We were in the year 1999.
It was a time when zouk music, born in Guadeloupe with the band Kassav’ (made up of Guadeloupeans and Martinicans), was still in full swing, and each artist arrived with a CD with a particular sound color that enriched zouk.
It was a time when zouk’s detractors were beginning to criticize this music for having too “doudou-darling”, not enough social problems in the lyrics…
It was a time when artistic podiums and nightclubs offered the public a wide variety of zouk artists who were proud to sing and play their own music.
It was a time when video clips of local artists were still played over and over again on TV, as the Internet and social networks were not yet fashionable.
We saw this slim, shy 24-year-old girl, Célia Delver, singing about her unhappy love story, and we almost wanted to go and smash the face of the poor guy who had made her suffer. It was the song “Tu es libre” (You’re free) that made her famous, and whose refrain was sung all together by fans: “Tu es libre, tu n’auras plus à mentir, tu m’as fait croire que tu m’aimais, aimais et tu as été voir une autre, j’étais si peu pour toi” (You’re free, you won’t have to lie anymore, you made me believe you loved and loved me, and then you went to see someone else, I was so little for you).
The lyrics and music of this beautiful song were written by Célia Delver and Jean-Claude François aka Diktam, a lover of Haitian music, Konpa, but who excelled in the composition of this zouk track.
Célia Delver, who was the cousin of another great zouk singer Victor Delver, performed other titles during her career such as “Héritage” (a biguine track), “Toute seule”, “Lanmou sé sa ki pli bel”, “Sans toi”, “Son rivé”, “N’hésite pas” etc.
In July 2019, after a long absence, Célia Delver was back in the music news with her new single “Ne me prends pas la tête” (Del & D Production), a zouk track with a good rhythm in which she asks her partner who has not kept his promises to go away and not come back, as her future with him is uncertain…another unhappy love story, the last song of her career. She wrote the lyrics, Livio Pineau composed the music.
On Wednesday October 23, Célia Delver passed away at the age of 49 after a long illness. She was the mother of three children.
