Flore Benguigui denounces the humiliations suffered within the pop group L'Impératrice

She doesn't want to be silent anymore. After nine years of singing for L'Impératrice, Flore Benguigui, author and composer, ended her adventure in September with the pop group she joined in 2015. “This decision is not sudden or light, it is the fruit of long and painful reflection, and unfortunately takes effect before the international tour of our latest album Pulsar», she announced on September 26, in an Instagram post. “At the end of May 2024 I warned the group that I could no longer continue. That I was going to ensure the release of the album and the summer festival tour had already begun but that it was physically and psychologically impossible for me to continue, to go and play this album with them all over the world” , wrote the young woman who claimed to leave to “protect [sa] health, physical and mental, which has been seriously undermined in recent years.

This Saturday, November 23, a few hours after a concert by the group at the Olympia and just before a second performance, Flore Benguigui lifts the veil on her situation by testifying this time to Mediapart . She explains that she suffered from a toxic environment, full of ordinary sexism and humiliation. She begins by mentioning the recurring criticism of her voice, which is insufficiently powerful for live performances. “I was always told that I was a bad singer, that I sang out of tune, not loud enough,” says Flore Benguigui at the start of the interview, assuring that “very quickly, there was pressure for me to sing louder” in concert. Despite intensive singing lessons, she hits a wall: her voice is still too weak. So that the public doesn't notice anything, the group then chooses to dub their voice with pre-recorded sequences during the concerts. “I felt like I was cheating, lying to the public,” she admits. “At no time did the group say that the group had to adapt to the voice. It was always the voice that came last.”

“Under influence”

Her efforts are such that Flore Benguigui finally loses her voice in 2021, for a year and a half. “I did x-rays, I did microphysiotherapy, I saw gurus on Skype… And it was my psychologist who made me understand that it didn’t come from me,” says the artist. to the journalist of MediapartLénaïg Bredoux. “No one thought I needed to stop. We continued the tour. For a year and a half I tried to sing as much as possible, I was almost in playback. It’s a huge humiliation for a singer.”

Added to this is a climate of anxiety which gives Flore Benguigui the impression that she could “get fired” at any moment. So, to “keep her place”, she admits to having always done more: “manage social networks, make merch [le merchandising]styling, I washed and ironed everyone’s stage outfits.” Enough to make her lose confidence in herself: “I told myself that I didn’t deserve to be there (…) that I deserved to be treated like that, to be belittled.”

What's more, two members of the group would have made life difficult for her, with an “alternation of love bombing, they gave me a lot of gifts for example” and moments where she “made herself[t] belittle, humiliate, they could yell at me in front of the other members of the group. Flore Benguigui also denounces the control exercised over her by the group: “I have already been asked to delete things on my social networks. Even my speeches on stage were very controlled.” “I was under the influence,” says Flore Benguigui, who emphasizes “having been constantly with 5, even 9 men” for years without “holidays or weekends,” which resulted in a “very strong feeling of isolation.” “. The singer says she ended up “in depression, on anxiolytics”.

“This is not the reality of the facts”

Contacted by Mediapartthe five members of L’Impératrice say they “discovered the seriousness of the facts and feelings shared by Flore”. “While we were a group, united for 9 years, we are sad about this situation, to have to respond to Flore through the press. She still means a lot to us and we know what the group owes her, artistically and on a personal level. But, the situations described by Flore do not correspond to the reality of the facts,” they argue in an email to Mediapart. Before denying having had any control over her speeches: “On the contrary, Flore has always expressed herself freely about her personal projects and the causes she defends, particularly through her personal networks. Regarding the group's speaking engagements, it was decided from its creation that decisions would be taken in a collegial and concerted manner. Concerning the recording of the album, the launch of the tour and the promotion, Flore reaffirmed to us at each of these stages her desire to continue.

If they regret it, the musicians of L'Impératrice assure that they respect the departure of Flore Benguigui. “When Flore informed us of her decision to leave the group, we agreed to continue our discussions in a constructive and beneficial framework for all, with a common desire to respect the future form of L'Impératrice. We immediately respected his decision, ignoring all the implications for the rest of the project. (…) If the investment and attention we gave it were not enough, we can only regret it. In any case, we wish him all the best for the future.” Since then, the group has found a new recruit: singer Louve.