SteveW
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Nolwenn Leroy 16-Feb-2013 09:13:58
| CorrsClub Time: 11-Nov-2025 18:32:16 |
Nolwenn Leroy is a French singer who is apparently quite popular in her home country, although she is pretty much unknown in the US. She's a terrific singer with an amazing vocal range.
She first rose to stardom as the winner of a French reality TV show in 2002 and released her debut album the following year. At this point, her record company apparently had in mind to make her a big-voiced vocalist in the mold of Celine Dion, giving her power ballads like this song to sing. Her second album is in a similar style, I gather, although the first single from this album is in more of a dance-pop style.
(I don't have either of her first two albums, so these impressions are just based on songs I've heard on youtube. I do have her next album, which is a live collection of songs from her first two albums. It's quite good -- the songs are mostly mid-tempo sophisticated pop and all sound somewhat similar, especially because I don't understand French, but I like all of them.)
At this point, her career took an unusual turn. Her third studio album abandons pop music in favor of what might be called art songs or songs in a jazzy style, and she doesn't even sound like the same person singing. I like the few songs I've heard from this album, but this was definitely an odd career move.
Her next album took her in another unusual direction. Nolwenn is from Brittany, a part of France with a strong Celtic influence, and she recorded an album of Celtic traditional music and other music relating to Brittany (including several songs sung in the Breton language). This album is like her version of the Corrs' album Home, and indeed the Corrs connection is how I first heard of Nolwenn. She appeared on an episode of the French Taratata TV show devoted to Celtic music, in which she sang Mná na hÉireann with Andrea Corr. I didn't think much of Nolwenn from this appearance -- she spends the entire performance looking down and is wearing an unappealing outfit that makes her look like a troll, so her natural charisma doesn't come through at all. I didn't become a fan of hers until I heard some of her other songs on youtube.
Nolwenn just recently released a fifth studio album a couple of months ago. I've only heard the lead single on youtube, from which it sounds like she's returning to more pop music although still with some traditional influences.
That's about all I know about her, as she has rarely done interviews in English, and I don't understand French. I know there are some other Nolwenn fans on this board (Steverino?) -- I'd love to hear your thoughts!
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