A black veil covered Guadeloupe, Martinique and all the lands where he had brought Zouk music during his career, with the announcement of the death of Jacob Desvarieux, this Friday, July 30 in the late afternoon.
The guitarist and co-founder of Kassav’ (66) did not win his fight against Covid-19. He was already suffering from diabetes and had received a kidney transplant in 2010. A few years ago, all his fans – especially the older ones – were then accustomed to his new silhouette : the artist had lost many pounds and had abandoned his famous overall…
Jacob thought he was safe from this global epidemic because he had been vaccinated against this dangerous virus ; not so long ago he explained his choice on social media and asked people not to listen to “fake news” and to go and get vaccinated : “Vaksin-la, sé sèl solysyon nou ni”, (The vaccine is the only solution we have), he had said in Creole.
The author of the famous Kassav’ song “Zouk-la sé sèl médikaman nou ni” (Zouk is the only medicine we have) was on tour for his concert “Nanm Kann” in Guadeloupe and Martinique when he was contaminated with Covid-19. Weakened, he went to the Pointe-à-Pitre-Abymes University Hospital and was kept in an induced coma to receive care, as published on his Facebook page. The family asked to let the doctors work calmly.
It must be said that the rumour had already been announcing the death of the artist for several days. This hypothesis had grown when the press release on the state of health of the musician of Kassav’, which was supposed to be published on Tuesday 20, had never been posted on his Facebook page. Kariculture was the only media in Guadeloupe to ask about news of the artist in an article published on July 26.
Jacob Desvarieux’s family, friends and fans in Guadeloupe, Martinique, the Caribbean and around the world hoped until the end that a miracle would happen, that the star would recover quickly and go back on stage with one of his many electric guitars and his hoarse voice when he sang…
