It was 20 years ago almost to the day. Quebec discovered a young 18-year-old woman with an already strong character, determined to make a career in the spotlight. A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since his participation in Star Academy, but Marie-Mai is still there. A longevity that necessarily forges respect in an environment as ephemeral as that of pop music. No offense to gossip.
Because Marie-Mai may well be one of the most popular Quebec singers of the new millennium, she sometimes still feels the feeling of being looked down on. “Have I been underestimated? I think so. We question, for example, that I write my songs, when we don’t do the same for Coeur de pirate. Why me then? Because I look the way I look, because I’m flamboyant, because I dress that way. We will comment on my looksmy performances, but for some people, it is inconceivable that I am all that and that in addition I write my songs, ”confides the 38-year-old singer-songwriter, without resentment, however.
This contempt which does not say its name, several have denounced it on social networks following its passage last Sunday on the set of Everybody talks about itwhere co-host Anaïs Favron indulged in a few jokes about the singer’s more daring outfits.
Admittedly, Marie-Mai assumes to be bolder, more sexyeven, that at the time when she wore a style soft-emo in the music video ofone more night. This is also evident in the special Immutable, which will be broadcast on Saturday on Télé-Québec, and in which she resumes her greatest hits. But the singer nevertheless remains light years away from American pop stars, who compete in provocation to endure.
“Shocking to shock” has never been his leitmotif. “I have never made a decision seeking to stir up controversy. Controversy comes to me without my asking. There are people who criticize me for not sending a good image to my audience, which is young. But I think that in general, I have a pretty good barometer to define the limit, ”she slips in an interview at Duty.
As good as gold
Marie-Mai is the antithesis of her childhood idol, Britney Spears. During his 20-year career, the interpreter of Lie managed to preserve a fairly smooth image. Marie-Mai avoids angry subjects. You will never hear him talk about politics. When questioned on the subject, she looks annoyed. “We put a lot of pressure on artists to give more all the time. As if we had to give our opinion to people. But I think we have to go back to the principle that artists can share what tempts them in their lives,” she replies curtly.
In the documentary Addict. Addiction disorders, which she hosts on Canal Vie, Marie-Mai was more talkative about her difficult adolescence, marked by experiences of all kinds that could have made her sink. It is ultimately his participation in Star Academy who will have kept her away from these demons. As ironic as it may seem, success will have saved her. The reverse scenario of any good self-respecting biographical film.
It’s not true that I was going to change just to be successful
And yet, many would have lost their minds if they had experienced such a meteoric rise as her. “The first 15 years of my career went by at breakneck speed. Between 18 and 30, these are also the years when you become a woman. Those years I spent making albums and touring. I never had the feeling that it was going too fast and I was able to enjoy it. That said, when you start the business so young, it’s easy to confuse success with happiness,” she admits, referring to the identity crisis she went through in her mid-thirties.
In 2016, she separated personally and artistically from her longtime accomplice, Fred St-Gelais. Then, she broke with Productions J and Musicor. In the following years, her relationship with the Quebecor empire deteriorated, but she is now in good shape, she says.
Last without compromise
The singer remains proud to have participated in the first edition of Star Academy. However, she was conspicuous by her absence last week during the reunion of the former candidates. “A scheduling conflict, simply,” replies the main interested party.
It is true that Marie-Mai has a busy winter with reality TV Big Brother Celebrities, which she has hosted for three years. In the fall, she will also present her new album, and will take her first steps in the cinema a little later this year in the new film by Denys Arcand, Will.
For 20 years, everything seems to have succeeded for him, except perhaps an international career, despite his stays in Los Angeles and Paris. In 2012, she even provided the first part of Johnny Hallyday at the Stade de France. “In France, maybe I didn’t have a strong enough team. But above all, I was asked to re-record all my songs [pour qu’elles sonnent moins rock] and change style [pour être plus sexy]. It went against who I was. It’s not true that I was going to change just to be successful, ”she says, without showing the slightest regret.
Marie-Mai always knew that failure was not an end in itself. Her father told her often when she told everyone, as a child, that she would be a singer. He himself had tried to break through, in vain, in the 1970s by recording an album under the pseudonym of Louis-Michel R. Through his daughter, he somehow saw his dream by proxy.
And he can be proud of her. Marie-Mai is one of the rare participants discovered in a tele-hook to have known how to last in the industry. “Who will take my place by following in my footsteps? she sang in 2007. We have to admit that no one has taken it yet.