ALL ON SCREEN Emma Daumas: from Star Academy to her fifth album
They are from Gard and have a career on the web and on television. Here is the portrait of local youtubers, instagramers, tik-tokers and reality TV candidates. It is far from the Parisian asphalt that Emma Daumas has taken up residence since 2011. The singer-songwriter who rose to prominence in the second season of Star Academy lives in Villeneuve-lez-Avignon, reconnecting with her roots gardoises. In January 2021, she released her fifth album “L’Art des naufrages”, built like a logbook, both authentic and universal. An article published in number fifteen of our magazine released in March 2021 and which we invite you to find on our site during these Christmas holidays.
A new polished opus in a soft and luminous tone, like Emma Daumas, now a mother of two children and an artist in search of ever more independence. Far from the dazzling spots of the media coverage of the Star Academy, it evolves under the dim lights of a career “more traditional” that she builds in “true explorer” sounds. Almost 20 years after her appearance on the TF1 show, the Gardoise has not fallen into the shadows, she just took a “turn”. A bifurcation suffered but also chosen. Despite a very early starification, she had in mind that the “ephemeral parenthesis” was far from its essential.
Born in Avignon in November 1983, Emma Daumas spent a very happy childhood and adolescence in Les Angles, in the Gard. In his family, music is omnipresent. A grandmother, an amateur opera singer, a mother who was a great Beatles fan, a father who was fond of Brassens and a modest guitar player. And karaoke tapes are played regularly in the living room. Friends of the family notice the fairy pretty voice of the little one. Little girl who had fun rewriting the lyrics of famous tunes before making her own compositions at 12, accompanying herself on the piano first, then on the guitar.
In addition to her singing lessons, Emma Daumas takes part in her first competitions and she wins Laudun’s with one of her creations. In 2000, she ranked fourth on the show Graines de stars, “his childhood dream” with an interpretation of the title “Mémoire” by Barbara Streisand. This first stage opens a few doors for him to castings and studio experiences in Paris. With her baccalaureate in her pocket, Emma’s parents left her one to explore the world of music.
A “golden confinement” at the castle of Star Ac
A year at the end of which, she will learn that she is selected to integrate the second promotion of Star Academy. She admits: “I did not follow up at first. I suspected it would be an important commitment.”. It’s the least we can say. Finally, she accepts and enters the castle alongside Nolwenn Leroy, who will win this season. Emma Daumas does not regret this participation. But at just 18 years old, the extreme experience was like a bombshell in her life.
For three months, the young woman is plunged “in golden confinement”. With the difference that neither she nor her comrades have access to what is happening outside and that they are filmed 24 hours a day. She will finish semi-finalist under the eyes of 9,699,000 viewers gathered in front of their screens that evening. “You couldn’t go out in the street without a riot. It was a very lonely moment. Celebrity isolates, human relationships are no longer fluid. It’s too unique an experience to be prepared for.”, says the artist. She adds : “It’s important to be solid. The risk is to seek stability in this desperate quest for recognition.”
But this passage on TF1 will have allowed him to sing alongside the big names of the song: Ray Charles, Johnny Hallyday, Mariah Carey, Celine Dion. But above all to do the Star Academy tour, “a moment of disconnection with reality, out of time.” And also a springboard that will make him land a contract with Universal to start his solo career. Listening in loop to Nirvana, Avril Lavigne and Sum 41, Emma Daumas will release her very rock first album “Le Saut de l’ange” in 2003, containing what is surely her most famous title: “You will be”. Electric guitars, cuff and leather jacket, pink lock in her golden hair, the young singer breaks “the image of the little blonde in a miniskirt” decked out by the televisual tale. The rebel side is working. The record sold 250,000 copies.
A new start after Universal
For the public, Emma de la Star’Ac becomes Emma Daumas. It asserts itself and will even be conceived in 2005 French Revelation at the NRJ Music Awards. After a second album still tinged with rock, she decides to inject a little more of her personality into her third disc by turning to her first loves: writing and composition. But also by starting a more folk turn: “Doing the same album twice, I’m not interested. Except that my label changes direction and when we had to defend this new project, it was not done.” The moment is experienced as a betrayal by the young artist who decides never to lock herself in a “system which does not accept evolution”. His contract with the label ends and is not renewed.
As Emma Daumas approaches her 30s, her second career begins. After releasing a children’s record book “Crocodile Tears”, she will travel to Brazil to determine what she really wants for this new beginning. Without record company, without manager, the horizon is clear. And this time, his pen, his voice and especially his freedom are at the center of the projects. She follows an intensive writing internship at Maxime Le Forestier to “give legitimacy and confidence” as a singer-songwriter: “It’s like reconnecting with the 15 year old girl who writes songs.”
She then crosses paths with Danièle Molko, at the head of the Abacaba publishing house and after the birth of her daughter, begins a two-dimensional project. She will release her novel “Supernova”, the story of a young provincial teenager who launches out in the telecrochet but for whom things are going to turn badly. Over the pages, Emma Daumas will put all her experience to the benefit of the story, taking a step back from her own experience, leaving behind this chapter of her youth. After an EP, she should also release her album “Vivante” in 2017. Everything was ready but Danièle Molko died suddenly and the project “no longer made sense”.
“Vivante” will give way to “The Art of Shipwrecks”, an album which bears the name of the last song sent to her missing agent and which she had loved. On the disc, twelve titles are taken from a show presented at the Théâtre du Chêne noir during the Avignon Festival 2019. Twelve self-produced titles through the association Les Enfants sauvage, created by the artist Villeneuvoise and Marie Ketele. With this fifth album, released in January 2021, Emma Daumas has returned to the stage and her audience as last September at the Nîmes venue in Paloma. She also owes him the favorite prize of the Académie Charles-Cros.
Marie Meunier
Important! This article is an excerpt from Objectif Gard, the magazine. Go to your newsagent to buy the latest issue, released this Friday morning. Discover the summary by clicking on the module below: