L'important c'est la rose (Gilbert Becaud, arr. Magdangal de Leon) — Philippine Madrigal Singers

LOUIS AMADE, "L'enfant à l'étoile" poem
GILBERT BECAUD, music and French lyrics
JASON DARROW, English lyrics
MAGDANGAL DE LEON, choral arrangement
PHILIPPINE MADRIGAL SINGERS, live performance

Featuring the photographic works of LEO MASCARIÑAS
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The story behind Magdangal de Leon’s choral arrangement of L’important c’est la rose
as told by Leo Mascariñas, Madz 1973, 1977-1982

The song L'IMPORTANT C'EST LA ROSE is based on the poem L'ENFANT À L'ÉTOILE (The Child with the Star) written by LOUIS AMADE who was one of the lyricists of Edith Piaf. It was set to music and recorded by Gilbert Becaud in 1967.

In 1980, it was arranged for a 4-part choir with flute obbligato, soprano descant and guitar accompaniment by MAGDANGAL DE LEON (now a retired justice of the Philippine Court of Appeals) who was singing with the PHILIPPINE MADRIGAL SINGERS at that time. L’important c’est la rose soon after became a favourite at Malacañang Palace where it was frequently performed at official state banquets in honour of visiting heads of state and international dignitaries.

In one of those Malacañang performances, L’important was on the programme but SAL MALAKI, the designated flautist, forgot to bring his instrument. Some quick thinking enabled him to get away with it - he improvised by instead whistling the flute obbligato part. It goes without saying that since then, his flute was banished from L’important.

The Madz debuted its version of L'important c'est la rose in the international scene on April 20, 1981 at the Southeast Asian Festival opening ceremony held at Le Grand Salon of the Paris Hilton Hotel. It would later be regularly performed at the Madz's stint at the Le toit de Paris restaurant on the top floor of the hotel for several nights. The Parisian guests were delighted that the Madz had chosen it over what was usually expected of foreign singers to perform – the overused La vie en rose which is quite often met with consternation by the French.

For the subsequent five-month European concert tour of the Madz in 1981, L'important was not in the formal full-concert program repertoire, but nonetheless it was often sung as an encore. They also performed it at a Cannes Film Festival soirée and other social gatherings in other countries in the tour itinerary. At the victory concert at the 1981 Gorizia International Choral Competition in Italy where the Madz took the Grand Prix, one of the judges, notable German Maestro Jürgen Jürgens, made a special request for the Madz to sing not one of the complex competition pieces, but rather a pop song, L'important c'est la rose. He ever so loved it when he heard the choir sing it in Hamburg a few months earlier. Indeed, L'important was the Madz ‘81 signature song.

As a footnote, the rose is the emblem of the French Socialist Party. In the French national election held on 10 May 1981 while the Madz were still in Paris, the Party’s presidential candidate François Mitterrand defeated the incumbent Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. Mitterrand became the first Socialist president of the Fifth Republic of France. Just to clarify, the Madz were not campaigning for any candidate but some among their Hilton audiences might have possibly thought otherwise. The same could be said of the French rose colour motif used in this video taken within the context of Philippine politics and the 2022 national election.