Singer HK, author of To dance again, stop traveling in France until the end of April. Until then, he had participated in demonstrations in solidarity with the world of culture and the end of social life. His movements caused a crowd.
The diffusion of his anthem To dance again will now be done without him. The popular singer Kaddour Hadadi, alias HK, a native of Roubaix, has decided to stop the trips he was leading until now with his troupe Les Saltimbanks, to defend another vision of life with the epidemic. We had seen him, in many cities of France, participate in groups to challenge the closure of places of culture and the erosion of social ties. He had notably participated in the occupations of the Odeon theaters in Paris or that of the North, in Lille.
But since then, the new restrictions taken by the government have changed his mind. “I made the choice to stop travel in solidarity with the French, who will again be subject to restrictive measures. In this context, I could not see myself going from town to town, even if legally we could. in the context of organized gatherings “, he explains. “In addition, these gatherings could be the source of tensions and divisions when this is not the goal”, warns HK.
His next trips to Nantes, Bordeaux, Toulouse, Marseille, Millau or Cahors are therefore canceled. “This does not mean that we are giving up the fight. Some will continue to organize events, we are only a vector of the protest, many other people carry it”.
“We are going to have to live with the virus. We are able to keep teaching and going to work. We have to find ways to find each other.”
The gatherings he led provoked the happiness of those who consider themselves deprived of social ties and the exasperation of others, who saw them only as potential clusters in which the barrier measures were not always respected. “I have an important network in the cultural milieu, I’ve been attending it for 15 years. I naturally received requests from my friends here and there to come and accompany the fight”, says the 44-year-old author and singer.
Often he came there to sing his now very popular and political To dance again (2 million views on Youtube), song in which he criticizes the measures taken by the government. The air has been recaptured, diverted and used by people from various walks of life, often struggling with restrictions linked to the pandemic. HK specifies that his song would have even been covered in Germany, England and even in Time Square in New York.
“I wrote this song during the second lockdown when the term “non-essential“, to qualify cultural activities in particular, began to be used. I found it insulting for those who bring culture to life, and at the origin of a choice of society which I do not want “, remembers the singer who was then in Avignon, within the framework of rehearsals for a play. He says he is surprised by the extent of the success of this song which he wrote in one evening. “like an outlet”. His recommendations on the current situation? “We are going to have to live with the virus. We manage to keep teaching and going to work. We have to find ways to find each other.”.
While waiting to be able to tour again across France for concerts, HK moved to Bergerac. But it was in Roubaix that he grew up and spent 35 years. In his latest album, released in September, and titled Little Earth, he recounts his journey and his exile in the song The Roubaisien of Bergerac.