Chimène Badi loves the art of recovery. After revisiting Edith Piaf’s repertoire on a double album, Chimene Badi has just released the second part of the project “Gospel & Soul, the voice and the soul”, mixing covers and unreleased tracks. At the same time, the 42-year-old singer is at the heart of the new issue of the Purecharts podcast “Face A” with her first hit “Entre nous”. Flashback: we are in 2002 and the young 20-year-old singer is participating in season 2 of “Popstars”. If she is not selected for the final group, the famous Whatfor, her talent does not go unnoticed. “ When I come out of “Popstars”, I am disturbed, upset, I no longer know where I live. I’m lost. The moment I leave, I say to myself: “Why didn’t you let go?” » she remembers. She returns home on Tuesday and the next day the phone rings. At the other end of the line, Valéry Zeitoun, director of the AZ label (Universal) and then juror of “Popstars”, who offered her a meeting during which she met Rick Allison, songwriter behind the hits “Je t ‘likes’ and ‘Everything’ for Lara Fabian. Very quickly, the budding artist signed a contract and flew to Montreal to record his first album.
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“We only talk about what I physically represent”
Then begins a crazy adventure for Chimène Badi, who has no time to breathe: “ Between “Popstars” and my fourth album, I can’t breathe. Everything is going super fast! Six years go by and I don’t see them passing. It’s been a crazy time “. At the time, it was Rick Allison who brought him “Between Us” on a silver platter. And the favorite is absolute: “ I receive a gift from God. I find the song so beautiful. I tell myself that for a first title, I’m still lucky! It’s a magnificent song. And even today, it’s always a pleasure for me to sing it, I never get tired of singing “Entre nous” ». More Chimene Badi cannot recognize himself in this “ love story » told in the lyrics and she decides to change the meaning: “ I hadn’t experienced anything at that time in terms of love. I projected myself into an imagination, and I told myself that this was the meeting between the public and me. For me, this song has always been that ».
Success was immediate upon its release in January 2003: the single “Entre nous” was number one in sales for two weeks, with more than 530,000 copies sold. It was the fourth biggest hit of that year. The album of the same name, published in October 2003, sold nearly 500,000 copies. And this, even if Chimene Badi had no say in the project: “ I was given a CD with all the tracks on it, and I listened to them in the corner. In no case did I validate or choose anything. It’s obvious. Very adult, very feminine songs that I should sing today “. However, she does not regret it: “ You could detect this interpreter thing in me. That’s why we ended up with such adult lyrics so early. Is it a regret? No because I don’t regret anything! Is this an error? Maybe ! It would have been nice if I could sing what sounds like me at the age I was telling things. But that’s how it is ».
“I wasn’t prepared for all this.”
However, success will be very difficult to manage for the artist, then just in his twenties: “ It hurts me, scares me. I’m in magazines a lot, people talk about me a lot everywhere. (…) But we talk less about my music, we talk more about what I represent physically. I was so uncomfortable that it took over everything else “. If she felt broken » at the time and « not prepared for all this “, she considers herself ” much better today » and at peace with this song that exploded his career: “ I see the love the audience has for this song. This is what affects me. It’s strong after 20 years ».
