who is Jocelyne Guillemin, 70 years old, who dreams of becoming Super Grandma

On December 1, 2024, the 28th edition of Super Mamie will take place in Nice. A national election for which Jocelyne Guillemin is preparing, super grandma elected in Chaumont last October to represent Haute-Marne. We met her.

Last straight before the election, Jocelyne Guillemin is in the starting blocks: “I repeat every day, twice in the morning and twice in the evening! “The 70-year-old Super Mamie from Haute-Marne is training for her choreography. On December 1st, on the Nice stage where the 28th edition of Super Mamie will take place, she will dance the charleston with her daughter, Emilie, 45 years old.

Jocelyne decided to embark on this adventure thanks to a friend, herself a candidate in 2018. “I found it nice, she told me it was a good experience, so I said to myself why not?” She decided to take the plunge. When she was elected during the departmental election in Chaumont, on October 13, 2024, she did not expect it: “I was calm, I told the girls 'cool Raoul my hen', there will be a winner but it's not a competition. We had a great time, we had a good afternoon and then I won, I was very surprised! ”

That day, Jocelyne Guillemin won a scarf but above all precious moments with her family. She confides: “Emilie was happy, she loves it all, she works in a theater group, for her it was happiness.” One of his two sons also surprised him by coming to watch the election: “What a surprise, I was moved!“.

When Fabienne Ollier created this competition in 1996, she imagined an election far removed from the American beauty podiums that inspired her: ” I have always been in the entertainment world, we have lots of shows in France but nothing family-friendly live, on the ground. I heard about Miss Senior America, I thought it was nice to honor senior women. But what I wanted to do had nothing to do with these rhinestone and sequin grannies.”

VIDEO: the candidacy of Jocelyne Guillemin

Fabienne Ollier's desire is then to forge links. The bond between the candidates and their children. To do this, she imagines three qualifying sequences worthy of the Miss elections, but in an emotional version: “the children must present their mother on stage and say why they are proud of her then comes the time of the grandchildren, a moment of intergenerational complicity”explains the creator of the competition.

Jocelyne Guillemin did not expect to be elected and even less to experience the emotions she experienced during her qualification at Chaumont. “My daughter had written something for the emotional sequence, it made me cry. Very often we have all the talents when we are buried, and there, she told me lots of things about my life that were true, we don't realize it and when it's said by her children, it's is gripping”she confides.

Then, after the emotional moments comes the part “ challenge » where the candidates are free to show their talents. “We had an 80-year-old grandmother who did boxing, another who did fencing who gave us a sword demonstration… But it's not because they don't have any particular talent that they are banned from the competition. A Super Grandma is an example of life”says Fabienne Ollier, creator of Super Mamie.

For Jocelyne Guillemin, grandmother from Haute-Marne, it will be a charleston! Enough to distinguish her among the nine other candidates in the competition. Not all departments are represented; the selection of candidates is made by the committee.

Jocelyne Guillemin and her daughter dance the Charleston during the Super Mamie election in Haute-Marne, in Chaumont, October 13, 2024.

On a daily basis, Super Mamie is far from the scenes and the feathers of the charleston in her house in Bayard-sur-Marine. “I raised my children until I was 40, then I raised other people's children. I was a childminder to give happiness to all the little ones who are now 30, 40 years old.” she says.

Small children, an essential criterion for participating in the election, Jocelyne Guillemin has six, or even a little more…

I also have little children at heart, I have divorced children so of course I took the children of my partners as if they were my own! And other young people often come to the house to make cakes, karaoke…I'm a bit like everyone's grandma!

Jocelyne Guillemin

Super Granny candidate in Haute-Marne

An everyday grandma with a minister's schedule. Jocelyne Guillemin spends her days taking care of her visitors, baking cookies with them and singing. She participates in various choirs, every evening of the week she opens a different repertoire. On weekends, she enjoys spending time with her husband and his friends: “We have been married for 51 years, he still plays tennis so on Sundays, when he has matches too far away, I have a little lottery with friends, a movie or a swimming pool.

In a few days, this well-established schedule will have to be turned upside down. 850 kilometers await Jocelyne Guillemin. Direction Nice and the Super Mamie 2024 final: “Above all, it will build bonds with my family. My daughter and my granddaughter, they played the game and are just waiting for it! ” To find out the result, go to the Super Mamie Facebook page on December 1st, from 2:30 p.m.