You may also have caught sight of Essaï as a judge on Armenia’s “Destination Eurovision” or on the CBS show “The World’s Best” alongside Drew Barrymore, Faith Hill and RuPaul. He started off performing in public as the lead for the Soul/R & B band Ideal 3 when he was just 19 years old, singing the hit song Pardonne-Moi on the popular French TV show “Le Monde est à Vous.” He signed early on with Mercury Universal and has composed and performed on a host of French shows, including “C’est la Même Chanson,” “50 Ans de Tubes” and “Retour Gagnant.” Essaï has also portrayed Count Paris in the 2001 French musical version of “Romeo and Juliet: from Hatred to Love” (“Roméo et Juliette: de la Haine à l’Amour”) and has written for and arranged songs and lyrics for stars such as the Academy and Grammy Award-winning Michael Legrand (“Les Demoiselles de Rochefort”) and Anthony Cavanaugh.įor added good measure, he also signed with the legendary Motown label while still in his early 20s. Known in Europe simply by his first name, Essaï was born in 1980 to a family of Armenian Genocide survivors from Kharpert. It’s not the worst quality to have in a performer-and one that promises more success for this talented, strong-willed Parisian star.Ī triple theatrical threat - songwriter, actor, singer - Essaï has been blessed with marquee good looks, a strong singing voice and a seemingly indefatigable work ethic. Along with fellow actors Yanis Siad, Julien Vital, and Jade Boinet, Essaï delivers memorable tunes that have you tapping your feet and smiling throughout, particularly the lead song “Terre”: “O Terre/ Les hommes sont fiers/L’amour te sauvera” (“O Earth/Men are proud/Love will save the day”) There’s also an amazing Kochari in one segment, a reference to the fact that the Ark is said to have landed in Armenia at the foot of Mount Ararat, in a nod as well to Altounian’s Armenian origins.Įven the briefest conversation or Zoom interview with Essaï reveals a very French desire to seduce the listener. As for the muscular, sometimes-bare-chested Essaï, he looks more like an Olympic swimmer than the patriarch Noah whom he depicts in the lead role - at least as we remember him in the Old Testament - but that is a small quibble. The songs in “Noé” are catchy, and the cast delivers them with brio, though they are not quite as easily memorable perhaps as the songs in “The Lion King,” which relies on similar mechanisms to move story and songs forward: puppetry, the relationship between humans and other creatures of the Earth, a patriarch who saves his kingdom. As he told one French TV reporter: “The Earth doesn’t need humans to survive, but humans need the Earth to survive.” Hence the need to get out this preservationist message to the general public and remind them that we are headed for disaster if we don’t quickly change gears and protect what has been bequeathed to us on the Big Blue Marble we all call home. But Essaï also staged his story in a contemporary context, in light of the environmental challenges that we are facing on Earth, with increased pollution and global warming seemingly progressing unabated around the globe. As told in the Old Testament and now recounted by Altounian and his cast, the flood serves as a parable of sorts for rebirth and cunning in the face of natural disaster. It’s a story that has something for everyone. The musical takes place after the great flood that many archeologists believe may have actually occurred sometime over 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia or present-day Iraq. PARIS - A song-through musical about Noah’s Ark, with life-sized mechanical animals and a multiethnic cast of performers singing in French is no easy theatrical task to pull off, but that is precisely what French popstar crooner Essaï Altounian accomplished in 2020-21.īased on the Biblical story of Noah and how he is said to have repopulated the Earth, the 2020 “Noé ou La Force de Vivre” ran for over several months at the legendary Hippodrome de Longchamps in the Bois de Boulogne, in the French capital.
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