Made famous with the hit Lady Melody in the 90s, the surfer singer Tom Frager is preparing to release his 5th album and is committed to protecting the oceans.
Chloe Rouil Published on 08/23/2025 at 2:00 p.m., updated on 08/23/2025 at 2:00 p.m.
"She's in my head, she never leaves me, I find her even more beautiful when she dresses in reggae..." It's August 2009 and a song is playing on all the radio waves: Lady Melody , by a certain Tom Frager. This Friday evening, in front of a privileged audience and in an idyllic setting, the singer was in concert at the Cap Estel hotel, in Èze, as part of the Nuits Dime On. "Playing under the trees, in the open air and near the water, I think that corresponds well to what I offer," he confides. One might think that the landscapes of the Côte d'Azur are foreign to this former surfer born in Dakar, who passed through Mali and Guadeloupe before landing in the South-East of France, and yet.
The Pinède school in Cagnes-sur-Mer and surfing in Cannes"I lived in Cagnes-sur-Mer for three years before moving to Guadeloupe," says the artist, with emotion in his voice. "I still remember my primary school, La Pinède, in the town centre of Cagnes. I have very good memories of it. I played tennis, I played football in the small club in the town and I did a bit of Optimist sailing [a small sailboat often used to teach children to sail, editor's note] ."
And his relationship with the Mediterranean wasn't limited to small boats. The former surfing champion has a wonderful memory of a historic session near Cannes: "I had come for a concert in the region and some friends told me to bring my board. After a few days of waiting for the swell... it arrived. Magnificent waves of more than two meters in the Lérins Islands, the kind that we see, in my opinion, every ten years here!"
The Lady Melody phenomenon remains the most astonishing chapter of his singing career, a living paradox that pursues him as much as it carries him.
The "Lady Melody" effect"I owe her a lot because she's the one who made me known," he acknowledges with gratitude. The success was a real tsunami: 150,000 albums and 100,000 singles sold, the title became one of the hits of the summer of 2009. However, this sudden notoriety was accompanied by a certain bitterness: "I didn't have the chance to be relayed afterwards to show that I'm not the author of just one song, I'm on my fifth album."
The most ironic thing is that "nobody wanted Lady Melody at first." Fifteen years later, the song "has become part of the heritage of songs that we all hum, a bit like Il est libre Max or Femme libérée! " As he did on the waves of the Lérins Islands, Tom Frager continues to surf the paradox of his career, carried by a melody that never stops breaking. But his musical odyssey is not over, his next album will be released on October 24 (read elsewhere).
For Tom Frager, ocean protection isn't a fad; it's a deep-seated vocation born from his years of professional surfing and his unwavering commitment to the water. "Growing up in the waves, I feel empowered to talk about the oceans," says the artist, who was an ambassador for the Surfrider Foundation and has since founded his own organization, Le Mouvement Bleu. His commitment takes on a new dimension with Septième Continent, his upcoming album, scheduled for release on October 24, whose title directly references the continent of plastic floating in the Pacific.
A special feature of this project: it is an album entirely made up of collaborations. Duets with Hugues Aufray, Ben Mazué, Tiken Jah Fakoly... and opening by Paul Watson
The singer has surrounded himself with artists with complementary backgrounds, from Hugues Aufray to Zaho, including Danakil, Ben Mazué, Guillaume Grand and Tiken Jah Fakoly. Each featuring brings its own color to the whole, creating a musical mosaic ranging "from a song with Hugues Aufray, in the style of Bob Dylan, very seventies, to a much more contemporary piece with Zaho."
The album opens with a powerful symbolism by the voice of Paul Watson, environmental activist and founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd. "He gave a speech, especially for the album, which I set to music, to endorse this approach." A collaboration that gives the project an environmental legitimacy that goes beyond a simple artistic gesture. "No one wanted to support me on this project as a record company," laments the artist, who has faced these refusals without being discouraged. So Tom Frager transforms his notoriety into an activist platform. A course that he maintains "against all odds," as he likes to say, faithful to this connection that has bound him to the water since his first sailing trips on an Optimist, off the coast of Cagnes-sur-Mer...
Var-Matin
