Some words hurt more than punches and leave more lasting scars. Even an artist with talent as unanimously recognized as Amel Bent can testify to this. The words of a famous producer still resonate in her head, a distant echo of a public humiliation that she will never forget, because suffering, unlike crimes, ignores prescription. We are in 2004. Amel leaves La Courneuve to go to Lille, to participate in the casting of the second edition of New starthe tele-hook of M6. “I took a train without a ticket and slept outside”she still remembers.
When her turn comes, her throat tied with stress, the apprentice singer faces a jury of professionals: Marianne James, Manu Katché, André Manoukian and Dove Attia. To seduce her judges, who impress her, the young woman performs Surrender by Celine Dion, before continuing with Bohemian by Charles Aznavour, two titles in a very different register, in order to show the full extent of his vocal qualities. Marianne James, whose skills in the field are well established, was immediately won over by her talent, as was the musician Manu Katché, who said about her: “I loved it. Very beautiful musicality. It’s not too mannered. You appropriated the songs”.
It was then that the voice of producer Dove Attia rose in the room, and his judgment fell like a cleaver:“While you sing, I wonder. In fact, I believe that you are a very good singer, but of karaoke”. Silence falls. It is not an angel who passes, but a demon. At this moment, Amel is probably thinking that her career is stillborn, that she will never be able to live from her passion. Eighteen years later, fate has, fortunately, proved him wrong, and the artist has learned the lessons of this trauma. “It’s not easy casting. People don’t realize that every misplaced comma is hours of anxiety, anguish and questioning behind it.”
A sad experience that taught her to always show indulgence and kindness when she found herself on the other side of the barrier, in the shoes of a juror of The Voice.
See also: Amel Bent: Discover the interior of the singer’s incredible house in Neuilly-sur-Seine
FL