Camille Glemet french-singing-candy

In a pair of bootleg jeans, a multi-colored jumper zipped up to the top and a bright blue scarf wrapped around her neck, singing sensation Camille Glemet sat stretched across the couch exhausted yet smiling. I met with Camille in her Paris apartment the day after she was booted out of the top 100 of “Nouvelle Star” (the French equivalent to American Idols). To most evicted contestants in such a show it would have been a dramatic end, but to this rising star it just marked the beginning. Her sister, French actress Emilie Glemet was the one who secretly signed her up for the contest with the intention of experiencing the thrills and spills of reality TV and to prepare her for stardom. While chatting over green tea and a yummy La Galette du Roi cake, it was Camille who found the traditional hidden toy inside her slice and as custom has it, she had to wear a golden crown on her head during the tea – quite befitting I found!

Asking her about the experience, she shrugged and said “c’est la vie (that’s life) and yes it was a bit of a blow to the ego to hear I was out of the show, but it was well worth the experience and am glad it’s over now. Plus I’m not so sure it really suited my personality anyways”.

This much may be true as Camille has a special uniqueness to her that makes her different to most French singers. She has an edge, she is the Cindy Lauper of coolness, is fluent in 4 languages (French, Spanish, English and Italian) and can sing rock to opera in a heart beat.

Over-and-above, she trained as a singer in New York and Paris, performed in a number of musicals, sang along side rockstars, studied the art of burlesque dancing, acted in TV commercials and even modeled during Paris Fashion Week. Phew!

Asking Camille how she manages all this and still have time to relax she smiles and says “it’s what I love and I really want to make it big as a singer, it gives me energy”. Asking her if she had any specific plans for the future she looks up from her slice of Galette cake and says with a naughty grin “You know, I would love to sing in the USA some day and get to the point where I can just knock on Lenny Kravitz’s door and ask him to write a couple of songs for me”. We all share a good laugh and I slightly choke on my cake, I mean isn’t that every girl’s dream to knock on Lenny’s door?

So what is it about Camille that makes it to my blog of Paris pop culture? Well she is one of the creators and singers of the retro group “Les Ongles Rouges” (The Red Nails). They are a 1940′s cabaret style group who revive and re-write songs from back in the days of Parisian seductive glamour. They transport their audience into a “quirky, enigmatic and darkly humorous world” using song, dance, a touch of seduction, a pinch of lies, a bit of mockery, mischief and delight. They have performed all over France and are beginning to turn heads in the under-ground culture scenes – their followers are amongst the Burlesque movement, the Dandies, artists and photographers…

I caught one of their performances at “Au Chat Noir” – the tiniest basement theatre that seats only 50 people, it was jammed packed, dark, cozy and felt like the audience was in on a hidden secret or something.

“It’s hard to explain exactly what we do, it’s more like a fusion of cabaret meeting old film, I guess you have to come watch us to understand” says Camille. Asking her then what genre their music falls in, she says with a sarcastic sigh “we are a melodramatic pop group of course!” For their upcoming shows it’s best to check out their website: www.myspace.com/lesonglesrouges

It’s refreshing to come across talent in Paris that is both authentically French and authentically diverse. Singer Camille Glemet might not be France‘s next reality TV “Idol”, but she sure is on her way to being the next darling of the international music scene. www.myspace.com/camillegl