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Starmania is a French-language retro-futuristic, sung-through rock opera with a fascinating story and history. It was written in the 70s and is often described as "prophetic."
It also contains a whole lot of awe-inspiring musical numbers and astonishing vocal performances. If you're familiar with French music, even if you think you don't know Starmania, you must have heard some of the hits ("Quand on arrive en ville," "Le blues du businessman" aka "J'aurais voulu être un artiste," "Besoin d'amour" or "Le monde est stone.") If you aren't from a francophone background, you still might have heard some of its songs without knowing it: Céline Dion's cover of "Ziggy" or the famous "SOS d'un terrien en détresse" through Peter Kingsbury's English-language cover ("Only the very best") or Dimash's viral version.
At its heart, Starmania is a tragic fable about the decadence of modern society and the consequences of everyone’s obsession with fame.
Its fic-writing fandom so far has been equally divided between canon missing scenes/character studies, fix-it fics and various AUs where the characters get to have a nice time for a change. There is a nice balance of gen character exploration, worldbuilding and shippy fic, and about every kind of mood you're looking for, from angst to crack to pwp to fluff.
The plot follows 8 main characters in the city of Monopolis, the giant capital of the unified West, which is divided between the skyscrapers above and the subterranean part of the city:
- Zéro Janvier and the Gourou Marabout, who are running against each other to be President of the West;
- Stella Spotlight, the actress in decline whom Zéro is courting;
- Johnny Rockfort and his Etoiles Noires gang, who are terrorizing the city;
- Sadia, who is pulling the strings of the Etoiles Noires from the shadows;
- Cristal, the lovely host of the Starmania talent show, whom Sadia invites to interview Johnny;
- Marie-Jeanne, the disillusioned waitress at the Underground Café;
- Ziggy, the gay aspiring star whom Marie-Jeanne is hopelessly in love with.
There have been many productions of Starmania over the years (the main ones being the original in 1978-79, 1988, 1993-2001, 2022-24, and other somewhat minor productions in between) which have all tweaked the libretto, adding, removing or moving songs around, giving songs to different characters, portraying characters and relationships in various lights…
Fandom on AO3 reflects this multiverse of possibilities. They are fics inspired by pretty much every era of the show, though the bulk of them now are focused on the latest revival (2022.) Most fics on AO3 are in French or English, but there are also fics in Russian and Chinese (sometimes even translated version of the same fics.)
Below you’ll find more detailed information about each of the characters and main pairings, and at the very end a list of where to find the show’s canon, if you’re interested in finding out more! If you’re here for the abridged version, read “The basics” and then skip to the next character/pairing!
Enjoy!