Chimène Badi (; born 30 October 1982 in

Melun Melun () is a commune in the Seine-et-Marne department in the Île-de-France region, north-central France. It is located on the southeastern outskirts of Paris, about from the centre of the capital. Melun is the prefecture of the Seine-et-Ma ...

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

), also known by her

mononym A mononym is a name composed of only one word. An individual who is known and addressed by a mononym is a mononymous person. In some cases, a mononym selected by an individual may have originally been from a polynym, a word which refers to one o ...

Chimène, is a French singer of

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

n descent.

Early life

Badi was born in

in the Paris suburbs to a family of Algerian origin. She spent her entire childhood in the south-west of France. She grew up in

Villeneuve-sur-Lot Villeneuve-sur-Lot (; in the Languedocien dialect of Occitan language: ''Vilanuèva d'Òlt'' ) is a town and commune in the southwestern French department of Lot-et-Garonne. The commune was formerly named ''Villeneuve-d'Agen''. Villeneuve-sur-L ...

with her parents, Chérifa and Mohammed, her sister, Déborah, and her brother, Karim. Her sister Déborah encouraged her to persevere with her singing and Chimène went on to hone her vocal style still further, performing at family parties and regional song contests from the age of six. Badi also made her mark at her school's end-of-year shows, wowing the audience with her confident vocal performance. Teachers barely recognised her since, when she was off stage, Badi was a notoriously shy pupil, given to daydreaming and complexes about her appearance. Meanwhile, she plugged away at her studies, going on to obtain a "BEP" in agribusiness.

Musical career

Badi did not win the French reality TV show, ''

Popstars ''Popstars'' is an international reality television franchise aimed to find new singing talent. Serving as a precursor to the ''Idol'' franchise, '' Popstars'' first began in New Zealand in 1999 when producer Jonathan Dowling formed the girl gr ...

'', but she released her first single "Entre Nous" in 2003, which reached number 1 in the French charts. An album of the same name reached number 4 in domestic charts, and became the fifth best selling French album of 2003. Badi's follow-up albums and singles enjoyed moderate success in Francophone Europe, including

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

and Switzerland. She also provided the French language theme song to the film ''

The Day After Tomorrow ''The Day After Tomorrow'' is a 2004 American science fiction disaster film directed, co-produced, and co-written by Roland Emmerich. Based on the 1999 book '' The Coming Global Superstorm'' by Art Bell and Whitley Strieber, the film stars De ...

'' – "Le Jour d'après" (The Day After). She worked with producer

Guy Roche Guy Roche is a record producer and songwriter who is best known for the hit singles he has co-written/co-produced for Christina Aguilera, which are " What a Girl Wants", " I Turn to You", and " Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)". He also co-w ...

(Tout Contre Toi) and songwriter Diane Warren (Tellement Beau). In 2011, Badi covered the soul classic "

Ain't No Mountain High Enough "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" is a song written by Nickolas Ashford & Valerie Simpson in 1966 for the Tamla label, a division of Motown. The composition was first successful as a 1967 hit single recorded by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell, and ...

" with American singer

Billy Paul Paul Williams (December 1, 1934 – April 24, 2016), known professionally as Billy Paul, was a Grammy Award-winning American soul singer, known for his 1972 No. 1 single "Me and Mrs. Jones", as well as the 1973 album and single '' War of the Go ...

. She participated in the 2019 edition of Destination Eurovision to attempt to represent France at the

Eurovision Song Contest 2019 The Eurovision Song Contest 2019 was the 64th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest. It took place in Tel Aviv, Israel, following the country's victory at the 2018 contest with the song " Toy" by Netta. Organised by the European Broad ...

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

, with the song "Là-haut". She placed third overall in the final.

Other

In 2012, she was one of the contestants during the Third season of Danse avec les stars.

Discography

Albums

¹ French Digital Charts

Singles

¹ French Digital Charts

Musical

Notes

External links

Official site
at Universal Music France (in French)
Biography
at

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...

(in English) * {{DEFAULTSORT:Badi, Chimene 1982 births Living people People from Melun French feminists Feminist musicians French people of Algerian descent 21st-century French singers 21st-century French women singers