Which candidate wins the twelfth season of Star Academy after 15 weeks of work at the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys? This is the question that kept TF1 viewers in suspense in front of the tele-hook final this Saturday, January 25, 2025. After the elimination of Charles then of Franck in the semi-finals, the poster for the final stage was 100% feminine. On one side was Ebony, a 20-year-old restaurant manager from the Ile-de-France region. On the other, Marine, a 24-year-old dental surgery student from the North. Two singers with very motivated voices at the idea of winning, their signing with Sony Music as well as the check for 100,000 euros promised to the winner.
To demonstrate one last time the full extent of their talent, the finalists were able to share the stage with singing stars: the two ex-academicians Pierre Garnier and Sofia Essaïdi, Damiano David from the group Maneskin and Amel Bent. As godmother of the season, Clara Luciani was naturally there to accompany them until the end of their adventure. Just like Matt Pokora, who after preparing dinner for them at the castle this week, shared his title Just a photo of you with Marine.
During the evening, Marine and Ebony also defended their place on solo titles, A corps perdu by Grégory Lemarchal for the first, All I ask by Adèle for the second. As part of a real “clash of the divas”, they competed against other equally technical songs such as everything by Lara Fabian or the title Never enough by Loren Allred, with which they opened the evening.
“I have never seen such a disrespectful audience”
If the predictions were going well on social networks since the publication of the poster for the final, a significant rule change was enough to reshuffle the cards. This Tuesday, January 21, TF1 production decided to open telephone voting in the Antilles, previously deprived of votes like the rest of the DROM-COM (overseas departments and regions and overseas communities). ). An announcement which followed the widely commented rant of actress Firmine Richard last week. Ebony, who is of Guadeloupean origin, could therefore hope to receive additional support.
-But on the prime time stage, the advantage was clearly with her competitor… From the start of the evening, the cries and applause were much louder for the Northerner than for the Francilienne. Enough to challenge many Internet users on According to the observation of some of them, even Maureen, a former candidate of this promotion who came to support the finalists, seemed uncomfortable with the situation which was enough to destabilize Ebony. And the finalists themselves seemed particularly embarrassed and under pressure. For many Internet users, the fault lay with the production, which did not know how to manage the quotas.
Especially since the same imbalance could be observed within the candidates’ HQs. While in Arras, the Marine fans relayed by Houcine filled a huge room, the Ebony supporters on Saint-Denis Island, filmed in a tighter shot, seemed much fewer in number.
