Disappearance
Article reserved for subscribers
The shaggy rocker, also eyeing the song or the musette, had imposed his hoarse voice and his crazy character on the musical landscape. Suffering from cancer, he died at the age of 72.
Five red letters overlooked the stage where Arno managed to give a few more concerts at the start of 2022. Thus, at the crossroads of the injunction and the credo, the verb “Vivre” will have figured on the frontispiece of the final convulsions of the Belgian singer, dead at the age of 72, his manager announced on Saturday. In truth, it should have read in the first place a reference to the title of the disc released in the spring of 2021, recorded in duet with the pianist in vogue from Lille, Sofiane Pamart: an intimate reinterpretation of fourteen titles, among which several jewels, such She loves black, my mother’s eyes, Lonesome Zorro Where Give me the Gift.
However, no one thought for a moment to elude another interpretation, no less literal, of the subtext: in February 2020, Arno had to give up a whole series of dates due to pancreatic cancer diagnosed four months before. The rest was written in dotted lines: an appearance here (at the Werchter festival in particular), a number of cancellations there, between France, Switzerland and the Netherlands, the collateral damage of the Covid-19 pandemic – which had silenced the entire performing arts industry – superimposed on several months of hospitalization marked by an operation and two chemotherapy. But, even diminished, Arno made no secret of this imperious desire to be one with the music, to the terminus, declaring to the Belgian daily, The eveningamong its countless p…