Lorie, the “French Britney Spears”? How the American star turned his career upside down

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Lorie Pester looks in the rearview mirror. To celebrate, a little late, her 20 years of career, the ex-teen idol and singer has launched the project “Hyper Lorie”, on which she dusts off her hits from the 2000s in surprising versions in duo. Anchored in her time, she shares the microphone with Bilal Hassani on “Play”, revisits “Je sera (your best friend)” with drag Piche, seen at the opening ceremony of the Olympics this summer, sings “2lor in me” with Kalika or proclaims her “Need for love” with Adé, who was a fan of her when she was little. But the song that changed the destiny of Lorie in 2001, it was “Near me”. Designed by producer Johnny Williams, it is an obvious choice for Lorie who will fight to make it their own. “ It’s my lucky charm. When I listened to the demo in the studio, I was like, “Wow. Something’s happening.” You don’t know why, sometimes in life you feel something and you say to yourself: “It’s here, it’s now”. Like when you have love at first sight! This is what happened. I knew it was going to be my song and I was going to do everything to make it my song » tells the singer in a new episode of the Face A podcast from Purecharts.

“We’re going to do better than her!”

Convinced of holding gold in their hands, Lorie and his mentor will knock on the doors of the record companies… who will unfortunately prove reluctant. They will then develop an original marketing strategy for the time, by putting the song online for free. In a few days, the title exceeded 15,000 downloads and Lorie is spotted and then signed by Sony Music. But you still have to succeed in designing an eye-catching artistic universe, both sartorially and visually, around it. The duo will then take as an example what is best on the other side of the Atlantic: Britney Spears ! In 2001, America’s darling was already a world-class popstar thanks to her hit “…Baby One More Time” and a skillfully crafted image between the innocent Lolita, the good friend and the femme fatale who turns all heads. “ At the time, Britney had not yet crossed over to the dark side. She hadn’t shaved her head yet, hadn’t burned out. She was a kid who sold out big time, filled stadiums, gave crazy concerts… When Johnny told me “I would love to try to do a French Britney”, I said: “But yeah seriously, Here we go. We’re going to do better than even Britney!” » remembers Lorie, who believed in it “ thoroughly » : « To discourage me, you have to get up early ».

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A determination that will bear fruit and propel her to the top, with a first album, “Près de toi”, which sold more than a million copies, while the single “Près de moi” sold at more than 600,000 copies. “ I got involved at my level: I gave themes, I wrote texts. This album told the story of a teenager’s life, with her best friend, her love stories, a song for her dad. Themes from a teenager of the time » recalls the artist and actress, today mother of little Lina: “ It’s long but at the same time, I feel like it was yesterday ».