In February 2024, Pierre Garnier captures attention with his personal composition “Ceux qu’on était,” emerging as a musical sensation. By November, he’s set to perform at the NRJ Music Awards, likely winning accolades for best francophone revelation and song, marking a significant rise since his “Star Academy” days. His debut single breaks streaming records, and his album quickly achieves platinum status. Upcoming concerts are in high demand, and fans can look forward to new music and a vinyl release.
In February 2024, wearing a cap firmly on his head, he sits alone at the piano to perform his personal composition, which would become one of the year’s musical sensations. This moment, shared widely on social media in recent weeks, is memorable. “One of the first times we heard ‘Ceux qu’on était'”, recalls an emotional internet user. At that time, Pierre Garnier was still just known as Pierre from ‘Star Academy’. It wouldn’t be until the finale that he realized his song had transcended the walls of the castle. During their duet, Dadju steps back to let him sing his piece, which the audience already knows by heart.
Over 100,000 Albums Sold
Fast forward nine months, and the winner of the 2023 edition will perform ‘Ceux qu’on était’ live at the NRJ Music Awards on November 1st at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes. Pierre Garnier is favored to win at least one out of two awards he is nominated for: Francophone Revelation and Francophone Song of the Year. It has been a long time since a reality show winner has received such unanimous acclaim. While there have been others like Kendji Girac and Slimane on ‘The Voice’ or Grégory Lemarchal from ‘Star Academy’, the 22-year-old from Normandy has made an even bigger impact, and much quicker.
Immediately upon release, ‘Ceux qu’on était’ shattered records, racking up over 2 million streams within 24 hours. A glance at Spotify shows that this track, now certified diamond, has accumulated over 60 million listens on the platform alone, where the singer lingers in the ears of nearly 2 million monthly listeners. Chaque seconde, his debut album, launches as he wraps up a massive tour spanning nearly 80 dates with his fellow ‘Star Academy’ colleagues.
This album was crafted alongside his friends from Caen, Joseph Kamel and Daysy. Once again, success came swiftly, achieving platinum certification in just four months for 100,000 copies sold. Pierre Garnier maintained a spot in the top 5 of the Snep album chart for nine consecutive weeks.
A Duet with Matt Pokora, Four New Songs
Drawn to his slightly raspy voice, audiences connect deeply with his lyrics about love and the search for identity, while praising his authenticity. They want to hear him, especially live. During the Star Academy concert at Bercy, broadcast live on TF1 in June, the audience sang the words of ‘Ceux qu’on était’ with even more enthusiasm than he did. The excitement continued as he returned to the stage that launched his career, passing the torch to the new cohort. Leveraging his stage experience with his peers, the Villedieu-les-Poêles native announced a series of concerts for 2025, including a show at the Olympia that sold out within minutes. The demand was so high that it resulted in additional performances at numerous Zénith venues across France and three shows at Forest National in Brussels.
Lucky ticket holders will hear live performances of ‘Nous on sait’, a single that has just achieved platinum status (30 million equivalent streams), ‘Chaque seconde’, which he re-recorded as a duet with Matt Pokora, and perhaps even some of the four unreleased songs that will be included in the reissue of his album, set to be released on November 22. “I’m so happy to have a vinyl”, Pierre Garnier humorously shares on his social media. This new collector’s item is set to be highly sought after by his loyal fans, further propelling a phenomenon that didn’t require any additional boosts to shine.