Prince, Prince… PRINCE… What can I say? You were in Paris FOR the fashion week. You were at the Chanel défilé at Le Grand Palais, you fall in love with the place and were jalous of Karl so you said what nobody if not Prince could say “I want to do a show here as well“. And so you did, because you are Prince. Thursday 8th the news was official, “Prince will give two shows at Le Grand Palais on Sunday 11th, the tikets will be on sell on Friday 9th at 10 am”. Prince on monday in a press conference said “I am more happy than ever actually” and he prove it this week.
Let me give you a quick review of my amazing week, from Friday 9th to Tuesday 12th.

Friday is the day.
9:20am : I am at the Fnac of Creteil (where the places would be sell at 10am, I went to Creteil and not Paris because the Fnac there would had be so packed) and I am not the only one, 8 people are already on line. We are all very excited about it.
10 am : What are they doing ? The others Fnac might open so please hurry up to open… Some minutes later they opened! I bought 4 tickets. We were allow to buy only 2 per person but a very nice couple bought 2 tickets for me as they just were taking 2 tickets for them!!
10:30 : I am one of the happiest person on Earth, I am going to the Prince show! While leaving I looked at the crowd, the line was really big.

First time but not last.
Sunday was the day! I get to the venue at 6pm as A LOT OF PEOPLE, we could heard Prince singing as the first show started at 5pm (I had a place for the 10pm show), the doors opened at 8pm… People were running and pushing me crazy. 8:30pm : I am in!! I’ve been to le Grand Palais one time for the Andy Warhol Exhibition but it wasn’t in this part of the Palais. It isn’t a place for show, for people that don’t know this place. Prince that gave a conference on monday 12th said about the choice of Le Grand Palais “When I did “21 nights” in London, the sound of the audience was so powerful that I needed something better and bigger. And when I saw the Chanel fashion show (last week) and Karl (Lagerfeld) came out and there was this roar that came up, I was jealous.“. I had again 2 hours of waiting. Prince entered the Palais in a black car and walked to the “backstage”, people applauded him. It’s now 10pm and Prince is on time! The show will end in 1hours and 30 minutes. He came back on stage three times after people called him for an encore. “1999″, “Kiss”, “Purple Rain”.. My best time was “Sometimes it snows in April”, a song I LOVE, the time stops for a seconde and the song was already done!

If you want to heard some seconds of Purple Rain click here (sorry for the bad quality, i recorded with my iphone!)

La Cigale, the best night ever.
Le Grand Palais was okay, my first time but a night after I heard that he would give a show at La Cigale. I called the venue (a venue for concert this time! 1300 places! Beautiful and intimist) they told me “Yes come at 8pm“, I didn’t really believe it. I was at school for my english classes, I texted a friend of mine that missed Prince on sunday telling her to go to the venue to buy our tickets. At 6pm i was done with school, run to the venue, my friend Françoise was there as an hundred people. I called the venue again while in line “It’s sold out, sorry“. I couldn’t believe it, so I asked people on line “We don’t have our tickets yet, they would had told us if it was sold out“. So at this time, I am starting to believe it. At 8pm, finnaly, we are the two next people to buy our tickets, the security guy told us “just a few places are left”. We have our tickets. Now, after 2 hours of waiting to buy our tickets, we have to wait in the others line, the people that have their tickets. The doors are not open yet, we try to go on the front of the line and so we do. The doors open at time almost. We are in, a beautiful places with a balconny with red seat. Beautiful. We are on the second row of people that stay up. 10pm, it’s THE time. Some notes of “Purple Rain” and “Old Skool Company” began. Prince is in a good mood, smiling and dresses in Black with the purple rain tee shirt and a black hat that hightline his class. Prince is on a Funky mood, “Turn me Loose”, “Danse 4 me”, “Stand”, “No More Candy 4 U”. Prince can’t stop smiling, he is so generous on stage, he smiles at us and says “No More Candy for You”, step back and keeps smiling. “It’s too funky for you” and the audience saying “NOOO”. One of the best moment for me was “Girl”, Prince is feeling the audience and we all sing together, girls saying “Boy” and boys saying “Girl”, it was just amazing to see how the audience and Prince formed ONE. It’s not too Funky for us, “Thank You”, “Sing a simple Song” and a beautiful Tribute with “ABC” and “I Want you back” in the dark (requested by Prince, “turn the light off“). Prince backstage after 2 encore with fans that keep calling him by singing the song that defined his week in Paris “All Day, All night, You can be my baby, i’ll make you feel alright” says “I want to go home, pleasseeee, let me go home“. NO, you’re staying with us and give us a great moment and so he did. “I want to be Free” (Ohio Players”), “Come Together” with the audience singing again with the little great man. Prince is just in a gread mood and is sharing with us, music and small talks “You know in my country they don’t play my music anymore… [...] They want to make me a slave but i’m only the slave of God, Music and You“. Prince had a great week in paris, and received lot of love from the fans and Monday at La Cigale, it was the place to be to receive from the Prince. The final song, after 5 encore was a beautiful version of “Purple Rain” with a solo guitare between every verse.
Prince gave us 2 hours and 45 minutes of show, made us smile (some girls went on stage to danse and Prince made fun of one of them that was dancing crazy, asking us by miming if she was drunk or if she smoke), shared some thought with us (about America that “take all the water and petrol”) and the most important had a great time with the us.

TV Show.
Yesterday, Wednesdey 14th was the time for all of us to watch TV and dance crazy in our living room. I never been so happy by watching TV. Prince was the guest of a french private chanel called “Canal+”, he was the guest 10 years ago! Prince started singing during the commercial, asking “when can I go?”, “In one minyte after the commercial” and so Prince went knowing people watching TV would missed the beginning! ah Prince! He did two songs as they said but he came back again for 2 others songs. I never seen a tv show like this, Prince did whatever he wanted to do and the audience was amazing, usually people are sitting nicely, this time people were standing up and dancing and not at the place they were supposed to be. It was the best tv moment since a while. Denisot, the presentator, asked Prince “Are you going to do more shows in Paris“, Prince looked at him and then at the audience and said “Can I do my song“. I think we will have something great soon. I’m feeling it.

Thanks to Prince for this amazing week.

Video :
Interview : Press conference.
Le grand palais : 1, 2 and 3.
La Cigale : Short video.
Le Grand journal (Canal + Tv) : Part 2.

Pictures :

Setlist of La Cigale : Courtesy of Schkopi.com
Old Skool Company, Crimson & Clover, Stand, Turn Me Loose, Dance 4 Me, No More Candy 4 U, Shhh, Stratus, Girl, Forever In My Life, Baby Love, Sexy Dancer – Le Freak, All Day, All Night, Peach, Sing A Simple Song – Be Happy, 7, Come Together, Dreamer, The Bird, Jungle Love, The Glamorous Life, 3121, Purple Rain.