Guest of the special concert of the Haitian band CaRiMi at the Accor Arena of Bercy in Paris, singer and multi-instrumentalist Michaël Benjamin aka Mikaben (41) suffered a fatal heart attack.
Nobody expected this tragic end for Michaël Benjamin aka Mikaben after such a great performance on stage and nobody wanted to believe this terrible news. The 41-year-old Haitian artist collapsed backstage, from a heart attack, the paramedics called on site could not do anything to bring him back to life.
This Saturday, October 15, 2022 at 8:00 pm, the Accor Arena in Bercy (Paris, 12th arrondissement) with a capacity of 20,300 seats received the famous Haitian band CaRiMi whose members (Mickaël Guirand, Richard Cavé and Carlo Vieux) had reunited after their separation in 2016. The audience, composed of fans from Haiti, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guiana, St. Martin among others, had come in large numbers for this great musical event.
Guianese Tina, Martinican Princess Lover and Haitian Michaël Benjamin, artists who had the opportunity to collaborate with CaRiMi, were the guests of this special concert, scheduled for 2021 but postponed twice due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
During this concert, everyone was thrilled when Mikaben performed his hit song “Ou pati” (in English, “You went away”), first released in Konpa version on his album Vwayaj (Travel) in 2000 and then in Twoubadou version on the album Haitian Troubadours in 2001 ; this beautiful song had made people rediscover “Twoubadou” music, this ancient guitar-based genre popularized at the beginning of the 20th century by Haitians who went to work in the sugar cane plantations in Cuba…
Haiti and all of Michael Benjamin’s fans around the world are devastated by his tragic death. The young and talented singer and guitarist left dozens of compositions of songs (konpa, jazz, reggae…) in Creole and English.
