Six years after her participation in The Voice, a show, films and a Victoire de la chanson original for her duet with Grand Corps Malade, Camille Lellouche released her very first album this Friday, November 26, entitled TO.
A first album with R & B, soul and pop sounds, which she had started to unveil throughout the year with three powerful and emotionally charged clips. Through fifteen titles, the multi-talented artist speaks open-heartedly about her loved ones, her life, but also the trials that shook her up. We met her …
You are an actress, comedian, musician, singer… But what is it that you do not know how to do?
There are a lot of things I don’t know how to do! I don’t know how to run, for example, I don’t know how to play tennis, although I would have loved it. I don’t know how to dance too much, I’m a “bougeuse”, of course, but I admire people who manage to simulate choreography like that.
The public discovered you six years ago now, in The Voice. Why did you wait so long to release this first album?
Unfortunately, I did not wait so long. I started out with music and there are a lot of record companies that wanted to sign me when I was 17. What they offered me unfortunately did not suit me, because at the time, I was already an author, composer, performer, and I already had this “niac” of saying “no, we do not write for me “. Then it was long, since the process is long. I waited, I took a “humor break”, and there I felt that I needed to find my first loves.
What does it mean to you?
This album is the blossoming, the birth, it’s the one I’ve been waiting for for 20 years. I gave all my love. Above all, it goes through all the stages that I have lived in my life, affective or not, rather personal and private stories that I unveil through the songs. These are not necessarily nice moments, but here it is, on this first album that’s it, the next one might be happier. I don’t want to make you cry all the time, but for now yes, that’s what I need.
Your album is simply titled “A”. Why ?
“A” is already because I speak a lot of love in this album. But it’s also an “A” for friendship, “A” for authentic, which is also the name of the documentary dedicated to me on Canal + … “A” because beginning, beginning, first letter of the alphabet. I think it all made sense. And I don’t like titles, so I wanted to find something very concise, effective.
It’s a very personal album… Was it a need to show a new side of your personality?
Yes certainly, it is above all a need to give myself up deeply. In humor, there is a shell that I do not have in music. When I sing, I am sincere, not that I am not in humor, but we protect ourselves more easily in humor with characters. In music it’s a little complicated, it’s either you sing or you don’t sing. And I didn’t want to do in between, or pretend. All I’m saying is the truth, it’s my life.
You confide, in particular in Speak again, not to have had an easy life in the past. What was the role of music in those moments?
The role of music, that’s all. This is what saves me from my old demons, what saves me from sadness, unhappiness, abandonment, everything. It’s my best friend. The piano is the one that allows me to evacuate my sorrows, my fears. He’s the one that saves my life, actually.
In Outro, last track on the album, you say “I waited a long time for my dreams to come true, today I’m in the middle of it, almost regretting”. What aspect of success would you regret?
We are humans before being artists put on the stage, so when you give your all for people, the audience, and they spit on you in times that are hard, it’s not easy . I’m sensitive, I’m like everyone else, so either you love me for better and for worse or you go see someone else. We’re like a couple, so sometimes I give so much that I’m like “I’m doing all this for what, in fact? Is more in that sense.
Have you sometimes forgotten yourself for your audience?
Yes, I forgot myself, and it’s important that they know it and that I give myself up to them, especially in this title. Not all artists are like that, but I really live for my audience. Without them, I wouldn’t be here. You can be the most talented, the most gifted in the world, but if people don’t want you, you won’t do anything with your life, and you will suffer. This is what happened to me for a long time. In the end, it’s a two-way street. Sometimes I hate you, sometimes I love you, like you. But be aware of what my life really is. Like a couple, once again, we can argue, separate, but also come back. I love this relationship, it is healthy.
By the way, it’s the only track on the album where you rap. Why did you make this choice?
Because I love rap, even if you can’t say I’m a rapper. After that I like to sing, so I can’t do a rap album, but maybe one day, who knows, I’m so phew [rire]. Otherwise, there was no particular reason for this song. To tell the truth, she arrived very late in the conception of this album. I was with my friends in the South, and I was not very fit, not very happy. I made two or three chords, and I wrote it there, I cried a lot. Then it took me a while to pose it in the studio, but I knew there was something, so I didn’t let go.
Is there a title that touches you more than the others?
Outro, obviously, it’s my little darling. There is obviously Does not insist, the song about violence against women. And finally, one that upsets me when I sing it is Tell you everything, which is a declaration of love, maybe a little unhappy because it is a declaration that is useless. It’s a song that frees me from something, I really like to sing it.