You go ahead, you don’t expect anything from others. Solitary, you sail in an icebreaker and you trace your way ”, sang Nolwenn Leroy in Trace ton chemin, in 2017. Words that resemble her a lot, except that Nolwenn may have a lonely side, she is certainly still little , but very well surrounded and only by those she has carefully chosen. There is Arnaud Clément, her lover for a dozen years, her mother Muriel, her friends who have not changed with the wind and successes and of course Marin, her little boy who makes the whole family happy. since her arrival on July 12, 2017. Is it thanks to them that she appears so solar these days on television sets? While she is releasing La Cavale, her eighth studio album, and is at the dawn of her forties (she will celebrate them in 2022), a milestone that may depress some, the artist seems more fulfilled. than ever. The one we discovered rather shy and taciturn on the small screen in 2002 in Star Academy has taken its ease in the musical landscape, but also in the hearts of the French. She is also regularly high in the ranking of our favorite celebrities. Yet the beautiful brunette with light eyes has never really compromised to please them. She traces her path as she sees fit and despite criticism, while always remaining very professional. In 2017, the writer Christine Angot reproached him for his lack of roughness on the set of We are not lying. A few years earlier, Jean-Michel Maire, one of Cyril Hanouna’s accomplices, was balancing out about him in Touche pas à mon poste! : “If I want a doll, I’ll buy one!” Nolwenn doesn’t really care. The numbers are there. She has sold over 3.5 million albums without ever betraying her desires and ideals. Follow the fashions? Not really his style, neither in terms of dressing, nor in music, nor in life itself for that matter. The pretty Breton born September 28, 1982 in Saint-Renan, a small village in Finistère, has always moved forward by finding a subtle balance between instinct and reason. As a child, she was tossed around between her native land, Île-de-France and the North. The family lives rather well, especially thanks to his father Jean-Luc Le Magueresse, professional footballer in the first division, who earns a lot of his living. But following an injury to his knee and which takes him away from the field, it is the descent into hell for the family. Nolwenn was 11 years old when her parents divorced, her little sister Kay was 3. The young woman has told it many times, without the help of their grandmother who takes them in from Vichy, they could have ended up in the street with their mom Muriel. These difficulties are, moreover, at the origin of his commitment to the Abbé Pierre Foundation years later. The moment is decisive and founding for the pre-teenager who already dreams of becoming a singer. “My parents’ divorce still affects me every day, it hurts…
His career
2003: NOLWENN: With this first album which highlights his exceptional voice, Nolwenn makes a remarkable entry into the French musical landscape. It will sell 600,000 copies.
2009: THE CHESHIRE CAT AND ME: Its audience is struggling to find themselves in this more folk album produced under the leadership of Faroese composer Teitur Lassen.
2012: Ô FILLES DE L’EAU: On this fifth recording, the artist transforms into a mysterious and bewitching siren. Successful bet: sales reached 400,000 copies.
2018: FOLK: Recorded under live conditions, this album of covers of folk songs will attract more than 70,000 buyers.
2005: NATURAL STORIES: With Laurent Voulzy, one of his idols, as well as Alain Souchon at the helm, Nolwenn turns to a chic pop that hits the mark.
2010: BRETONNE: The singer pays tribute to the traditional music of her native region. Sales will exceed 1.3 million copies.
2017: GEMME: Produced by the brilliant Englishman Jamie Ellis who has worked with stars like Adele and Florence and the Machine, this new musical gem will sell out 100,000 copies.
2021: LA CAVALE: For this eighth opus, the singer called on Benjamin Biolay for the writing and the composition of the majority of the titles.
Always very involved!
Enerious, Nolwenn puts her notoriety at the service of several causes that are dear to her. And beware, if she chooses her commitments carefully, the young woman invests herself in them body and soul. Spangles and calls for donations without real mplication? Very little for her! Since 2006, she has been the godmother of the Bbe-Pierre Foundation, which fights against poor housing. She is also one of the most loyal among Les Enfoirés, who has participated in the show fourteen times for the benefit of the Restos du cœur. She also participated in the Foundation’s campaign for research on Alzheimer’s by putting oxen gloves in hand on their poster in 2020 and participates in the ecological collective The Freaks committed to imitating our impact on the planet. Nolwenn has also regularly participated in actions for e Sidaction and the Laurette Fugain association since its inception. A true woman of heart!
Arnaud Clément, the man of his life
Nolwenn never hid it, she’s a silent woman. Not the type to shout his love from the rooftops, and even sometimes style, not to talk too much about his feelings. Nevertheless, for thirteen years, she spins the perfect love with the former tennis player Arnaud Clément, and even if she is still not talkative on the subject in interview, she does not hesitate to show with him that whether in the stands of tennis tournaments or on the rare evenings she goes to.
Thanks to him, the one who had only had complicated and tormented romantic relationships before discovered serenity. Since the birth of their little Marin on July 13, 2017, the two discreet are more united than ever!
… It’s hard for me to trust a man. I am very suspicious of everyone and everyone in general, ”she confided in Ciné Télé Revue at the start of her career; Nolwenn now knows that life is not always rosy and that you have to fight to be happy, if not to survive. Of which act. Music will be his refuge and his passion. She will learn the violin and the piano and will sing in a choir. But no question of giving up everything for a dream. When you’re half Breton, half Auvergne, you have to have your feet on the ground! Nolwenn is fighting on all fronts. She joined the Vichy Conservatory of Music on one side, but remained a good student on the other. At 16, sponsored by the Rotary Club, she spent a year in the United States in Ohio and became bilingual. Three years earlier, she won the drawing competition organized by a supermarket and went to Mali to distribute school supplies to children. Strong head, strong-willed, but already altruistic. The prudent Nolwenn also enrolled in law school after the baccalaureate with the idea of being able to work in an NGO if she did not manage to make a career in music. She won’t be seeing her much. The young woman will integrate the second promo of Star Academy. The troublemakers Houcine and Georges-Alain manhandle her and make fun of her? He is accused of having a bad temper and lack of humor? Whatever. The good student syndrome will not do her a disservice and it is she who will win the competition, beating all the odds. Since then, the beautiful brunette asserts herself more and more as a singer but also an author. She managed to convince the greatest, from Laurent Voulzy to Alain Souchon or Miossec, through the late Christophe with whom she was friends and who had dubbed her and today Benjamin Biolay. The failure of her album The Cheshire Cat and I in 2009 does not affect her morale, nor her desire to hold the stage that she has tamed over the years.
The one who prefers to work without a manager because she only trusts herself and her loved ones did not hesitate to live her pregnancy in public, going on stage a week before her childbirth! “Living a pregnancy in front of my audience who watched me grow up destabilized me. I, who am so discreet, so secret, have asked myself many questions. But people know me. They are respectful and benevolent towards me ”, she explained to Gala in 2018. Almost twenty years after her debut, Nolwenn continues to do things in her own way. Singular and without compromise.
The family above all … except his father
Today, Nolwenn no longer has any contact with his father, a former Brest footballer.
For Nolwenn, family is essential. Her mother Muriel is very present and it is moreover her last name, Leroy, that she chose as her stage name. She’s the one who took charge of the artistic direction of several projects and she’s also the one who took care of Marin backstage during Nolwenn’s tour in 2018. “I prefer that he spends time with it. my mom rather than a nanny. I live in tribe,
I have this need to be near mine ”, she explained to Télé Poche at the time. The young mother has also remained very close to her little sister Kay, however she no longer wants to hear from her father. Former footballer Jean-Luc Le Magueresse
in spite of having tried many times to reconnect, for her eldest daughter, since the divorce with her mother she
considers it an abandonment.
Jenifer, the eternal rival
Between the winner of the first edition of Star Ac and that of the next, the rag has always burned, despite their attempts to deny it regularly. An employee of Roland-Garros told us last June that the two artists did not want to attend the tournament together. When the two former winners of the show met on the set of The Voice in October, obviously, they didn’t have much to say to each other.
Nolwenn has also made it known that she will become a coach of the program in the coming years, enough to fuel their rivalry once again knowing that Jen, she has decided to leave the red chair …
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