Since 2022, she has been, in the eyes of the students of “Star Academy”, like “a big sister”. “I’m by their side a lot during rehearsals. With Nikos, we are the program’s companions, at no time do we judge them, so they find it easy to confide in us in moments when they are a little down. We re-motivate them, we give them lots of energy,” tells 20 Minutes the 39-year-old journalist and presenter, who we always saw radiant.
It must be said that the one who is back on Saturday for a new season of the TF1 telecrochet in order to narrate the daily newspapers and to accompany, after the bonuses, the candidates to the castle of Dammarie-les-Lys, is at “Star Academy” as at She. In 2004, she was among the candidates for the fourth season which, as she herself says, “changed [sa] vie ».
“I have an affection for the little girl I was in 2004 when I entered the set”
“It was particularly important to me to be there this year, because it is the 20th anniversary of my promotion,” she confides. I have no nostalgia. I always look forward. But I have a special affection for the little girl I was on September 3, 2004 when I entered the set. »
This new edition will be even more charged with emotion for her, and for Lucie Bernardoni, another classmate who serves as tutor, because it will also mark the twentieth anniversary of Grégory Lemarchal’s victory. The students will record a new song by the artist who died in 2007, at the age of 23, from cystic fibrosis. The revenue generated by this single will be donated to the association that bears the singer’s name.
“I am extremely proud that my friend, as an artist, still resonates within the new generation, those who knew him as a candidate and those who are discovering him now,” says Karima Charni, welcoming the “very very beautiful writing” by Grégory Lemarchal. This new song, “it’s a gift for everyone”, she believes, certain that the students will be able to transmit the emotions that he would have wanted to convey through his words.
“We are not going to copy and paste what happened last year”
She has already discovered the new promotion. “From afar!” » she specifies, while being careful not to reveal too much. “What can I tell you about it?” It’s a new adventure, a new season. We are not going to copy and paste what happened last year, even if the students were fabulous. We’re starting on a new page, with new personalities, who have talents, voices of their own. They are just as endearing. »
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Karima Charni is certain: “Star Academy” is an antidote to the ambient gloom. Because “kindness” emanates from it and the show “creates positivity”. This program “feels good,” she summarizes, convinced that the new promotion will rediscover the alchemy that made the last two seasons shine.
“You have to allow yourself to be proud of yourself when you achieve certain things”
To keep up with the sustained pace and the shortened nights imposed by the filming of the show, Karima Charni paused her columns in “Hello! The TF1 morning show. “I have few hours of sleep, but I am not a person to be pitied,” she says. I have been lucky enough to do a job that has fulfilled me for twenty years. » Over these past two decades, made up of “highs, lows, very highs”, she takes an enthusiastic look: “I feel proud, I think that you have to allow yourself to be proud of yourself when you succeed certain things. »
Covered with praise by the public, who would like to see her on the air even more, she actually has no need to play the card of false modesty. In an audiovisual landscape where superficial smiles abound, she can be proud of having succeeded in imposing her touch, her freshness and her good humor. TF1 would be well inspired to focus more on this “big sister” who is part of the viewers’ family.
