A tribute that promises to be moving. During the prime of the Star Academy on Saturday, November 16, Mickael Goldman announced that the week would be dedicated to former students and teachers of La Une's tele-hook, culminating in a special evening on November 23. For the occasion, a new single written by Grégory Lemarchal was recorded by the new promotion. The singer who died of cystic fibrosis had in fact written lyrics while he was in the hospital waiting for his transplant. Friend of the singer who died in 2007, Karima Charni agreed to remember his adventure with Télé-Loisirs.
Karima Charni remembers Grégory Lemarchal's pranks at the Château de la Star Academy : “His passion was to send me water but with crazy discretion”
Tele-Leisure : What memory do you keep of your first meeting with Grégory Lemarchal? Karima Charni: It was at rehearsals the day before the first prime. We were all gathered with the promotion for a college meeting but we didn't speak with Grégory. I remember noticing his voice which was so different, powerful. And a little playfulness in his eyes that I will quickly find afterwards.
When did you first exchange?
On the bus that took us to the castle. He explained to us what cystic fibrosis was and that he had this disease. At that time, we had not heard that he had mentioned it in his portrait on the first prime.
Did you ever bring up his illness again afterwards?
She was never a non-issue because it was a part of him. I sometimes talked to him about it because I wanted to understand and to know how I could be a support for him. But those were times when we weren't being filmed. He didn't like talking about it on camera because he didn't want anyone to remember that about him. Anyway, we never considered him a sick boy. For us, he was a student like any other.
Grégory had marked the adventure with his pranks on his comrades. You have also paid the price…
His passion was to send me water but with crazy discretion because I must have had a very futile reaction by telling him not to touch my brushing (laughs). And I also remember returning from the bus where we were extremely sad to have lost a friend. So what did we do to relax? Shaving foam battles to exteriorize! As Sofiane is tall, I always told myself that it was Grégory who followed Sofiane but the brain of operations has always been Bouboune (the nickname she gave to Grégory, editor’s note).
Karima Charni (Star Academy) confides how his friendship with Grégory Lemarchal was born: “At the castle, there were already a lot of connections”
How did he experience his dazzling success after the Star Academy ?
We all had dreams, we gave our all but we were all convinced that Greg was going to win and we all wanted our Little prince gagne. I will remember all my life the day I was at his house and his manager brought him lots of photos for the cover of his first single Write the story. He looked at the choices of the different covers of the title and he asked us our opinion. It was crazy to experience this moment. There was a lot of love and gratitude in his eyes.
How did your friendship begin, which continued beyond the castle?
When I was eliminated, I often returned to the bonuses, so we passed each other far away. I always supported him and at the castle, there were already a lot of connections. He comforted me when I was a little stressed, he helped me with technique because I had never taken singing lessons. And then outside, We didn't live too far from each other, so we saw each other quite a bit. From the start, I was the good friend and I stayed that way.
20 years later, the young generation is preparing to release a single written by Grégory Lemarchal…
I'm going to tell you a little secret about the current season: they were all very marked by Grégory, even though some of them weren't even born when we made the Star Ac. For me, the stars are eternal. When we have a fight, we leave a mark on people, especially when it's sincere, when it's beautiful, when it's useful. But Grégory was not just a boy suffering from cystic fibrosis, he was above all a great and very talented artist.
