To pay tribute to you today is also to greet the memory of your father and your brother, who also dedicated their lives to the dissemination of music, at the head of the group to which you preside, and is now known worldwide as one of the leading independent music publishing houses.
After your law studies at the Free University of Berlin, in 1983 you joined the company that your brother Andreas runs, focusing on the European activities of the house, in this case in Germany, in Switzerland with Flora Musikverlag and in France with Budde Music France.
But let’s go back. The history of Budde Musikverlag is that of an opening to the world, the one that our European nations and their entrepreneurs have known in the last sixty years. Two years after the war ended, your father founded a house centered on the local market and German music. He quickly opened the catalogue, in the 1960s, towards new horizons. At the same time as the Motown adventure, your presence on the pop and R&B market in the 1970s is already very secure. Your brother Andreas, who took over from your father in 1975, broadened the horizons of the family business: your name crossed the Atlantic with the creation of Budde Music and Budde Songs.
The deep path of Barry White, then Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, pioneers of hip-hop, have long been included in your catalog, alongside the legendary Tina Turner or Candi Staton, one of the greatest queens of soul. As representatives of the biggest catalogues like Warner and Dick James, you win the day, by associating yourself with the successes of Bob Dylan, the bluegrass sound of the Eagles and their mythical Hotel California, or Leonard Cohen and Bob Marley, but also European and world stars like the Beatles or Elton John.
In the early 1980s, your house ventured into the lands of phonographic production, with the success we know. By producing Marian Gold and his band Alphaville, it is also thanks to Budde Musikverlag that the sound of the 1980s is as much European as American, when the German new wave brings together the epic of glitter and the riff of synthesizers.
In the late 1980s, under your leadership, Budde Musikverlag set foot in France by acquiring Claude Pascal’s editions and production. Nicole Croisille, Frida Boccara, Véronique Jannot and Céline Dion are now associated with your company, which has also piloted the Italian Curci editions since 2002. One day Un Enfant, D'Amour ou D'Amitié, Téléphone-moi, Chanson pour Anna, L'été indien by Joe Dassin, Paroles, paroles by Dalida, Laissez-moi danser, but also Astor Piazzolla’s Libertango, all mythical titles that are represented by Budde Music France.
In the field of music industries, the publishing profession requires great management skills, special attention to teams, the fibre of international partnerships, expertise in the placement of titles, and openness to new artists. All these talents are precisely those thanks to which you have made a jewel of this Mittelstand that we often envy in France an international group of first order.
You also care about passing on this experience, and since 2002 you have been teaching media management at the Free University of Berlin, where you were a student. Your commitment to cultural development goes beyond the sole framework of music: we still remember, right here in Cannes, the exhibition on the work of Max Liebermann, the German impressionist master, which was organized at your initiative on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of MIDEM. In Germany, you work actively for the development of heritage foundations and cultural tourism in the Land of Saxony-Anhalt, especially in Wittenberg, the city of Martin Luther. For your commitment, you also received the Cross of Merit from the Federal Republic of Germany last year.
It’s our turn to salute one of the great captains of music publishing - Forever young forever, to take the title of Alphaville.
Dear Rolf Budde, on behalf of the French Republic, I present to you the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.
Dear Yves Riesel,
You are a man of challenge: "you sell, you say, what no one wants to market." We recognize your humour, your sense of derision and your frankness. You are to the recording industry what Asterix is to the Roman Empire: a "soloist who challenges the big ensembles"! You know how much I value the protection of authors, creators and the promotion of cultural diversity in policies in favour of the music industries.
In terms of government action, 2010 was, I think, the year of foundations; I want to make 2011 the year of sustainable commitments. With the establishment of Hadopi, the founding act, through the implementation of the recommendations of the “Creation and Internet” mission - in the forefront of which the Carte musique - through mediation on the management of online music rights, we have the tools that, I think very soon, will enable the entire industry to “get its head out of the water” and promote quality digital content. I know your unwavering commitment and determination on these matters.
Hard worker, you are a professional of musical production and distribution since 1978. Passionate about classical music from a young age – as a teenager, you could listen to nearly ten concerts a week - your professional activity was done in particular with repertoires with a heritage vocation: classical, jazz, world music. Through the paid platform Qobuz.com that you launched in 2007, you have expanded your activity and you offer a catalogue including all musical genres, from current music to music from Oceania, Bernard Herrmann and his unforgettable soundtracks for the films of Alfred Hitchcock. Listening to comparisons, portraits, interviews, news: nothing is missing in this real Encyclopedia of music in the 21st century.
You started out as a print and radio journalist at Fréquence Gaie in the early 1980s – a moment of development for the radio stations that were then known as “free”, then became an artist agent, a concert producer (1984/1987), a record distributor (1989/2005) and finally a record producer since 2005.
Your sense of initiative and enterprise contributes decisively to the rise of the independent classical record in the CD era. You become the partner in France of most major international labels: Hyperion, Chandos, Naxos, Accent. From 1989, you will also accompany the creation of many French classical labels (Alpha, Opus 111, Alia Vox), with the requirement to put the musical heritage within the reach of the greatest number. You then make Naxos a central player in the French record market, having the concern to reconcile quality and records at low prices. Through your company Abeille Musique, you are still today the exclusive representative of Naxos for France, which has since become the world’s leading distributor of independent classical labels on CD and digital.
In 1997, you created your own company with Abeille Musique; you were quickly joined by most of the labels that you had helped to grow in your previous positions. Today, Abeille Musique has an extensive catalogue and has developed its own labels – Beejazz and Sisyphe. You are an element of stability and security for independent producers on the French market.
In 2000, you were joined at Abeille Musique by Alexandre Leforestier, present among us, to whom I would also like to pay tribute, since then co-director of the company. A pioneer and pioneer, you create your website abeillemusique.com and become the first French distributor to invest in the Net. The latter is not only a showcase; you sell records there through a policy across several channels, which notably makes it possible to respond to the weakening of traditional distribution channels.
Starting in 2004, against the tide of many other professionals in the sector, Abeille Musique is investing in online music, moving its entire catalogue to digital With the persuasion that we know you, you manage to convince your foreign partners to entrust their distribution and digital marketing in France.
In 2005, Abeille Musique created the sensation in the field of CD sales: the complete Mozart. It is not without interest to recall that it is a meeting at MIDEM that gives you the idea. Born from your collaboration with the Dutch publisher Brilliant Classics, this red box of 30 centimeters long and 14 centimeters high, rich of 170 CDs, sold 99 euros quickly reaches the peaks. This magnificent Viennese log becomes the biggest success in the history of the record in France and in the world. But the genius of Salzburg is not enough for you: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Haydn come next, with the same ambition: to make a common musical heritage accessible to as many people as possible. These are more than 100 million CDs sold on the French market by these integrals alone.
Following this success, alongside Alexandre Leforestier, you decide to invest most of the revenues in an ambitious digital policy and create the online music site Qobuz.com, open to all market players. With 100,000 albums and 1,200,000 titles, you are one of the “hot spots” in the digital offering, with the aim of offering a high quality service to your subscribers.
Your originality is widely recognized, your expertise unanimously recognized, especially in terms of metadata and documentation. You make available the world’s largest digital catalogue in "real CD quality", but also in high definition superior to CD. Through your work as a cultural entrepreneur, we understand that you have managed to make the Internet “a solution and not a burden”, as you like to say. Everyone will have understood, dear Yves Riesel, quantity is never experienced in opposition to quality, to the delight of music lovers. In your companies and your projects, you have constantly defended the absolute necessity of respect and promotion of independent producers but also of sound heritage. I am also pleased to honour today an entrepreneur who is attentive to these "masters in danger" who are part of your commitment.
Dear Yves Riesel, on behalf of the French Republic, I present to you the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.
Dear Christophe Maé,
More than 546,000 albums sold, a triumphant tour throughout France: yes, you touched the hearts of the French. By your authenticity, you are part of their familiar landscape and, let me say it, you have remarkably “mapped your way” [title of his 2010 album]. In fact, you sold the most albums in France in 2010. In less than five years, you have established yourself as one of the most popular and promising young artists in today’s music scene. The public appreciates you, the French love you and place you very high in their hearts: what consecration in such a short time!
It is far away, the time when near Carpentras you spent hours on the harmonica dreaming you an artist’s life, identifying you with the formidable harmonica player Jean-Jacques Milteau, who did me the honor to accompany the launch of the National Celebrations 2011, that I launched a few days ago.
You are initiated from your childhood to soul and African rhythms, but also to Anglo-Saxon pop and classics of French song, by your father, amateur musician. You take violin, drums, acoustic guitar, harmonica and vocal lessons. Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Bob Marley, Ben Harper and Tracy Chapman are the artists you admire and know – I hope you will show it to us – by heart. With a solid musical background, you are determined to make a place for yourself in music. At the age of 18, you perform 200 concerts a year, and you acquire a solid experience of the stage and the audience. You are invited to perform in the early stages of touring stars like Cher and Seal.
Then comes 2005: it is the turning point of your young career, the providential encounter that makes your life change. During a concert, producer Dove Attia notices you and invites you to cast the musical Le Roi Soleil. You are chosen to play the role of Monsieur, brother of Louis XIV, a whimsical character who had his apartments in the Royal Palace, precisely where my Ministry is today. Through titles like Ça marche and Vice et Versailles, you deliver an interpretation that strikes the mind. After three years of touring in France, but also in Belgium and Switzerland, which ends at the beginning of 2007, you are ready to embark on a solo career.
Your first album, Mon Paradis, was released in March 2007. Its colors with multiple influences, both soul, reggae, blues and folk, reflect your sources of inspiration; they also reveal your very particular voice, powerful, vibrant. The first title of the album, On s'attache, immediately conquers the public. You yourself say that you tell "everyday stories with simple words" and that is precisely what affects the public. Whether you sing Mama or Belle Demoiselle, you evoke past and present loves, and each of us can recognize ourselves. The public – and the ladies, useless to hide it – fall under the spell of your sincerity and communicative energy. You sell more than a million and a half copies of your first album, you gather nearly a million spectators during your triumphal tour where your presence on the stage and your passion are marvellous: these figures speak for themselves, there is indeed a "Mae phenomenon". You receive numerous awards: in 2007, you are the French revelation of the year at the NRJ Music Awards; in 2008, also at the NRJ Music Awards, you are elected French male artist of the year, and your song On s'attache is voted French song of the year. You will also receive the Victoire de la musique from the artist, a “public revelation”.
In 2009, you presented Comme à la maison, your first acoustic album recorded in public. More intimate, you do not hesitate to fondly mention your son Jules. Here again, success is there. At the 2009 NRJ Music Awards, you were voted male artist of the year 2009 and the song Belle demoiselle was voted song of the year. Johnny Hallyday - a monument to the stage and an icon if ever there was one - invites you to sing in the opening part of his tour in the summer of 2009.
Your second studio album, On trace la route, was released in March 2010: it is an invitation to travel, and a desire. We find the same rhythms, the same African and Caribbean inspirations, the same guitars with agile syncopes on songs that speak of love and hope. For this album, you have surrounded yourself with your loyal team: Volodia, co-director and sound engineer, Bruno Dandrimont, guitarist composer, Laurent Vernerey, virtuoso bassist, not to mention your lyricist and lifelong accomplice, Lionel Florence. Without denying your world, without ever forgetting your Provençal roots, you face the subjects of our time: the urgency of a new ecological situation in Nature, the love break, the passion of Africa, shared between fractures and hopes. From Saint-Louis in Senegal to Brazil, you like to “bumble around” like Blaise Cendrars, to find yourself and find inspiration. For this album, you already received, in November 2010, a diamond disc from the hands of Thierry Chassagne, the CEO of Warner.
Dear Christophe Maé, you are also a generous and responsible citizen. In 2010, through the song Sorry, you are associated with the collective “Hope for Haiti”, created to help the Haitian population affected by the violent earthquake of January 2010. You also participated in the writing of the new album of one of our great ladies of song and music hall, Line Renaud. Yes, by your endearing personality, by your authenticity and sincerity, you have been able to touch the audience, with whom you have managed to create a singular relationship: when you are listened to, you have this strange impression of being "like at home", as if you touch the intimate and the heart of each.
So, dear Christophe [Maé], is it my great pleasure to present to you, on behalf of the French Republic, the insignia of Chevalier in the Order of Arts and Letters.
Address by Frédéric Mitterrand to Rolf BUDDE, Yves RIESEL and Christophe MAÉ
Herr Professor Doktor,Dear Rolf Budde, To pay tribute to you today is also to salute the memory of your father and your brother, who also dedicated their lives to the diffusion of music, at the head of the group to which you preside, and is now known worldwide as one of the leading independent music publishing houses.
Partager la page