On Sunday, February 13, SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California, hosts the Super Bowl LVI final, an American sporting high mass watched by 90 million viewers. At halftime of the game between the Los Angeles Rams and the Cincinnati Bengals, the show is provided on stage by rappers Eminem, Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, Kendrick Lamar and R’n’B singer Mary J. Blige. Dressed in an outfit covered in crystals, the queen of hip-hop soul performs her hit No More Drama when, suddenly, in a gigantic fireworks display, the piano notes of Head Over Heels, a new wave pop song from Tears for Fears’ debut album. The stadium’s 70,000 spectators are jubilant.
One of the authors of this melody, Curt Smith, attends the ceremony live in front of his television. “I was at home in Los Angeles, surrounded by my family watching the final, says the still amazed English musician. Nobody had warned us, but this kind of surprise is always good to take! The audience went wild as the notes sounded. As surprising as it may seem, Head Over Heels apparently had some impact in the hip-hop and R’n’B world. »
Allure of an old bard
After eighteen years of discographic silence, the planets are again aligned for Tears for Fears, one of the most significant synthetic pop duos of the 1980s. The duo formed by the British Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith release a new album , entitled The Tipping Point, showing that he has lost none of his talent to rig pop anthems that are both sophisticated and universal. We had almost forgotten that his first three albums, The Hurting (1983), Songs from the Big Chair (1985) and The Seeds of Love (1989) – have sold over 30 million copies worldwide.
Curt Smith and Roland Orzabal receive in a suite of a large Parisian hotel, not far from the Olympia. The partners, both 60, have known each other since they were teenagers in Bath, south-west England. Difficult, today, to find two more opposite appearances: Curt Smith, very short hair, dry physique of a marathon runner and Californian tan, seems barely disturbed by the jet lag; Roland Orzabal, meanwhile, is unrecognizable to anyone who keeps the band’s music videos in mind. Long gray hair and a thick beard give him the look of an old bard. The musician, who says he does not have a regular house and travels constantly, exudes a certain presence.
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Tears for Fears continues to be one of very best bands of all time.