe in the good of humanity, rather than its dark side. She sings that "we have love within us", which is her central belief. Fabian also recorded the song in English and German language versions, as Trust and Glaub respectively. She was 18 at the time.

In 1990, Fabian and musical collaborator Rick Allison moved to Montreal, Canada to embark on a career in North America. In August 1991, her self-titled, French-language, debut album, Lara Fabian, was released in Canada and sold over 100,000 copies. The album went gold in 1993, and platinum the following year.

Je M'Arrêterais Pas De T'Aimer (I'll Never Stop Loving You) was her own composition and was a single from this album:

Constant touring in Québec helped Fabian's second album Carpe Diem (1994) become her breakthrough album. It went triple platinum. Single Si Tu M'Aimes (If You Love Me) went gold:

Her next album was a significant one: Pure was released in June 1997 and sold over two million copies in France, where it achieved diamond status. It also went platinum in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. Pure has become one of the best-selling French-language albums of all time.

Five successful singles came out of this album: a new version of Si Tu M'Aimes, which was even more succesful than the previous one, and four others (I'm saving the best for last). All singles were written by Rick Allison and Lara Fabian. Tout (All) was the first one, another gold record for her:

Je T'Aime (I Love You) was also a big hit:

Humana was also a hit, but the reason that made Fabian's inclusion to this narrative a must is the next single: La Différence (The Difference) was a song against homophobia and came with a very good video:

In 2010 the song was used for "Lutte Contre L'Homophobie" (Fight Against Homophobia). It was illustrated with scenes from Pascal-Alex Vincent's 2008 film Donne Moi La Main (Give Me Your Hand):

In 1999 she released her first live album. It included a duet with French legend Johnny Hallyday called Réquiem Pour Un Fou (Requiem For A Fool), which became a platinum hit.

Her next, self-titled album (2000) gave her an international boost. The songs were in English, and that helped her break into the US Top 200, albeit at #85. It did however go 3xplatinum in Portugal, platinum in France, Belgium, and Brazil and gold in Canada, Switzerland and Norway. First single was an inpired take on the classic Adagio by Albinioni:

Adagio was a Top 5 hit in Belgium and France, but her next hit, I Will Love Again, had an international impact: it made #2 in Belgium, #4 in Canada, #6 in Spain, #8 in New Zealand, #14 in Switzerland, #16 in France and Austria, #25 in Germany, #31 in Australia and Sweden, and #32 in the US Hot 100.

During this period, Fabian recorded songs for several Hollywood motion picture soundtracks, including The Dream Within for the Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within soundtrack, and For Always for the AI:Artificial Intelligence soundtrack, which contained both a solo version and a duet with Josh Groban.

Here she is in For Always, with Josh Groban:

Her next album Nue (Nude/2001) was also a big hit and included a duet with Maurane called Tu Es Mon Autre (You Are My Other). It went gold in Belgium and France.

In 2002 she released her second live album that included a gay classic: Charles Aznavour's Comme Ils Disent (Like They Say). We've already presented the song by Aznavour and others, including a version by Lara. Since you can't have enough of a good thing, here's Fabian in 2002, doing a great job:

In 2003 she released her third live album, En Toute Intimité (Very Intimately), yet another platinum seller. It contained a great version of a very special song by Lucio Dalla, Caruso.

After a sabbatical in 2004, Fabian returned to the music scene in 2005 with her fifth French album, 9. It marked a different direction in Fabian's music, a smoother and less dramatic sound. 9 yielded the hit single La Lettre (The Letter):

The album Toutes Les Femmes En Moi (All The Women In Me) was released in 2009. The first single, Soleil, Soleil (Sun, Sun) was a cover of the early 70s hit Soley, Soley by Middle Of The Road. There's a surprise guest on the video, internationally famous Greek singer Nana Mouskouri.

In  2010, Fabian released a concept album in Russia and Ukraine called Mademoiselle Zhivago. It features 11 songs in different languages by Russian composer Igor Krutoy. Demain N'Existe Pas (Tomorrow Is A Lie) is in this album:

Her 2013 album Le Secret (The Secret) contained another LGBT anthem, a sequel of sorts to La Différence. It was called Deux Ils, Deux Elles (Two "He"s, Two "She"s) and once again it came with an inspirational video. Even though Lara Fabian keeps making good and succesful music, I think that it's fitting to close today's column with this song.