Yannick Noah
Métisse

The red shades, filled with clay, how many summer afternoons spent chasing the ball, volleying first with wood and then with metals. Many things have changed, the surroundings have changed, but the gentle fun of treading the red clay of the tennis courts has not changed. For the boys of my generation, Yannick Noah was an example, an inexhaustible source of inspiration, the model, the shot, the attitude to follow. The energy to face long and scorching summer matches. An unyielding character who never lost the humility of healthy people and the ability to have fun and to "do" with passion. A showman on and off the courts, on and off the stages, of such charismatic temperament as to guarantee him success in every gesture, in every proposal, in every activity.

A CURIOUS STORY FROM BLACK AFRICA

For those not interested in news about the “Noah-athlete”, I recommend skipping directly to the paragraph below, otherwise, if you are interested in learning an important part of his story, read on.

It is difficult to obtain precise news about Noah's childhood, but it is known that, originally from Cameroon, born in 1960, Yannick was discovered by Arthur Ashe (an elegant tennis champion of the '70s) on a mission in Africa along with the Dutchman Tom Okker on behalf of the International Tennis Federation. After being noticed, in 1971 the young Cameroonian moved to Nice, where, thanks to his "talent scout", he began attending the Nice Lawn Tennis Club. The discomfort and the distance from home never affected his brilliant youth career, Yannick knew how to turn his anxieties and tensions into circus numbers, he knew how to express emotions and communicate them along the court's borders. The same was true on the day he, as a professional, made Roland Garros (one of the four most important tournaments in the world, held in Paris) his own, making all the French fall in love with him. A player endowed with an exceptional physique, with extraordinary reactivity and a long "wingspan", he made the elegant attacking game and the gallant temperament his strengths, delighting audiences with spectacular volleys, feline leaps, and inventing shots still remembered today with his name. He managed to achieve his best results on clay courts where, in addition to Paris, he also won in Rome in 1985, and he remained among the top ten in the worldwide ranking for a long time, third in '86.

In the Davis Cup, he debuted in 1978 in Paris against Great Britain, with a total record of 22 appearances and 39 wins. He was later also captain of the French Davis Cup team. Noah was undoubtedly a great crowd-puller, one of the few characters capable of obtaining a following and fame far greater than the importance of his sporting results: 23 tournaments won in singles and 16 in doubles. Now, like many other past tennis players, he enjoys participating in the Senior Tour circuit and organizing tournaments to raise funds for his humanitarian association "Enfant de la Terre".

A MULTIFACETED SOUL

Noah, composed and played music even during his tennis career, had lived a life torn by doubt, whether to abandon tennis and fully dedicate himself to music or to pursue both activities? As he himself admitted: "Tennis had given me fame, a new nationality, had built my persona, and to this day, I have memories and emotions linked to the court that do not allow me to leave it." and so Yannick simply postponed for a few more years the start of a more serious and curated musical activity. After ending his career and commitments somewhat linked to the world of tennis, Noah immediately recorded two albums that struggled to succeed and were composed without the assistance an inexperienced author needed. It would be the charisma, vivacity, the infectious enthusiasm that favors only some, that helped Noah gather around him a band and an entourage worthy of a great author. Thus, the successful albums were born in France, the self-titled "Yannick Noah", "Pokhara" and the latest "Metisse".

"METISSE", A FAR JOURNEY BEYOND THE NOTES OF AFRICA

It is needless to say that if I had not known Noah, if he had not been one of the athletes to carry my mind so far away, if I had not known his lively and carefree temperament even in the most austere tennis stadiums, I would never have had in my hands a French album of this quality. The first successful work, with the self-titled "Yannick Noah", driven by the single "La Lionnes", was an album of clear reggae matrix, a genre for which Yannick never concealed his preference. Over the years, his way of writing has refined both lyrically and musically, producing more committed, intense works rich in sounds and instruments with a strong value connotation materialized through the commitment of the charitable foundation (Enfant de la Terre) in support of African children.

The latest album, "Metisse", is the peak of this maturation, a point of arrival with a complex structure that includes tracks recorded in the studio and tracks "stolen" during last year's tour. In this work, the music chef enriches the range of ingredients, no longer serving just reggae in every sauce, sprinkling delicate French wines; the reggae softens, fades into a pleasant mix of sounds and colors, of other genres among which of primary value are rock and French chanson. Driven by a boundless love for Humanity, the vibrant sound and the French language blend, giving life to a new reggae, alive and kicking, a genre far from the many shoddy products coming from the Italian lands, a journey into the softer human nature.

THE SONG OF THE LAST AND THE SERVANTS

The careful gaze at the most sensitive fringes of the French population, a thought never silenced in the small lives of his homeland. Especially in this album, following the riots in the Banlieues and driven by the eternal Central African vicissitudes, Noah, felt called into question and created this album motivated by an irreplaceable sense of gratuitousness, putting his voice, once again, at the service of the last and the weakest, with his redemption music, with verses rich in warm human tones, expressing the discomfort he himself had felt as a "special" immigrant years ago. Ubaldo Scannagatta, one of the most authoritative Italian tennis journalists, tells us: "Noah is one of the people I would give a 10 to. Despite being successful everywhere, when he arrives in the morning at Roland Garros, he never fails to greet me and remind me of when, as a very young player, he won the tournament in Florence that we organized. I give him 10 for the humility shown and because he is a real person even in this not easy environment."

THE IMPORTANCE OF HONORING A TALENT

Few people have the gift of success, a massive following, charm in every fold of their clothes. Very few have this gift and manage to remain what they are, simple, true, enthusiastic and natural. Yannick Noah has been a point of reference throughout an entire season of my life, and today, it is a pleasure to find him the bearer of a message and a musician driven by a love for humanity that shines through every gentle note.

"Metisse", sympathy aside, is one of those unpredictable works that deserves to be listened to, in its contaminated reggae, cut by other genres that flow into the womb of Mother Earth, under the expanses of the black people.