Angèle — the voice who set the world humming and dancing during the Paris Olympic closing ceremony with her haunting take on Night Call — waits quietly in the shadowed balcony of the Plaza’s grand ballroom. Below her, 500 guests ripple with anticipation at the 2025 L’Alliance New York Gala. Dressed head-to-toe in Chanel, half-hidden in a chiaroscuro glow, she appears reserved, observant, almost suspended between two worlds.
Many in the room steal glances upward, watching her listen as France’s Minister for Francophonie, Eléonore Caroit — who, in a twist of fate, began her journey as an intern at L’Alliance two decades earlier — addresses the crowd.
“French language is a living body,” the minister says, and in this “city of openness, diversity, and culture — everything that Francophonie embodies — L’Alliance New York is a shining flagship for French culture and for all Francophiles across the Atlantic.”
Minutes earlier, Angèle had listened just as intently as Bradley Cooper, speaking flawless French, as he presented the Alliance Award to his friend, the hotelier and Château La Coste visionary Paddy McKillen.
Now it is her turn.
Angèle — Belgian singer, songwriter, global pop force, the artist who moves effortlessly from a whispered duet with Dua Lipa to a celebration of Brussels in French — steps forward to accept her Trophée des Arts.
Cooper spoke in French; she chooses English.
“I’ve always felt close to the idea that Francophonie is not just a language; it’s a continuous dialogue between cultures,” she tells the room. “Emotions don’t need translation. Art travels faster than words. It reaches where language sometimes cannot. In dark times, poetry helps us see. It reminds us of our shared humanity. I feel grateful to live this life as an artist.”
“Angèle is an icon, a voice that travels across borders and generations,” L’Alliance New York President Tatyana Franck said in her opening remarks. “Through her words, her melodies, and her unapologetic lightness of being, she has given a new rhythm to our times.”
“Angèle doesn’t only bring French to the whole world through her songs,” Minister Caroit added. “She is a free, inspiring, empowering artist who sings about women, and about the courage to be our true selves in a world of appearances.”
As free and empowering as she is, Cooper unexpectedly stunned the black-tie crowd — Americans, Francophiles, and French New Yorkers — by delivering his entire tribute in French. Yes, he read from his phone. But his accent? Not a trace of Hollywood — more the kind that charms Provençaux, the people from the Lubéron and Aix-en-Provence, where he once lived for six months as a Georgetown student.
“Soyez gentils avec moi — be kind to me,” he began, before celebrating McKillen’s vision for Château La Coste, the internationally acclaimed destination where art and nature, architecture and hospitality intertwine.
“Its energy radiates across the south of France and reaches all the way to New York like a true friendship,” Cooper said. “You feel it at every moment. You can always count on it. It is the very essence of life — and it deserves to be celebrated.”
The Irish hotelier could not help but hug his friend. “I am his number one fan,” he said, before sharing tales from his Château La Coste — an experiential destination unlike any other, where architecture by Tadao Ando, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Oscar Niemeyer meets vineyards, sculpture trails, and contemporary art.
McKillen recalled discovering the property in 2002, when his sister Mara was living in Aix-en-Provence: “On a Saturday morning, I visited what seemed like a simple farm. Ten feet inside the gate, I stopped. I got out of the car, looked around, and I knew we had to buy it.”
Only later did he realize that Cézanne’s spirit seemed ever-present in the landscape, and that Picasso had lived — and was buried — just beyond the hills of Vauvenargues. “We had to share this magnificent place,” he said. “So, we set about creating an organic universe — a place where art, architecture, winemaking, and hospitality live and breathe together in the Provençal landscape.”
Once the award ceremony concluded, Franck moved through the ballroom like a conductor — embracing friends and supporters, meeting officials, rallying donors, and encouraging higher bids. Because this is New York: glamorous, yes, but also mission-driven. And tonight, the mission was to foster dialogue, exchange, and cultural imagination.
A fund-raiser gala, yes — but definitely a party first.
On both sides of the ballroom, New York–based French artist Elizabeth Colomba installed works “full of poetic imagination,” Franck noted. Even the menus were part of the art — designed by Colomba herself.
In the kitchen, French culinary master Daniel Boulud and Argentine fire-maestro Francis Mallmann created a gastronomic conversation between continents: Boulud’s luminous seafood, fruits, and vegetables meeting Mallmann’s earthy, flame-driven soul. A Rabelaisian, gargantuan dessert buffet by Lebanese-born chef Tara Khattar completed the Michelin-worthy dinner.
Franck saluted the chefs with a playful nod to one of their spiritual mentors, Roger Vergé: “Cooking is a feast — and a feast is life.”
