Slimane: Mon Amour live at the Arc de Triomphe

 A landmark performance from Slimane on New Year's Eve in Paris, with a version of the song Mon Amour live from the Champs-Elysées in the heart of Paris for La Grande Soirée du 31 de Paris on France 2.

The song will be France's entry into this year's Eurovision, with Slimane performing the track in Malmo in May. It's always a bold move when a country puts forward an established artist to represent them in the competition, as a poor showing might reflect badly on their career. 

But equally an artist who already has an international following is also more likely to gather votes from other countries familiar with his output. However he does, the song's a strong enough one to win over new fans and Slimane's a big enough star to be undiminished if he's not the winner. 2024 looks like it will be a big year for the former winner of The Voice in 2016 and this is just another event in what looks like a key year for his career.

It will be better than the UK's entry that's for sure.

As for Slimane, he's off on tour across France and beyond for most of 2024 supporting his Chroniques d'un Cupidon album from 2022 - a number-one album in France that produced the singles Des Milliers de je t'aime, La Recette and Chez Toi. He's at the Accor Arena in Paris on March 1 although it's already sold out like many of the dates have. Another show's been added there on January 8 2025 regardless of Eurovision success or failure.

 

Slimane: Solune

January 25 sees the release of the second album by Slimane, a follow up to his 2016 debut  À bout de rêves.

Slimane Nebchi was the winner of season five of The Voice: La plus belle voix in 2016. Of the four judges who wanted him after the blind auditions where he performed Vitaa's À fleur de toi, he chose to work with Florent Pagny.

He won the popular vote in the final after performing songs by Francis Cabrel, Christophe Mae and a duet with Florent Pagny.

His debut album was a number one in France and Belgium, the single Paname reaching the top ten.

While there are plenty of questions about whether or not reality TV shows are a valid platform for emerging artists, it does seem to me that these shows in France have produced some quality acts. True, many of these might have made a commercial breakthrough by other means, but we no longer live in a situation where music companies can readily invest in artists over a matter of years. A TV show can raise the profile of an artist in ways that many years of expensive promotion cannot.

Slimane has tour dates around France from March, and he plays the Zenith in Paris on April 7.