It was during the summer of 1997, at the dawn of his 20th birthday. Fabien Marsaud, the one that would become a few years later Grand Corps Maladesuffered a serious accident. On vacation, he risks a “dive into a swimming pool”which is not deep enough, he relates during his interview in 50′ inside Saturday December 9, 2023. “My head hit the bottom of the pool in a pool that was not full enough and a dive that was too steep.” An imprudence which will cost him dearly. “A cervical vertebra which became lodged in the spinal cord and as a result I found myself totally paralyzed in all four limbs”, he says today, with a visibly detached air, almost 25 years later. A path of the cross then follows, that of care, then acceptance: “A long resuscitation, rehabilitation… A complicated year followed but this was a year that allowed me to get back on my feet, with serious after-effects but at least to regain the most important thing, that is to say autonomy and independence.”. A very gradual recovery from an accident which, however, left him with a handicap, as evidenced by the cane which now never leaves him.
A resilience that allowed him to stay standing
A drama and physical after-effects which also infused Grand Corps Malade with incredible resilience. The words that he then chooses to write down on paper and then chant in music, inspired by a creative life force, help him to get back on his feet and fight. “It’s a kind of survival instinct. You realize that you are strong when being strong is the only option”explains the singer, who admits that he has now succeeded in his bet, in particular thanks to his character. “I had some mental strength, some will too… I had to fight but above all I am quite optimistic by nature and that must have helped a lot too”, admits the 46-year-old artist, author of eight albums since 2006, who has also proven himself as an actor, director and screenwriter. A talent sensitive to poetic prose which, also in verse, was able to lastingly conquer the hearts of the French. Modest about his personal life, Fabien Marsaud is the father of two children aged 13 and 10, who notably inspired his title Hold back the dreams. An ode to the passing of time and to children who grow up too quickly, “all these little mundane moments” shared together, but which turn out to be “extraordinary because they are not eternal”.