In 1983 Daniel Lavoie puts everything on the card and plays it. He took a loan from the bank, shut in the studio of Andre Perry for 15 months to write an album and created «Tension, Attention». Daniel DeShem urged him to date.

Video: Daniel Lavoie - Ils s'aiment

Daniel DeShem (Daniel DeShaime), author: We met in a small studio in the eastern part of Montreal. He did not want to take piano from home, so we decided to take another rental. But we have already started to work. Then I saw that he had entirely new ideas, he didin`t have a piano so he played the keyboard, or the guitar. He did truly brilliant stuff. Unfortunately I`ve never used to say this, but I lied to him that we couldn`t find a piano anywhere around.

Marie-Christine Bleu, journalist: Made a bit in American style, using the techniques, but also ingenuity in the instrumentation, orchestration, some rhythms, there appeared the CD, which allowed Quebec to find the song a «second breath». And then suddenly we found that Daniel Lavoie is from Quebec. When he went abroad from Canada, he seemed to have become Quebec.

The song «Ils s` aiment» was included in the album «Tension, Attention» (in France, this album is called «Ils s `aiment») and immediately became the undisputed hit. Over 2 million copies were sold in Europe and Quebec, translations into English, Spanish, Portuguese followed. The hit brought Daniel Lavoie resounding success and became his «calling card». The music, that makes sheevers down your spine even in a case you don`t understand French .... 

Daniel: This album was my last chance, because I could not earn a living, all what I earned, returned into circulation. I began to feel disappointed, I was 34-35 years old and then said to myself: «I still don`t want to live my life like this», because it was actually an earning at the level of the poor, very poor people. And I remember the day when I wrote this song, I was working as usual, composing songs; at noon, I interrupted in order to make myself a sandwich, went home, turned on the TV, listening to the daily news, and there was a report from Beirut, because it was 1983. Beirut was on fire, bathed in blood, destroyed. That day I saw two teenagers in a report, they were holding their hands on the ruins, and it shocked me. This forced a smile in the surrounding darkness, and it pushed me back into my studio where I wrote «Ils s'aiment» for fifteen minutes. I sing this song till now and always feel the same emotions, because I can feel transported to Jerusalem, to Baghdad... it is always truthful, always... to the horror...

This song opened him the doors to France.