Chimène Badi proves there's life after Popstars

French singer Chimène Badi is currently in the middle of a national tour.

And this week sees her returning to her roots so-to-speak with two dates lined up in the southwest of France - Toulouse and Bordeaux - not far from the town of Villeneuve-sur-Lot where the 28-year-old spent much of her childhood.

Chimène Badi (screenshot from Tellement Beau video)

Badi first rose to fame in the second edition of the French version of Popstars back in 2003.

The jury was looking to "create" a new band in what was then a popular format for "discovering" talent in many European countries.

Badi's "Rolls Royce of a voice" made an immediate impression with all three of the show's judges and although she made it through to the later stages of the competition there was, in the words of the chairman Valéry Zeitoun,"An enormous difference between the potential of her voice and her ability to dance (a requirement to be part of the band)."

Thankfully perhaps, because the quartet that went on to make up WhatFor (or perhaps more appropriately they should have been called Whatever for) managed just two minor hit singles and one album before disbanding and disappearing whence they came.


WhatFor - the group Badi was too good for


Not so Badi.

If Badi didn't correspond to what the jury was looking for to be part of the eventual group, she certainly caught the attention of Zeitoun, who just happened to be a producer and director at Universal Music.

"If you really want to sing, I'll help you," he told the then 20-year-old, and that's precisely what he did and later and later the same year Badi released her first album"Entre nous" and a single of the same name.

Since then Badi has become a regular on the French music scene able to tackle modern French standards and gain fans with her own brand of soulful singing.

Now, seven years later and with four studio albums and a clutch of hit singles under her belt, she's back on tour pulling them in and proving that she has one heck of a voice.



Even though she perhaps doesn't exactly set the audience alight with the same sort of onstage charisma as one of her contemporaries Amel Bent (who incidentally is also a product of reality TV - Nouvelle Star, and a singer who has also built her success on not winning the title) her voice is something to relish and there's a fragility in her onstage persona which belies the power of that voice.

A voice whose timbre is exquisite and one that allows her to caress a melody and boom a refrain with what appears to be consummate ease.

Badi's story is proof, if needed, that appearing in a reality show is no guarantee of success if the talent is lacking and, just importantly, losing isn't always a bad thing.

Her current tour continues until June 2011.

And her latest album, "Laisse-les dire" was released in May this year.