Lara Fabian: the angel that wasn’t really allowed to fly.

I have always loved ballads.

Ever since I started to see life in romantic terms, dreaming about archetypal Hollywood relationships, I was a sucker for love songs.

Through the years I didn’t just listen to this type of music a lot: I have also written many love songs myself, and performed a few on stage.

The way I see it is that I’m a very sensitive person with a huge imagination, and I can daydream like the best.

This propensity to get easily lost in the atmosphere and vibe of a good romantic song, is probably what caused me to fall deeply in love with Lara Fabian, a female singer from Belgium who has been quite successful for many years, but who has never gained the merits and appreciation she really deserves.

A little over 20 years ago she was supposed to be the new addition to the famous powerhouse trinity Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, and Celine Dion, but it never happened.

She was signed by Sony but the powers that be decided that one more female superstar would be simply too much after all, so they didn’t allow her to shine the way she shines best: singing ballads.

Although her career has been quite impressive (and still is), I don’t feel like she has received the respect and universal admiration that suits her extraordinary talents.

I’ve spent a couple of days exploring her life and her career, and she is an amazing, intelligent woman, speaking 8 languages and writing many of her own songs herself -which is not typical.

She still performs and she has been part of various talent shows on tv, and she seems to be doing well, but at the same time, she is some sort of mystery with a hint of tragedy, a gem that has never fully been appreciated.

In the last couple of years, though, the attention for Lara on YouTube has been truly huge, and you can find an enormous amount of videos where people respond to her songs, most of them in total awe.

I can truly recommend listening to this particular one, Je Suis Malade (‘I am sick’), which may be the most profound and emotionally powerful musical performance I have ever heard in my life.

To me, this is not just perfect, but otherworldly and angelic.

Check it out!