No one had forgotten it. Spread the word. Very regularly, on the terraces of the Thionvillois cafés, we get information about Manolo. Yes on his part, the man with the brown guitar decked out with two-three-four strings, it depended. Always ready to play a holiday tune. For his audience. At home, no even incipient riffs at hand. Only caresses, back and forth on his instrument mixed with admittedly approximate words. However, his success was elsewhere.
The man had disappeared from radar. Speculation about him was fine, beware of gossip… The truth was that, in private, the most gypsy of street singers was battling illness. Deprived of the stage, he had withdrawn from the city where he had officiated for years, surrounded by his family. Away from the spotlight. From the humidity of the Moselle summers.
This July 22, 2022 the news fell. The seventy-year-old died in Thionville. Land enchanted, with his temperament, his taste for popular song, his improbable guitar throws. Acrobatic shows at the end of which he always asked for a “ch’tite” piece. For his performance. The hat pays as they say. Manolo is a good number.
“It’s cool, it’s hot!”
At the announcement of his death, at the age of 73, the native of Puget-Thénier (Alpes-Maritimes), Georges Démétrio in the city, unleashed a wave of emotion, widely spread on social networks and in conversations at petit noir or the midday mousse. Strangers, nostalgic for the time when they gave this little bearded man in an XXL suit a few coins in exchange for “It’s sunny, it’s hot!” » customized, with a very unique cover by Dalida, or with excerpts chosen in an Italian or Spanish that are not always in line with the original version. “La Bamba”, “Y Viva España”, “Lasciatemi Cantare”, “Gigi l’amoroso”… so many titles that invariably end with an incisive “Olé! “.
It was so Manolo! Today he is at the gates of posterity. From up there, where the musicos have passed the guitar to the left, he will continue to travel through time. The generations that he was able to touch will not fail to remember that one day, in Thionville, a funny guy had the gift of making them smile.
