La Marseillaise and Winter in the Deep South 🇫🇷

I recently found this photo of the Highlanders v French Barbarians game where I performed La Marseillaise.

It was in June in the Deep South of Invercargill and from memory about 2 degrees celsius when we arrived at the stadium. I had tights on under my pants, woolen socks in my boots, merino jerseys under my red jacket and last minute I decided to wear that scarf to keep my neck warm as I was so scared of coughing from the cold during the anthem or shaking on camera. I considered wearing gloves too but wanted my hands to be free - typically when you perform an anthem you wear in ear monitors (like headphones) which play the backing track so you can hear the exact timing, so as not to lag behind with the boom and delay of sound in a stadium - I wanted to be able to adjust them if I needed to.

I adore the French language and loved having the chance to share in such a rousing and powerful anthem for a great game.