For several days, Paolo Gauchot, 23, has been everywhere on the networks. His song “Ma Terre, si tu m’hear” won the hearts of Toulouse residents. Encounter.
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Nothing destined Paolo Gauchot to create buzz on social networks. Three weeks ago, this student’s Instagram account had 1,500 followers. On December 29, everything changed when the first notes of his song “My Earth, if you hear me” resonate.
Today, Paolo has 20,000 subscribers and could well feel the tide turning. He confides, “It’s also a little disturbing to receive so much love by message, from people who love. I don’t really know how to act. And then, it’s intangible.”
Paolo did not expect this success. Adopted from Toulouse, he came to the pink city in 2019 to prepare for his engineering and political science diploma. Covid stopped his studies a bit, so he started to write.
I was confined with my best friend, we were writing stuff. And I said to myself, come on, why not? I had a text that I thought was pretty good, and I said to myself, come on, I’ll put it on Instagram.
-Paolo Gauchot, student and singer
Paolo has always loved writing. Since he was 16, the texts have been running through his head. He takes instrumental sounds from the internet and turns them into songs. Songs written, at the beginning, “for a laugh” which have 40,000 views and 100,000 plays on platforms today.
Paolo did not choose the words of his song at random. He grew up in nature, in West Africa, and carried out studies in renewable energies. So protecting the planet was his source of inspiration: “I always wanted to make a sound about love for the earth, what I feel deeply about it. For things to change, people must reconnect with nature and love it deeply. I tried to focus it more on love. I could talk about the fires, all the negative things but it’s quite anxiety-inducing.”
Paolo worked on this text for a year before recording it in a studio in Toulouse. For the clip, he chose the view of the Garonne.
At first, Paolo did this for “make people like”, then, with this buzz, music emerged as a great opportunity. His project is a little vague at the moment but open to all possibilities: “I have always loved writing, even if I never projected myself as an artist. I don’t really know where this will take me, I think I’m letting myself be guided.”
In a year, Paolo will finish his studies. In the meantime, he leaves the door open to new songs.
