France Brel about her father Jacques: “Brel is a bit like a heat wave in full summer. Then you don’t say: ‘I want the sun, but it has to be a few degrees less, otherwise I can’t stand it.’ You just don’t have a choice.” — © BELGAIMAGE
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Next year Jacques Brel will be 45 years dead. But the interest in the greatest French-speaking chansonnier of all time is still very much alive. Each year, Editions Jacques Brel, led by Brel’s second daughter France (68), receives 350 to 400 requests to cover, translate or use chansons in films. According to France, he was never really accepted in Flanders. “Jacques really loved Flanders. Listen to ‘Le plat pays’ or to ‘Marieke’, love is dripping from it. He even wanted to sing in Flemish. But he had the unfortunate idea of having his texts translated by a Dutchman.”
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Text: Kristof Simoens
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