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Disappearance: Reunion pays tribute to Tiloun

Artists, politicians and anonymous: La Réunion pays homage to the maloyère, Tiloun, who died this Sunday, July 5. The maloya singer was 53 years old. Reactions are multiplying on social networks.


Reunion is in mourning. Maloya singer Tiloun died on Sunday July 5. 53-year-old Jean-Michel Ramoune, nicknamed Tiloun, died of a heart attack this afternoon at the CHU de Bellepierre where he had been hospitalized since last night. Many artists, politicians and anonymous people pay tribute to him this Sunday evening.

“An artist with a big heart”

On social networks, the comments of Reunion people multiply to greet “a figure of maloya”, “a very beautiful person”, “an artist with a big heart”, “a generous man”, or “a pillar of Reunionese music “. “I hope that maloya resonates in the sky,” wrote a surfer on the Facebook page of Réunion La 1ère. Reunion loses “a brother”, “a dalon”.

Watch the details of Réunion La 1ère:

The grieving artists

“It is a great pain, said with emotion Firmin Viry on Réunion La 1ère. He was a father for us. He defended our culture, our maloya”.

With a trembling voice, artist Eric Pounouss also reacted to this “great loss for Reunion”.

Everyone is affected, not just the inhabitants of the Source. Tiloun is more than a zarboutan, even when he was not there, he was there. He was a Dada.

Eric Pounouss

On Réunion La 1ère, Louis Laope describes his dalon. “Tiloun was strength, perseverance and the desire to say and to do,” explains Louis Laope, who recalls that Tiloun did not have an easy childhood.

Watch Louis Laope’s testimony on Réunion La 1ère:

Tiloun went through the Fondation des apprentis d’Auteuil where Gilbert Pounia was a facilitator. “At the Source, Tiloun was a little brats in short pants and today it’s a terrible shock, an immense sadness, explains Gilber Pounia. It’s a piece of ourselves that goes away”.

Watch the testimony of Gilbert Pounia on Réunion La 1ère:

A committed artist

Tiloun was also an artist involved in the fight against diabetes. Suffering from this disease, Tiloun was also the sponsor of the “Odhirathon” which supports research against obesity, diabetes, hypertension and chronic renal failure. He planned to write a book on obesity. The artist Nicole Dambreville also remembers her dalon, their fight together within the Odhiraton.

Watch Nicole Dambreville’s testimony on Réunion La 1ère:

In a press release, the CGTR also reacted to the death of Tiloun. “We are losing a” zarboutan “of our Reunionese culture, writes Patric Ollivier of the CGTR. His work and his fight will continue to live, we will watch over it”. Corine, Tiloun’s wife, is a member of the CGTR Confederation management.

The Comité Solidarité Chagos La Réunion group, CSCR, also expressed its sadness: “We see in him a sincere friend of the cause of the Chagos people so abused by history. (…) As a maloyèr, poet and singer, he composed a maloya entitled ‘Shagos’ which appeared in his first CD “Dé pat atèr”. ” “Tiloun, you were able to recognize in the cause of the Chagos people a cause worthy of your attention and your active solidarity”, write in a press release the president of the CSCR, Georges Gauvin, and the secretary, Alain Dreneau.

Political reactions

The political world also reacts to the disappearance of Tiloun, defender of the Creole language and identity. The new mayor of Saint-Denis, Ericka Bareigts, publishes a press release this Sunday. “The Maloya community has lost one of its supporters and the Reunion culture one of its sons,” writes Ericka Bareigts.

Jean Michel Ramoune also exercised his functions within the Central Direction of the Town Halls. Ericka Bareigts describes a man “appreciated by his colleagues”. “But for all Reunion Islanders, Jean-Michel Ramoune was above all Tiloun, talented misoyèr, taking his steps in the path traced by Firmin Viry, his inspiration and his model”, continues the mayor of Saint-Denis.

From this traditional maloya from Viry kour at the Paradis Line to the most prestigious podium, Tiloun himself had founded his own personality which today distinguishes him from other musicians on the Reunion scene. He inspired young talents across the island, but also, in particular in his district of La Source in Saint-Denis, of which he was an emblematic figure.

Ericka Bareigts

Another political reaction this Sunday: that of MP France Insoumise, Jean-Hugues Ratenon, who expressed his sadness. For Jean-Hugues Ratenon, it is “a friend, a brother who leaves us. A true Reunionese who appreciated artistic and culinary life; who simply appreciated life”. “He often gave me advice. Words which will remain forever engraved in my memory and which will guide me for future fights. He did not hesitate to push his rants either but it was always with accuracy, writes Jean-Hugues Ratenon. Reunion loses a great artist “.

For the President of the Region, Didier Robert, “Reunionese music has just lost one of its most fervent defenders”. “Singer and musician of great talent, Tiloun leaves a solid and indelible mark in the cultural and musical history of Reunion”, writes Didier Robert.
For the president of the Department, Cyrille Melchior, “our island will keep the trace of this engaging artist, inspired and nourished by his companionship with the eminent elders known during his youth as much as by the meetings and the friendship shared with so many artists of his generation. “

In his texts, in his music, with his voice, Tiloun expressed with talent his visceral attachment to the traditional maloya of Reunion – Ô Maloya! – and its constant search for openness and mixtures. This message was at the very heart of the educator’s mission, which Tiloun has exercised all his life, and which also deserves to be praised today.

Cyrille Melchior

For Huguette Bello, mayor of Saint-Paul, head of the PLR: “Reunion loses a Big Heart, the Maloya loses a big and beautiful generous voice”. “We lose a poet, a musician who loved more than all of our Reunion land, our Creole language”.

We lose a brother of struggle, exemplary in his commitments. Tiloun was a friend, a companion on the road to emancipation, a freedom fighter who carried the Reunion Man high.

Huguette Bello

The mayor of the Port, Olivier Hoarau, also reacted in a press release: “Tiloun is gone as a romance dies out, like all those he knew how to compose so well”.

Recognized artist, he was also a talented socio-cultural mediator. The grand-brother of many young Dionysians, he tirelessly fought against exclusion, dropping out of school and in society. (…) Reunion too soon lost one of its major cultural players.

Olivier Hoarau

A curse from the Source

Tiloun grew up in the Source district in Saint-Denis. He was very young when he met big names in Reunionese music in his neighborhood like Alain Peters and Ziskakan. At the Source, Tiloun starts singing and pei music. He then frequented Henri Madoré or Tikok Vellaye, his sources of inspiration.

Spiritual son of Firmin Viry

For almost 30 years, Tiloun sang maloya. For four years, he played alongside Firmin Viry, of whom he was the spiritual son. Encouraged by Firmin Viry and Danyel Waro, Tiloun ended up recording a first album in 2008: “Dé pat ater”. In 2011, he recorded “Kas in poz” in Madagascar. In this last album, Tiloun the family, the ancestors, his personal history, but also that of Reunion.

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