When it comes to New York, Patrick Bruel has a lot to say. It’s a city he loves, “truly,” and it’s where it all began for him 47 years ago. Bruel found his way and his voice here, drawing from its “energy and inspiration for all of his career.” For this year’s Bastille Day, he will perform on Sunday, July 13th, as part of a concert organized in the heart of Central Park by the French General Consulate and SummerStage. For the 66-tear-old artist, it is “an extraordinary full-circle moment.”
The City of Auspicious Encounters and Experiences
Having arrived in New York at 19 years old for two weeks to accompany his “lover at the time,” Bruel ended up staying for two years, in a period he described as “fundamental.” There, he fell in love with jazz at the Village Vanguard; mourned the death of John Lennon in front of the Dakota Building (as he shared later in his song, “Gosses en cavale”); and took his first acting courses at HB Studio, thanks to a friend of the same age, Philippe Bénichou, who took him in.
Even his departure from New York at the end of 1980 was decisive. “Philippe had introduced me to Herbert Berghof, who co-directed HB Studio (Editor’s note: he was the co-founder), the acting class that prepared all students for Adler (the Stella Adler Studio of Acting) and the Actors Studio. Berghof gave me a scene, it went really well, and he offered me a place in the free class. But I had an audition in France for a play. I told him that if I didn’t pass, I’d come back and work with him. He replied: ‘Then I’ll never see you again.'” It’s a phrase that will stay with you for the rest of your life, an endorsement full of the confidence that every aspiring actor dreams of.” Patrick Bruel aced the audition, and went on to perform on the Parisian stage for two years.
Bruel has since returned to New York several times. In 1989, he recorded the album “Alors regarde,” a turning point in his career, selling over three million copies. In his room on 52nd Street, high up in a hotel, he composed five songs in one night after seeing Peter Weir’s “The Circle of Missing Poets,” starring Robin Williams. “That film awakened something incredible in me at the time, a sense of generational urgency.” Then there was the Beacon Theatre in 2007 and 2014. He was due to return to sing there in 2021, but the tour was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
A U.S. Tour in 2026
Central Park holds a special place in Bruel’s heart. There are memories of walks, “alone or with friends,” “lovers’ strolls,” of playing the piano, perched on a truck, to the rhythms of “J’te l’dis quand même” for a Michel Drucker TV show. Returning to the park in a few days’ time to sing on the Rumsey Playfield stage, Patrick Bruel can hardly believe it: “It’s crazy, really,” he says, despite all his years of touring the world. “I love New York, I really love New York,” he repeats, with the wonder of a teenager.
There’s the Big Apple, but there’s also Las Vegas, where he’s worn out the poker tables at World Series tournaments. And of course, Los Angeles: he had a house there until the fires last January. “It was in the heart of the Pacific Palisades, but it was gone very quickly, eight years of life, memories and history with the kids” reduced to ashes. He intends to rebuild it, as it is home to his two sons, Oscar and Léon, who will be with him in New York on July 13.
These days, a new project is keeping him busy in France: the opening, on Saturday June 28, of a hotel on Isles de Leos (a contraction of his sons’ first names and the name of his estate), east of Avignon, where he has been producing olive oil for the past 20 years—“multi-medal-winning around the world,” he points out with pride—and marketing it since 2017; he has also created a line of cosmetics and a spa. But Patrick Bruel will be coming “happily,” he says, to sing the Marseillaise and some of his songs inspired by New York.
“I’ll have to do a hyper-tight setlist,” stresses the singer-songwriter, as he’ll be sharing the stage with other artists—Bigflo & Oli, Bob Sinclar and ESTL—so you can expect his greatest hits, “the must-have songs that people know” and “nods to the evening we’ll be at,” he reveals without giving too much away. A performance that will not only complete the major “On En Parle” tour begun in February 2024, but will also serve as a “springboard”, he says, for the one he’s preparing for next year in the United States. It seems like the circle hasn’t completed itself quite yet!
Event details:
Bastille Day, Sunday, July 13, from 5pm to 10pm, Rumsey Playfield in Central Park, enter between 72nd St and 5th Ave. Organized by the Consulat général de France, in partnership with SummerStage.
This article was originally published in French on French Morning. It has been translated by Catherine Rickman.
