Prime Video is re-releasing “Popstars” from the box. The platform is releasing the first four of eight episodes of its new version of the machine that creates a band from scratch this Thursday.
Launched in 2001 on M6, the concept led to the formation of L5, whose hit All the women in your life is enough to provoke Pavlovian (and choreographed) reflexes in today’s thirty-somethings and forties. The following seasons crowned Whatfor, Linkup – of which M. Pokora was a member – and Mess, three groups that have since been forgotten, as well as Sheryfa Luna. If we add to this the fact that the show missed out on Chimène Badi and Slimane, we have to face the facts: we have seen more brilliant artistic results.
“Modernize the lease”
Eddy de Pretto agrees, it was necessary to “dust off this old program from the 2000s” – which he loved as a child. The artist is part of the new jury alongside Louane and Alonzo, who also says that one of his motivations for joining the program was to “modernize the lease”. No “pia pia pia in your body” on the horizon. No garish colors either. The “Popstars” of 2024 aims to be classy, with an aesthetic focused on minimalism. From a visual point of view, we are not far from Netflix’s “New School”.
Mission efficiency too: season 1 of M6 consisted of fourteen one-and-a-half-hour episodes, that of Prime Video is limited to eight episodes of about fifty minutes. Times have undeniably changed. At the beginning of the 2000s, castings were overwhelmed with candidates who thought they had the potential to become a star by mumbling the Sensuality by Axelle Red – a song that has the advantage of being able to be performed quite well by someone who sings out of tune. This time, no more snafu. “We learned later that there had been pre-selections so that we could see the best of the best,” Louane explains. “I got slapped in the face by people who sang like crazy.”
“They are prepared for it not to work.”
The new generation of apprentice singers also seems more lucid than the previous ones. “These young people were born with this kind of program and, we also see it in other shows, many react by saying to themselves “If it’s not this time, it will be maybe next year”. They come with hindsight on what is going to happen. They are ready for it not to work out,” underlines Eddy de Pretto.
“And then, not everyone is cut out to join a group. There are a lot of talents that we have kept quite far away and who, clearly, are more destined for a solo career,” says Louane. She also insists on the “benevolence” of this new edition: “It’s 2024, so we don’t want to make fun of people, we don’t want to highlight things that, behind the scenes, could become painful.”
In the first four episodes, the tight editing prevents us from really getting attached to the participants. Everything goes very (too) quickly. The last four, on the other hand, are captivating: the group is formed and we follow them in the writing of their EP, in the recording studio, on the set of the first clip… We see the tensions, failed makeovers that urgently need to be fixed, a media training session… The members also invest themselves in writing the lyrics of some of their songs. So many elements that go against the formatting and lack of authenticity inherent in the creation of a group ex nihilo.
“The production gave us quite a bit of freedom”
“This whole part, which differs from what we saw in the original program, is what motivated us to join the jury,” says Louane. “When we were approached, they explained to us that we would have the opportunity to follow the project through to the end. Having the opportunity to get involved to this extent really interested me.”
“We formed the group as we decided. We had the possibility to choose a duo or more members, to opt for a mixed group or not. We were not chained by the production. We were quite free,” Alonzo says.
“We had a very broad panel of what French music is today,” Louane continues. “What was interesting was to try certain styles with certain people and we managed to find cohesion.” The group that was finally formed will be revealed at the beginning of episode 5, which will be available on October 19, on the eve of the release of its EP. It will then be up to the public to give their verdict.