A love story is developing between the French and Rodriguez, the Detroit-born musician who flopped in the 1970s, was a star without knowing it in apartheid South Africa and was rediscovered last summer in the United States when the documentary “Searching for Sugar Man” was released.
The film tells the extraordinary story of a talented and philosophical musician who spent his life working in construction while struggling to bring up his three daughters, and the mind-boggling mutual discoveries in 1997: for him, that he was more famous than the Rolling Stones in South Africa, and for South African fans (who believed him to be dead), that he was alive.
The Swedish-British film by Malik Bendjelloul which has made more than $3 million at the box office in the United States, has been nominated for an Academy Award in the documentary category. In France the now-70-year-old Rodriguez has created something of a frenzy: The soundtrack album is among Sony France’s top sales on iTunes. Sony had planned on putting fewer than 3,000 CDs in stores, but after calls from vendors who sensed something was up, made 15,000 copies available.
SugarMan.org 
I just saw the film and like the rest of the world, was moved to tears. I feel strangely elated and not just because I grew up on the African continent (in Zambia) and have this strange impression of *déjà-entendu* (an aural déjà-vu); I’m thinking my parents might have played bootleg Rodriguez at their parties, along side The Beatles and Miriam Makeba. I might just have heard Rodriguez as a child… But I’m guessing the great artist’s universal music sounds familiar to everyone. I might just be feeling romantic.
I’m now living in California but I am half French and this article really touched me. I want to buy the DVD right away, for everyone I know, everywhere in the world. It’s like all the fans are running around frantically now, spreading the word that was hidden away for decades. There is an urgency to share the beauty of this music.
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About time this legend gets recognized and acknowledged.
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Wee wee…… The French love Rodriguez too :-)))))
Sent from my iPad
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