Sometimes fate doesn’t come into play. An opportunity, a moment, a challenge that we take up or not. So that the one by Agatha Robert be upset, it only took 5 minutes and a helping hand from her big sister. The rest, this Lille student in 3rd year of pharma owes it only to herself, and to a rather famous good fairy, Laeticia Hallyday.
Agathe has just celebrated her 22nd birthday. Originally from Saint-Josse, near Le Touquet, in Pas-de-Calais, she moved to Lille in 2018 to undertake pharmacy studies. Besides that, she has been making music for 10 years now. Alone with her guitar, she performs in bars, especially during her family holidays in Cap d’Agde. And what she considers a passion, Agathe had never considered otherwise. Until last summer anyway: “My big sister sent me the link to a contest launched on Instagram by Laeticia Hallyday and the Warner record company. You had to send a video of a Johnny cover to win a place to sing at Bercy, ”recalls Agathe.
“I was told that Laeticia had a crush on my video”
“Go ahead, try, you never know,” his big sister had told him. And she took him at his word, a little out of defiance. On a corner of the table, facing the port of Cap d’Agde, filmed on a mobile phone, Agathe launched into the interpretation of the song “20 years”. “There were 5 titles to choose from, it was the only one I knew for having sung it a few times in front of my relatives. We did it in 5 minutes and I sent the video, ”she says. Agathe had almost forgotten about this contest when her phone rang a few weeks later. “I was told that Laeticia had fallen in love with my video, that I had won the competition and that I was going to sing at Bercy the following Tuesday at the opening of the tribute concert to Johnny Hallyday”, is still surprised the student.
But Agathe was not at the end of her surprises. Instead of interpreting a piece, the production offered him to sing five. In one weekend, she had to learn the lyrics and the chords before the one and only rehearsal, the day before the concert. And the next day, she did the job. “I had the stage to myself for a quarter of an hour in front of an audience of 10,000 people. It was crazy ! In the euphoria, Agathe had even forgotten that her lot included the recording of a single.
“I’m waiting to see what the future holds for me”
This is how she found herself in the Warner studio last November, in the company of professional musicians, the artistic director of the record company and Laeticia Hallyday. “The first day, the musicians recorded the instruments and the next day, we had to record my voice on a text written by Isabelle Boulay”, explains Agathe calmly. Three takes in ten minutes were enough: “They told me that it was very rare to go so fast and they were super happy,” she adds.
So, of course, the young woman has been living on cloud nine since then, especially since his single, “If you knew”, comes out on Friday on all platforms. However, she still keeps a cool head. “It’s true that I’m having a little trouble concentrating on my studies at the moment, but I don’t intend to stop. I’m waiting to see what the future holds for me, otherwise I would have already won everything with what happened to me, ”she admits.