At the end of the interview, we give him carte blanche to talk about the subject of his choice or to address a point that we have forgotten. Mentissa doesn’t need a long thinking time. “I want to talk about mental health. We all go through moments of questioning where we are no longer too sure, or it is our surroundings that change and we lose our bearings. It all starts from there. We must realize that when something is wrong, it is necessary to talk about it, to seek help. You have to take the time to take care of yourself,” she says, in an assertive voice, stumbling over no hesitation.
The 23-year-old singer is distinguished by her maturity. She has her feet on the ground. She spares us the conventional words. It takes a certain courage to let it be understood when leaving us that he sometimes goes through difficult times despite the beautiful things that have happened to him in recent months. This is not an admission of weakness: on the contrary, she evokes her vulnerabilities to make it better understood that she intends to stand up to them.
“Being nominated for Victories is reassuring”
Friday, at the Victoires de la Musique, she may be crowned “female revelation of the year” ahead of Emma Peters and November Ultra. “Did I expect to be nominated? No way. Did I wish it? Of course, she slips in, taking the trouble to rephrase our question. All of us artists work hard and not for nothing. We give, we give, we give and we hope that, in one way or another, it will come back to us, whether by retaining an audience, filling concert halls, notoriety… Being nominated for Victories, it’s fun and it’s reassuring because somewhere it tells us that we don’t just do anything. »
She tells herself that, as it is “the people in the business who vote”, being acclaimed by the profession indicates that she is approaching a new milestone in her musical career. “I think I’m getting rid of the ‘Mentissa’ image that comes out of The VoiceVianney’s protege”, she confides. Then she clarifies her point. Make no mistake, she spits neither in the soup nor in the hand that fed her.
Yes, it was revealed in France by the telecrochet of TF1. In 2021, she reached the final, in the Vianney team. “I’ve never had a problem with the label The Voice but if they keep talking to me about it, that means they don’t talk enough about my personal project, so it still means something, she suggests. And then I don’t want to detach myself from Vianney, it’s my destiny, it’s my story. If today I am as I am, more confident, it is thanks to him. He not only opened the doors of the label Tôt ou tard to me, he also reassured me a lot. »
His meeting with Vianney, “obvious”
He also wrote her a song, And Bam, a touching waltz that has become a hit over the months. Through the text in the first person, the young woman sings her heart beating wildly on her arrival in Paris, “Gare du Nord in November”, ready to live her dream of glory. “The very first time I sang it, in the studio, I felt that something special was happening. It was obvious, I immediately kissed her, ”she says. She insists: “In my meeting with Vianney, there was something obvious, as if we were destined to meet, this synergy is felt in this song. The author, composer and performer invited her to do her first parts. A big boost too.
Him, the modest cheek. “To be honest, a guy who has two ears is able to hear that she is very well equipped to go far,” he says. After, in The Voice, there are people who sing well but there is also what they give off, the choices they make. So far, she’s doing really well. »
Vianney also says he “hallucinated” when he saw Mentissa arrive on the stage of the Halle Tony-Garnier in Lyon, in January for the Restos du Coeur concert. She is one of the new recruits of the Enfoirés. “The public demanded it! he relates. She doesn’t change. She built this. »
“I feel like a peasant expatriate”
“Today, after a year and a half, I can say that I am building a career,” says the singer. In November, she released her debut album, The twenteeth. “As it’s kind of my official presentation, I needed to talk about my life. I had a lot to say, which is why it’s very autobiographical. It talks about his brothers (Little Prince), injunctions about appearances and the weight complex (The balancewhose lyrics she wrote) or even her belgitude (Paris-Brussels).
“I moved to Paris five months ago. I still marvel at the city, the architecture, the flavor of the bread. But I don’t think I’ll ever feel Parisian because I feel Belgian and I’m proud of it. Technically, I come from the Flemish part, she recalls. I never grew up in Brussels, I discovered it when I was 17. Let’s say that I feel like a peasant expatriate, I grew up in a nice little town [Denderleeuw] but where nothing happens. »
From now on, she lives in a whirlwind, between France and Belgium where she tries to go back as often as possible because she remains attached to her roots. She is already thinking of a second album. Would she like to write more texts? “I’m not indulgent enough with myself,” she replies. I have expectations, I want the texts to be strong, hard-hitting, without going into extreme poetry, but for it to make sense. When I compare my writing to that of Vianney, I tell myself that I will never succeed. Then, I say to myself that we should not compare ourselves. I started writing for this first album, I got into it, I like it a lot and I will continue. The doubts were quickly driven away by a renewed self-confidence. Mentissa makes sure to take care of her and that’s great news.