Ebony and Franck face each other this Saturday evening on TF1 in the semi-final of “Star Academy”. Both are among the best performers of the season – he has only been voted on by the public twice and she none – but this prime time poster from one of the most popular shows on French television is also highly symbolic.
This is also the term that Ebony used to motivate her choice to play her place in the final against Franck rather than against Marine and Charles. “I will be delighted to share a bonus with him and then, whether it is him or me who goes to the final, I will be just as happy because, for me, it is very symbolic that we are both so far “, she declared when Nikos Aliagas asked her the question.
What the 20-year-old aspiring performer says between the lines is that her decision ensures one of the season's two black contestants a spot in the finale. A face-to-face confrontation between two non-white people is unprecedented in the history of “Star Academy” where, in twelve seasons, only two racialized staracademicians, Cyril Cinélu in 2006 and Anisha Jo in 2022, emerged victorious.
TF1 and Endemol denounce “hate campaigns”
On social networks, Internet users understood very well what the choice of Ebony implied, some hastening to cry “communitarianism”. Proof that this poster, entirely legitimate given the background and talent of the two students, disturbs some viewers. Orfraie's cries are also part of a climate of uninhibited racism expressed online about the show.
TF1 and the production company Endemol dotted the “i” at the end of December, via a press release, affirming that they were ready to report “any hate campaign against candidates and [qu’elles] reserve the right to take any legal action. » “These attacks on these young artists who share their passion and live their dream are unacceptable and punishable by law,” they thunder together.
If several students have borne the brunt of this cyberharassment since the show started, Ebony is among the main targets. A petition was created to demand action against the “trivialized racism” against her and, from TikTok videos to posts on X, her supporters are organizing to denounce the hateful remarks aimed at the young woman.
On the “Star Academy” Facebook page, dithyrambs abound, but gratuitous attacks are not rare. Thus, among the comments of a light video compiling Ebony's “stunts”, posted on Tuesday, we can read: “Her best fall will perhaps be for Saturday”, “It's training for Saturday, she the star is going to fall from a height”, “She tells it, she told students that she did it on purpose to be loved”.
“It is not his voice that is analyzed but his confidence and his skin color”
In another video published the same day, devoted to the reactions of the semi-finalists learning with which artists they will sing a duet, Ebony is criticized for “yelling”, for doing “too much”. “She already thinks she's a capricious diva. It’s horror for our ears,” writes a subscriber to the page. Among the other reactions: “It's not joy, but hysteria”, “Is this girl bewitched? It’s getting boring to hear this girl yell.” This non-exhaustive anthology of venom illustrates the mistrust and gratuitous rejection that Internet users allow themselves who could be content to pass these videos without viewing them.
On Instagram, @adelphitefrance condenses the scale of the problem into an informative carousel, explaining that “on social networks, Ebony is compared to a monkey, reduced to racist stereotypes and accused of arrogance”. “It is not his voice that is analyzed, but his appearance, his posture, his confidence and, above all, his skin color,” summarizes the account followed by more than 36,000 people, specifying that this hateful dynamic is part of “ misogynoir.” One of the aspects of this notion, mixing misogyny and racism, underlines @adelphitefrance, is that when black women gain great visibility, “they are exposed, scrutinized and criticized in a disproportionate way”.
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If Franck is not spared from racist attacks, these are expressed to a lesser degree which we can try to explain by his more reserved temperament. The young man came out of his shell over the weeks, cracked the armor, gradually revealing his sensitivity. It corresponds more to one of the canons appreciated by the public of “Star Academy”, that of the student giving the impression of lacking self-confidence. The faithful of TF1 telecrochet tend to favor outsider profiles in whom they seem to recognize themselves more easily. This is particularly what, in addition to artistic criteria, has contributed to winning in the past for artists like Élodie Frégé, Magalie Vaé or Cyril Cinélu.
“When you have great talent, people can mistake that for arrogance”
Ebony is a good student, talented, charismatic – like the Franco-Moroccan Sofia Essaïdi, an unsuccessful candidate for “Star Academy” in 2003 whose journey ended in the semi-final. And that partly works against her. “It pains me. […] It is true that when you have great talent, people can take that for arrogance and that is a mistake,” said stage expression teacher Marlène Schaff during her debrief on Sunday. , welcoming in passing the fact that Ebony is also “a young girl full of humor and generosity”. A message probably addressed casually to people watching the show.
Our Star Academy file
Saturday, on set, Ebony will notably perform do not judge me by Camille Lellouche. “Your looks on me, you who judge me quickly, you who do not know me, even if you say that I do”, say the words of this melancholic song which will particularly resonate in light of what the star academician is experiencing. Detractors are already taking offense by asserting that the objective is to soften the public's attention.
Whatever she does, whatever she sings, her haters take every opportunity to criticize her. “We monitor her behavior as if to seek justification for the hatred she receives,” summarized @adelphitefrance in her post at the end of December. Music, supposed to soften morals, seems very far away. And in finethose who attack Ebony help to prove him right: this Saturday's semi-final will be symbolic.
