Glory of football, then actor and now singer: Éric Cantona released on Friday a song heralding a tour in the fall of 2023 and an album for 2024. At 57, "The King", as he was called in the heyday at Manchester United (1992-1997), sings in English on "The Friends We Lost", available on the platforms. The rocky voice of the former player of the France team ends up melting into this melancholy piece with piano and strings.
This title prefigures a series of concerts in the fall, Cantona Sings Éric (Cantona sings Éric), before an album on the horizon 2024. The tour will logically begin in Manchester, the city which made him king of football. Manchester United fans still consider him a hero in their pantheon. His "kung-fu" kick on an opposing supporter in the stands in the middle of a match in 1995 (which earned him a long suspension) had in no way damaged his aura. "That's what I love about live music. That's why I do it. Because there will certainly be plenty of imperfections, plenty of accidents. Where there is never an accident, there is never a moment of genius,” he explained in Le Parisien. His tour will then pass through Ireland, Switzerland and France.
Coincidentally, the former Manchester United striker releases this track as another Manchester figure releases an album on Friday. Noel Gallagher, ex-half of Oasis (he has been angry with his brother Liam since the group split in 2009) is releasing Council Skies, a new solo album. The Gallagher brothers are fans of United's rival Manchester City, but don't hold it against them, as Cantona starred in Liam Gallagher's Once music video.
Music is not unknown territory for Cantona. In France, his voice has already been heard with the group Dionysos, in songs by Bernard Lavilliers or Rachid Taha. But, until now, his conversion had mainly led him to cinema or TV screens. Looking for Eric, where he plays himself, directed by Ken Loach, is a centerpiece of his fairly extensive filmography. Recently, Cantona was talked about in France in the TV movie The Colossus with Feet of Clay, with a lead role inspired by the career of former rugby player Sébastien Boueilh, raped as a teenager (broadcast on TF1).
