At only 33 years old, Slimane is undoubtedly one of the most talented artists of his generation. With four NRJ Music Awards, a Victoire de la Musique and as a bonus, the birth of a little girl Esmeralda in December 2021, Slimane has come a long way since his victory at the 2016 edition of The Voice on TF1.
However, despite his extraordinary career, Slimane still has some scars from the past. That for example of having been an obese child. The singer was this Sunday, November 13 the guest of Frédéric Lopez in the show Sunday in the countryside on France 2 to which comedian Bérengère Krief and sports journalist Nelson Monfort were also invited.
I was treated like a girl, a dirty fat…
During the show, Slimane spoke with an open heart about the way he experienced his obesity and the gaze of others: “This weight problem has been a bit recurrent in my life, he launched. I am 100 kilos for 1m50. They called me a girl, a fat bastard, stuff like that. It’s stuff that marks you especially at a given moment when you are supposed to build yourself. And immediately, the arrival to turn a little in the fun. I am the nice boyfriend. And, the more time passes, the more I no longer recognize myself. Neither at school, nor with people my age, nor in my class.” The singer also spoke of the dark years of his schooling: “My high school years were bad. I quit for a year. I resumed afterwards because my mother absolutely wanted me to pass the baccalaureate. But I couldn’t do it anymore. It wasn’t where I needed to be.“
For the first time in my life, I meet people like me who like to sing
Finally, Slimane was able to find refuge in music where he cut his teeth at the age of 12 during a neighborhood party. “There’s a gospel choir coming to sing. I am fascinated because, for the first time in my life, I meet people like me who like to sing. In the 90s/2000s, in a city, being a guy, wanting to sing, that didn’t exist“, he testifies.