Linda de Suza’s news is not good. The 74-year-old artist received a visit from his son Joao, a first for several years. Also a singer, Joao, after hearing about his mother’s state of health, decided to reconnect with his mother, with whom he had not had a relationship since 2014: “She took my hand, squeezed it hard. We were moved. We wanted this reunion” he indicates in France Sunday this October 28. Finding his sick mother, Joao had a shock: “I had to show nothing and be strong in front of her. She is very weak and emaciated. She was a heavy smoker and her lung infection got worse as she stopped eating and let herself waste away.“
It would seem that today, Linda de Suza is doing much better than a few months ago: “She agrees to feed herself again. I have hope that she is on the road to recovery and that she can go to a convalescent home. From Lisbon where I live, I take news regularly.“This rapprochement took place after years of estrangement between the mother and her son. These tensions now seem to be settled.
Linda and Joao also share a passion for music. It was thanks to his mother that Joao began to compose music: “I showed my first compositions to Jean Musy, its composer and arranger. He selected four with the approval of my mother, who discovered that I was the composer. Jean Musy had the idea of the duo Tell me why with my mother. It got us started and allowed us to tour together.“
If he concedes that his mother had “a magnificent career“, Joao admits that she made a fatal mistake, leading to the decline of her fame: “I think at some point she forgot the Portuguese community. She should have made an album in Portuguese with the Lisbon Philharmonic Orchestra. When she got too sophisticated, dressed by Pierre Cardin, on the Rendez-vous album, she moved away from the public. She became too star and sold fewer albums. Never forget your roots.” A detail that must be the least of Linda de Suza’s worries at the moment.