The group Bottok on the sofa (right). – TF1 / ITV / BUREAU 233
- Pottok on the sofa, a musical trio from Maine-et-Loire, takes part in the battles this Saturday evening in “The Voice”.
- These siblings, made up of a brother and his two sisters, are coached by Florent Pagny.
- It was by posting a cover of Yseult that this group was spotted to do the TF1 program.
The fate of a life, of a career sometimes changes to two seconds. That of the trio of Pouancé, delegated municipality of Ombrée-d’Anjou, near Segré (Maine-et-Loire), composed of Alex, the 21-year-old brother, and the two sisters Sarah (19) and Alice ( 25 years old), held by a thread on Saturday March 6, during the blind auditions of
The Voice. Florent Pagny and Marc Lavoine only looked back at the very last moment on their interpretation of When We Were Young of Adele.
“To be honest, it was hard, I really thought it was over,” recalls the oldest in the group. I was even sad at the end… Afterwards, I also told myself that it was already huge to be there. “And it will be even more this Saturday evening, for the battle against Canta Diva during which the trio will be deprived of instrument and will perform” an unusual repertoire for us “, according to Alice, at the only sound of the three voices. A very original configuration for Pottok on the sofa, which has been playing piano, violin and percussion for four years on various festivals and stages.
A group bathed in music
With their coach Florent Pagny – “who convinced us to choose him because he said he dreamed of making a group progress”, according to Sarah – the trio admits to having “worked a lot” to prepare for this battle. “There were stressful shots,” Alice confesses. We had to tune our voices among ourselves and with the duo Canta Diva which accompanies us, but also to learn to move around with the microphone in hand. “
These many hours of rehearsal, however, do not frighten these siblings, bathed in music from an early age. In Pouancé, a town of 3,500 inhabitants, the father is a pianist and actor in a local troupe, the mother cellist. The grandfather, a former village warden, plays the accordion. Without forgetting Marion, the older sister, who played the flute for a while …
“We often went to our parents’ concerts and shows and we were all part of the Pouancé music school,” says Alice. Before all of them also go through the Angers Conservatory. Sarah deepens the classical violin there even today. Alice joined the Tours jazz school to work on vocals. Alex, meanwhile, turned to contemporary music and the piano. He left the school environment to devote himself to composing music for plays.
A trio spotted on Instagram
And how did they get this idea of The Voice ? “We had thought about it without ever daring to appear at the casting,” says Sarah. In October 2019, the group – whose musical universe revolves around “pop, folk, French and English song” – takes part in a challenge launched by singer Yseult. He posts a video on his Instagram page a cover of Body. “Charles Yavo, the show’s castor, sent us a message,” says Alice. The worst part is that we had not worked on the recovery at all. We did that during a raclette party between us, with Alex on guitar. “
The group from Maine-et-Loire, whose name Pottok is inspired by horses from the Basque Country where the family went on vacation and “on the sofa for the cool and intimate side”, hopes to improve in contact with Florent Pagny. “It can take us to what we don’t know how to do or not do well,” says Alice. This experience can make us grow and take us out of our school environment. Afterwards, we are a trio. We tell ourselves that we may not be legitimate for the show The Voice, but once on the set, we let ourselves be carried away … “