Friday's French music break - Melissa Nkonda, "Nouveaux horizons"

Friday's French music break this week is proof - if it were needed - that there's occasionally life after TV talent shows - even for those who don't win.

It comes from Melissa Nkonda - an "also ran" in the now defunct Nouvelle Star, the French version of Pop Idol.

Melissa Nkonda (screenshot from "Nouveaux horizons" video)

Nkonda took part in season seven of Nouvelle Star in 2009, making it through to the final 15 and then the top 10 but being but eliminated just three weeks into the show's run.

That obviously didn't stop her though and a year later she entered the (non-televised) search for talent launched in 2010 by the French record label AZ, which belongs to the Universal group.

The 20-year-old ran out one of the joint winners of "Je veux signer chez AZ", landing a contract with the label and the chance to record an album.



Since then Nkonda has been on roll.

The album, "Nouveaux horizons", was released earlier this year and includes a track, "J'ai fait tout ça pour vous" featuring one of the most recently rising stars of the British music scene VV Brown and a version of Nkondo's first hit single also entitled "Nouveaux horizons" with the critically acclaimed French rapper, Soprano.

The original of that first single is a catchy, funky uptempo number with an infectious beat and sung in a mixture of English and French which has already been a Top 30 hit in France, Belgium and Switzerland.

Not bad going from a singer who was all but overlooked by the voting public during Nouvelle Star.

Melissa Nkonda (screenshot from Je veux signer chez AZ video)

Oh yes the winner that year - Soan.

Now that was a triumph of audience power in determining a commercially successful artist.

Oh well, Nkonda, along with a fellow contestant from the same season - Camélia Jordana - is proof that TV talent shows certainly don't always get it right.

Here's "Nouveaux horizons".

Try not to tap you foot as you listen.



Bet you enjoyed that.

If you want to catch her in concert, check out the dates on her official website.

Soan Faya's debut album - more than a pleasant surprise

Just five months after winning the 2009 edition of Nouvelle Star (the French version of Pop Idol), Soan Faya has released his debut album, "Tant pis".

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Even though he was undoubtedly the "enfant terrible" of the TV talent contest and the target of plenty of criticism throughout and after its run for his perceived arrogance, the album and first single will surely have many rethinking their initial impressions.

And perhaps even finding themselves liking his music.

Because it ain't half bad, and what's more is a somewhat refreshing departure from the kind of album some winners of similar talent shows in France have served up.

Soan - Putain de ballerine
par Soan-officiel

It's no syrupy, candy-coated sure-fire commercial hit, but instead autobiographical and one for which most of the tracks were written before his "adventure" and he was "full of ideas."

"If I had told my life as it is, it could have given the impression of wanting to evoke pity," he says

"I opted for a more ironic angle."

Oh yes, you might have noticed, contrary to his behaviour immediately following his win, when he refused to give interviews or cancelled them at the last moment, Soan is in full promotional mode for his album and he has been talking to the media, answering in particular criticisms that he was (and remains) big headed.

"They can say what they want," he says, adding that as far as he can tell it's mainly some within the media who haven't liked him.

"In the streets, most of the people I've met since the programme finished have always been friendly," he continues

"There are of course those who want to make me appear like an idiot, but now I try to have confidence in myself and I'm concentrating on the upcoming tour."

Apropos tour dates. After cancelled concerts immediately following his win because he "preferred not to give them just for their own sake and perhaps performing badly," the 28-year-old will be following up he release of his album and the first single, "Next Time" with a number of appearances, including Le Bataclan in Paris on February 17 next year.

Soan- Next Time HD from Mon Pauvre Ami on Vimeo.

French soulstress, Miss Dominique, is back

France might well have a new star in the making after Soan Faya walked away with this country's Nouvelle Star (Pop Idol) earlier this week, but another former contestant from a previous edition of the show has recently been making the music headlines.

This week saw the release of the album "Si je n'étais pas moi" from Miss Dominique or Dominique Michalon to give her her real name, the runner-up in season four of the talent show.

But it's not just her voice and music that have been creating a buzz. It's also her new look.

Physically speaking, Michalon is quite literally a shadow of her former self, having lost around 50kgs (or 110 lbs) since starting a strict diet and exercise regime.

Michalon is a singer with a huge voice able to tackle pop, soul and gospel classics.

When she appeared on la Nouvelle Star she blew away both the show's jury and viewers week after week with powerful and rousing renditions of songs such as "I'm every woman," "I feel good" or "I will survive".

But in the tradition of all great singers, Michalon was also able to do more than justice to ballads including "Calling you" or Edith Piaf's "L'Hymne de l'amour".

It was the sort of voice that probably hadn't been heard on the small screen regularly in France since the days of the late (US) singer Carole Fredericks.

Her appearance in the final couldn't have come as a surprise to anyone watching, and she would more than likely have won had she been up against anyone else other than Christophe Willem, a contestant whose voice and look was equally quite unlike anything the French had seen and heard for quite a while.

Ah the good old days when la Nouvelle Star actually lived up to its name!

Michalon might not have won, but she certainly wasn't forgotten. A record deal saw the release of her first (solo) album, "Une femme battante", which went double gold, several singles and a series of concerts and television appearances.

Then, as often appears to be the case, she seemed to disappear from the spotlight.

Until, that is, a couple of months ago when she first revealed what has been described by many in the media as her "physical metamorphosis".

"I always accepted my size," she said in an interview in April.

"I had 'zero complexes' about it and in fact in a way I was actually proud (of my size). But then my doctor sounded the alarm and said my weight was a health risk and I had to do something about it."

And so she began to diet and exercise; always under careful medical supervision dropping from a size 58 to 32.

While health reasons were undoubtedly in her words at the root of the decision, it probably won't have done her musical career any harm either, as the weekly French tabloid Gala points out.

"The record company must be rubbing its hands," says the magazine.

"Miss Dominique now fits into the mould of (looking like) a much more commercial product."



Whatever the case, Michalon might have lost the weight but she hasn't lost the voice, and this new album, for which she penned most of the tracks herself, is a humdinger.

Soul and groove à la française, if you will.

And she's not afraid to offer up explanations in some of the lyrics as to how she feels about the new look especially in the track "Le poids de ma différence".

"What's difficult to take is not the (physical) weight per se, but the burden of how others look at you," she says.

"When I say that 'I weigh the weight of all my differences', it's a way of saying that I'm aware of the way others might have seen me.

"I don't realise I've lost weight, rather that I was once 'rounder'".

France has a "Nouvelle Star" - really?

Soan Faya must be pinching himself this morning.

The 28-year-old is France's "Nouvelle Star" (Pop Idol) after winning the final in the traditional televised head-to-head on Tuesday evening.

It was the climax to a programme which started with 25,000 hopefuls attending auditions and ended with Soan (pronounced Swarn), the former busker, beating the 18-year-old Leïla to clinch a recording contract with one of this country's major labels.

This year's final - a dismal affair - attracted only 3.8 million viewers, down from four million last year.

But that hasn't stopped the private channel M6 from announcing plans for a 2010 edition.

Ah - la Nouvelle Star - a long and often, for the viewer, tortuous journey through the supposed landscape of fresh French musical talent.

A word or two maybe on how the show functions.

Even though the Pop Idol format is a familiar one to many television viewers around the world, the French version has its own peculiarities.

For starters of course, the repertoire of songs from which the contestants have to choose is on the whole based on French "standards".

It makes sense really as it means that most viewers are at least familiar with many of the tunes each singer is taking a stab at "making their own".

There are also a fair number of attempts at interpreting popular English language songs, but more often than not the results are less than convincing (and that's putting it politely).

What perhaps doesn't make sense though is the system of voting, which opens immediately the show starts, and thus isn't really a judgement on the performances, but from the outset a popularity contest based on....well who knows?

In any case, one thing's for sure, it's not necessarily on musical talent.

This year was the seventh edition of la Nouvelle Star, and it has in the past thrown up some real surprises and introduced some singers who would probably have made it anyway, but were given the extra push by appearing on the show.

Amel Bent (season two, third place), Christophe Willem (season four, winner) and Julian Doré (season five, winner) have all been successful in the French-speaking world, and probably have the talent, voices and following to stick around for a while longer.

But many of the past winners, such as Jonatan Cerrada (season one), Steeve Estatof (season two) and Myriam Abel (season three, winner) after the initial "15 minutes of fame" seem to have slipped into relative obscurity, or at least haven't exactly taken the music world by storm.

The show of course has a jury of four "heavyweights" (a serious clearing of the throat) from the music industry.

The longest-serving member is André Manoukian, a jazz songwriter who has been with the programme since it started and makes rather wild and off the wall statements.

His most famous this year came after being subjected to one performance which he described as being evidence that there has been "An ETC - un erreur terrible de casting"

Then there's Lio, (real name Wanda Maria Ribeiro Furtado Tavares de Vasconcelos), a Belgian singer of Portuguese origin who had several (forgettable) hits in France in the 1980s.

Philippe Manœuvre spent the series hidden behind his trademark sunglasses and bringing yonks of experience as a rock journalist to the show.

Finally there was Sinclair (real name Mathieu Blanc-Francard) who is another singer-songwriter although most French would probably be hard pushed to name one of his hits.

Their initial task was to hold auditions up and down France for hopefuls from this country (of course) as well as Switzerland, Belgium and Canada, before whittling the choice down to the final 15.

There then followed the seemingly interminable and, often for the viewer, painful rigmarole of live weekly televised broadcasts as the finalists took to the stage.

The first show of the season, back in April, saw the voting public choose nine contestants to go through to the second round, with the jury picking one of the remaining six to join them.

After that of course the judges had a purely advisory role, assessing each performance, squabbling among themselves and generally putting on a show that at times was far more entertaining than that offered by those hoping to become la Nouvelle Star.

You know the score. It's not exactly original TV.

So back to this year's winner, Soan. A singer who, over the past couple of months has apparently built up enough of a following in spite of often forgetting the lyrics.

In fact "not singing" the whole song became something of a trademark as he relied on the admittedly excellent musicians to help him through each show.

So what exactly did he have going for him that has made him la Nouvelle Star?

It certainly can't have been his voice - one which sounded like something in between a groan and a shout as week in, week out he monotonously but relentlessly warbled his way to victory.

Well maybe it was the innovative use of far too much make-up as, eyes heavily blackened, he glared into the camera.

Or perhaps it was the Gothic garb he wore, including his "favourite dress" and Doc Marten type boots that wowed the viewers.

There again it could have been his successful attempts to ruin Edith Piaf's "L'accordéoniste", ridiculously "punk up" France Gall's "Poupée de cire, poupée de son," or attack Georges Brassens' "La mauvaise réputation".

Oh but wait, there was also the non-too original rendition of the Sid Vicious version of "My way", The Cure's "Boys don't cry", and U2's "One"...and many, far too many, dated and clichéd interpretations of songs in both English and French that left the viewer wanting "more".

Whatever the case, Soan is la Nouvelle Star, and next up is the real test as to whether he's able to come up with an album that anyone actually wants to buy.